01/04/2026
What happens when 22 companies, students and academics rethink impact together? 🤔 Highlights from ESCP’s 5th Social Impact Festival
From 19 to 25 March, our London Campus hosted the 5th annual Social Impact Festival, our largest edition to date. Supported by Marie Taillard, Dean of ESCP’s London Campus, and organised by Vanezza Scanlon (Zaza) and Hsin-Hsuan Meg Lee, the Festival created a platform for industry, academia and students to engage in open dialogue, challenge assumptions around the future of work and leadership, and explore how social impact can be applied in practice.
🔷 Across the week, the programme included:
3 panel discussions:
• A Careers in ESG session hosted by Rohan Malhotra, with Lisa Armstrong, JP BLANGY, Jerome Salemi, Basundhara Dutta, Miguel Gómez, Abhay Srivastava and Brink
• A Blue Factory event on scaling up in Africa, hosted by Harry McDonough, moderated by Alisa Sydow, with guests Dario Giuliani, Takunda Chingonzo, Florence Bavanandan, and Anthony William Catt, and an inspiring keynote speech from Simon Woodroffe, former BBC Dragons' Den investor and founder of YO! Sushi and YOTEL
• A fireside chat on leadership moderated by Vanezza Scanlon with Adrienne Milner, PhD (UNTHINK Consultancy), Robert Mead (The Magnum Ice Cream Company), Sophie van Olm (Salt Marketing Agency) and Jo Bautista (SendToGive).
4 Social Impact Hackathons:
• Systems Thinking with Rebecca Warren (School of Systems Change)
• Purpose-driven leadership and communication with Chin Ru Foo ( & RIOT)
• The Power of Storytelling with Jo Bautista (SendToGive)
• Environmental and social business models with Stephanie Pace (Zoological Society of London (ZSL))
• An inter-university debate on ESG under scrutiny featuring Gorgi Krlev, Associate Dean of Sustainability at ESCP, and Andre Spicer, Executive Dean of Bayes Business School, moderated by Christina Bartholomew.
🔍 And week-long faculty office hours offering students direct engagement with impact-focused research and practice with Hsin-Hsuan Meg Lee, Vanezza Scanlon, Wioletta Nawrot, Ph.D., Anthony J. Evans, Argyro Avgoustaki, and Dr. Chloe Preece.
What emerged clearly is that social impact cannot be treated as an add-on or a tick-box exercise. As organisations navigate technological disruption, geopolitical uncertainty and shifting societal expectations, a people-centred approach must remain central to long-term success.
The challenge now is to encourage more organisations to move beyond discussion, sharpen their focus, ask harder questions and embed impact into decision-making across careers, organisations and systems.
A special thank you to all partners, students and staff who made this Festival possible!
🔗 Read the highlights and key takeaways: https://escp.eu/news/escp-london-campus-hosts-5th-annual-social-impact-festival
Explore the full photo album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/escp_bs/albums/72177720332818272/