The FUTURE Institute for Sustainable Transformation was launched by ESMT, Futury, and the Werte-Stiftung in Glasgow at COP26 in 2021 to support business and society in their transformation to sustainability. As the institute’s academic director Raji Jayaraman will promote research with an emphasis on finding the balance between economic prosperity on the one hand and environmental preservation and social equity on the other.  

“When you talk to people about sustainability, the focus is almost always exclusively on climate and the environment, but sustainable transformation encompasses so much more,” says Raji Jayaraman. “The UN defines sustainable development as ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’. In order to foster sustainable transformation, we need new knowledge in the form of practice-driven research that has a firm eye on the future and takes the needs of stakeholders from all regions of the world into consideration.”  

A Canadian citizen and Indian national, Raji Jayaraman has spent most of her professional life in Germany. She first joined ESMT in 2007. She received her MA from Yale University, her PhD from Cornell University, and has worked at the University of Munich and University of Toronto. She is not only a proven researcher who publishes in top international journals, but also an award-winning teacher. A true global citizen, she has lived and worked on four continents. 

“Society and companies cannot be sustainable without taking a global view. With her academic pedigree and her multicultural background, Raji Jayaraman is ideally placed to expand the international scope of the FUTURE Institute,” says Jörg Rocholl, president of ESMT. “I would like to thank ESMT dean of faculty and research Tamer Boyaci for his interim leadership of the institute.”  

Ola Källenius, chairman of the board of management, Mercedes-Benz Group, and chairman of the ESMT Foundation board of trustees, comments, “As one of the initial supporters of the FUTURE Institute, we are pleased to see the great progress the institute has made. In less than a year, it has won great corporate partners and has also increased its academic footprint. We are confident that the FUTURE Institute will continue to thrive under the academic leadership of Raji Jayaraman.”