Prof Carol Adams, a visiting professor at the Albert Luthuli Centre for Responsible Leadership, will be spending a month at UP to teach and offer advice on integrated reporting. Prof Adams, visiting from Monash Sustainability Institute in Australia, is an internationally recognised leader, researcher, author and adviser working to improve the relationship between organisations, society and the environment.

During her stay, Prof Adams will be interacting with PhD students, academic staff and Integrated Reporting students. She will offer advice on how the Postgraduate Diploma in Integrated Reporting could be developed and also give her input to UP’s finance department on the development of the university’s integrated report. While in South Africa, she will also interview directors of JSE-listed companies on environmental, social and governance risk issues, to find out how integrated reporting has improved their governance.

An accountant by profession, Prof Adams has held senior management positions at several universities. She was involved with the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) project team that developed the Capitals Background Paper for Integrated Reporting and has also written over 100 articles, many of which were published in top global accounting journals.

According to Prof Adams, the concept of ‘responsible leadership’ is central to integrated reporting and guides organisations to communicate in a clear and articulate way in order to create and sustain value. When asked about integrated reporting in South Africa, she has this to say: “South Africa is leading the pack on this concept. The King III principles, which JSE-listed South African companies adopted, recommends integrated reporting. Hence the requirements for listed companies to issue integrated reports. The rest of the world is looking at integrated reports from the Republic of South Africa as a leader in integrated reporting practice.”.

Read more about these issues on Prof Adams’ website: www.drcaroladams.net