Jako Volschenk

I am a lecturer at the University of Stellenbosch Business School in South Africa. I lecture on three masters courses, i.e. the MBA, Masters in Development Finance and Masters in Sustainable Development. One of the subjects I teach is called Environmental Finance and it's really a cross-functional conglomorate of financial theory (project finance/corporate finance), environmental science and engineering science. I also teach a few classes dealing with "business and the environment", which partly looks at how business impacts the environment and visa versa. I also teach this content in France.

My qualifications include a degree in mathematics & chemistry, an MBA, some professional finance qualifications, and some other odd courses.

I started my career at the Business School in 2003 as a researcher with the Africa Center for Investment Analysis. At the centre I was responsible for a number of projects, including doing research on African capital markets, consulting to the investment industry on social impact and organising the Annual Africa SMME Awards. In 2006 I was appointed as lecturer at the business school, and I also fill the role as head of MBA research reports.

Although I have mostly published in microfinance (the field of my MBA research), most of the research I currently do and the research I supervise is in the area of environmental issues/policy/strategy and renewable energy.

I am hoping to start with a PhD soon. The topic is focused on "climate change strategies in South Africa" and how companies make sense of the strategies they follow. The underlying question can simply be put as 'when does it pay to be green?'.

My wife and I have a four year old son and an eight week old baby girl. My son recently asked me "why are we here?", a question that suprised me. I tried to tell him that we are here to make the world a better place. If we see business as an extension of society, we are failing. Capitalism as we have come to know it shows little regard for the environment, and a growing gini-coefficient in Africa seems to hint that we are also not solving the problem of poverty.

I work for an institution that operates most of its business in a continent with many challenges. These challenges are highly systemic in its nature, and solving them requires an understanding of the complexity of the issues and how they are interlinked/ interdependent. I look forward to the time at SFI and how it will assist me in understanding my own world better. I also look forward to learn lots from other delegates about their respective worlds, and telling them more about mine.