Students and Faculty

Fernando J. Díaz López 

Fernando is one of the world's leading voices on how humanity can respond to climate change — and he's passionate about equipping the next generation to lead that response.

Fernando is a lead author to the IPCC, the United Nations body that produces the definitive scientific reports guiding global climate action. He leads the climate portfolio of the Sustainability and Organizations Center at HEC Paris and also teaches sustainability at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, bringing a genuinely global perspective to everything he does.

He is part of a network of top business schools — including Oxford, Cambridge, and INSEAD — working together to put climate at the heart of business education. He also mentors early-stage entrepreneurs building climate solutions through the Creative Destruction Lab, one of the world's leading startup programmes.

An engineer by training, Fernando has spent over 25 years researching and teaching how businesses, governments, and communities can reinvent themselves in the face of environmental challenges. He has worked with the United Nations Environment Programme to design global initiatives on eco-innovation, finding smarter ways to create products and services while using far fewer resources and generating far less waste.

Fernando holds a PhD from the University of East Anglia (UK) and has led research projects funded by the European Commission and the UN. He brings both rigorous science and real-world experience to questions that matter deeply to young people today: How do we build an economy that works within planetary limits? What does climate leadership actually look like? And what role can you play?

Bénédicte Faivre-Tavignot 

Bénédicte is a professor at HEC Paris who has spent her career exploring one big question: how can businesses help build a fairer, more sustainable world? She helped create the Sustainability & Organizations Institute at HEC, a place where students and researchers rethink the role companies play in society. Long before sustainability became a buzzword, she co designed HEC’s first Master in Sustainable Development and helped launch what is now the Inclusive Economy Center — a hub focused on reducing poverty and expanding opportunities for all.

She also brings real world experience from the highest levels of business. Bénédicte sits on the boards of major global companies like Air Liquide, Schneider Electric, and Michelin, where she helps guide their sustainability strategies. She advises an impact investing fund, contributes to a media company’s board, and is part of expert groups shaping how financial institutions measure and support sustainable development.

In her research, Bénédicte studies “reverse innovation” — the idea that powerful new solutions can come from places often overlooked, including low income communities. She explores how social businesses and entrepreneurs working at the “Base of the Pyramid” can inspire companies everywhere to innovate differently and create positive change.

Before becoming a professor, she spent 15 years in the consulting world, helping organizations solve complex problems and rethink how they operate. She earned her PhD in Management Sciences from Université Lyon 3 and is herself a graduate of HEC Paris.

Across everything she does, Bénédicte is driven by a belief that young people can help reinvent the way businesses work, making them more inclusive, more responsible, and better for the planet.