INDIACSR News Network

Prof. Dr. Michael Hopkins is CEO and Chairman of MHC International Ltd. (MHCi: London, Washington DC & Geneva), a research and service company on Corporate Social Responsibility and Labour Markets and CEO of the CSR and Financial Institute, a training company with the byline ‘socially responsible financially smart’ www.csrfi.com. He holds a doctorate in labour economics from the University of Geneva, is adjunct professor at George Mason University, USA since 2010 and was over 2000-2012 Professor of Corporate & Social Research at the University of Middlesex in London, UK.

In the corporate world, Michael has worked and advised on strategic CSR with World Bank, UNDP, UEFA, Glaxo-Wellcome, BT, BAT, BP, Nestle, Manpower, O2, SGS, Addax Petroleum, Cargill and IBM. He has been Senior Adviser to the US Chamber of Commerce’s corporate citizenship programme, and revised the World Bank’s online CSR courses. Michael is included in the 2011 top 100 thought leaders in Europe and the Middle East see http://trustacrossamerica.com/offerings-thought-leaders-ue-mena.shtml .

He is currently Founder and Director of Graduate Executive Programmes on CSR at the University of Geneva in Switzerland that started in 2007 (www.corporateresponsibility.ch); Founder and Director of CSR open enrollment programmes at George Mason University in Virginia, USA; leads the Jeweler Ethical Trading System (JETS) which aims to reduce, inter alia, dependence on blood diamonds and developed an introductory online course of CSR/Sustainability with the United Nations’ new CSR training centre in Antwerp – see: http://www.greeningtheblue.org/news/unitar-launch-new-line-course-csr; initiated the $100mn Qatar Youth Employment project with Sheikha Mouzah; Member of the Advisory Council US Center for Citizen Diplomacy; Senior Adviser on Sustainability to the China based NGO – Women In Sustainability Action; and his company has joint ventures to develop CSR activities in West Africa (Nigeria), Pakistan, East Africa (Mauritius), Jordan and Qatar.

Before working full-time with MHCi, Michael worked in the HQ of ITT in London, was Research Fellow at IDS, University of Sussex and Senior Economist at the ILO’s HQ in Geneva, where he introduced the ‘basic needs’ development strategy, founded its World Employment Report and was Secretary for all UN agencies Panel of Econometricians. During his time at the ILO he was Visiting Professor at the Universities of Uniandes and Valle in Colombia teaching labour economics, and was Chief Economist of the Netherlands Antilles where he directed its socio-economic plan that initiated today’s vibrant tourist market in Curacao.

He has also worked on developing and evaluating human resources and labour market issues in over 120 countries around the world, inter alia, Colombia, Brazil, Cote d’Ivoire, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Dubai, South Africa, Malaysia, China, India, Philippines, Vietnam, Portugal, and Azerbaijan. A widely published author with 12 books and over 120 published articles – his most recent books on CSR were The Planetary Bargain: CSR Matters (Routledge, re-published 2010) and CSR and International Development (Routledge, republished 2010). His new book is on Strategic CSR: Is it accelerating? (2012 forthcoming) where he widens the ‘corporate responsibility’ concept to all ‘bodies’ both private and public.