JANE FARAGO BEYOND SIMPLISTIC THINKING ALUMNI PROFILE
When I did CSL in 2009, I was on maternity leave with my second child, on hiatus from an MBA, and in career transition. Having been made redundant from my previous job, I was looking for a new direction that would combine my interest in the workings of business with my new-found passion for sustainability. Following CSL, I returned to my MBA with a new focus. Through the grapevine I had heard about Net Balance, a young sustainability consulting firm that was making waves. Through a CSL fellow who was working there, I approached CEO Terence Jeyaretnam to ask if I could “borrow” Net Balance as the guinea pig for my MBA assignments. Terence responded with great generosity, and there began a relationship that resulted in me joining the Net Balance staff in September 2012. For most of last year, Net Balance had surely the highest concentration of CSL fellows in the country, with no fewer than five fellows on staff. Net Balance is a purpose-driven company with an unusual hybrid structure: part forprofit, part not-for-profit. My role is to lead the not-for-profit Net Balance Foundation, which aims to inspire and enable organisations to accelerate the transition to a sustainable economy. Working at Net Balance over the past year, though challenging in several directions, has been a dream job for me. Not only do I get to work with my smart, committed and hardworking colleagues, but I have also had the thrill of interacting with some of my sustainability heroes: Jonathon Porritt, Paul Gilding, Pavan Sukhdev. In 2013 I also forged a partnership with the Cambridge Programme of Sustainability Leadership, for Net Balance Foundation to run their flagship executive training seminar, the Prince of Wales’s Business and Sustainability Programme, in Australia. The three-day intensive program is the inverse of the CSL ap2013 ANNUAL REVIEW
proach, taking people already in senior positions, and leading them through a journey to understand and tackle the sustainability challenge. A highlight of the year was talking to some 800 representatives of the not-for-profit sector about integrating social and environmental impact at the Our Community conference. I don’t think I would be in this great position without CSL. While I was already on a trajectory towards working in corporate sustainability, I was a generalist with no prior experience in the field. In a short space of time, the CSL Fellowship Program equipped me with a complex and nuanced understanding of sustainability, enriched by the widely varied experiences and perspectives of my fellow alumni. It opened the doors to a network of experts that I still draw on. It inspired me with a sense of possibility but also ensured that I don’t fall into traps of simplistic thinking. I often stop to wonder whether I am making a difference in the world, and how I could increase the impact I have. There are many CSL fellows who are more energetic, entrepreneurial and inspiring than me, but I have found a role where I believe I can best use my abilities to create change, and that is partly thanks to CSL.