Business For Peace Foundation

Jeffrey R. Immelt (US)

Jeff Immelt is the Chairman of the board and Chief Executive Officer of the U.S. based conglomerate General Electric since 2000. Under Mr. Immelt’s leadership, GE implemented a new initiative, under the name of “ecomagination” to ramp up development of clean technologies and lighten the company’s environmental footprint. At the outset in 2005, the initiative included some ambitious goals. Thus, for instance, GE committed itself to double its research-and-development investments in eco-friendlier technologies from 2004 to 2010, more than 10 times the 2005 federal US R&D budget for solar and wind combined. Mr. Immelt also committed GE to reducing company-wide greenhouse-gas emissions by 1 percent and improving energy efficiency by 30 percent by 2012. In 2007, GE announced that it was expanding its ecomagination strategy, committing to reduce its global water use by 20 percent by 2012.

Mo Ibrahim (Sudan)

Dr. Mohamed “Mo” Ibrahim (born 1946) is a Sudanese-born British mobile communications entrepreneur. He worked for several other telecommunications companies before founding Celtel. He is currently on the board of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, and is a member of the Africa Regional Advisory Board of London Business School. The stated aims of the Mo Ibrahim foundation are to:

• Stimulate debate on good governance across sub-Saharan Africa and the world
• Provide objective criteria by which citizens can hold their Governments to account
• Recognize achievement in African leadership and provide a practical way in which African leaders can build positive legacies on the continent when they have left office.

In 2006, the foundation launched the Prize for Achievement in African Leadership. The prize is awarded to African heads of state who deliver security, health, education and economic development to their constituents, and who democratically transfer power to their successor. With a $5 million initial payment, plus $200,000 a year for life, the prize is believed to be the world's largest, exceeding the $1.3m Nobel Peace Prize. In 2007, the foundation published an index ranking the performance of the 48 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The countries are graded on factors such as security, levels of corruption, and respect for human rights. The index was developed by Ibrahim along with Kennedy School of Government professors Robert I. Rotberg and Rachel Gisselquist.

Anders Dahlvig (Sweden)

Anders Dahlvig started working for IKEA in 1984 and has held various positions since, including Store Manager, Country Manager of United Kingdom and Vice President, Europe. He assumed his current position as CEO in 1999. Under Mr. Dahlvig’s leadership, IKEA has placed sustainability at the heart of its product development and supply strategy. Thus, for instance, in 2000, the company has introduced IWAY, which stands for “The IKEA Way of Purchasing Home Furnishing Products”. This code of conduct defines what suppliers can expect from IKEA and what IKEA requires from its suppliers in terms of legal requirements, working conditions, the active prevention of child labor, environmental protection and forestry management. In 2007, IKEA decided to do even more and started a number of joint projects with the WWF on climate change, in order to reduce carbon emissions caused by its business.

Mohammed Jameel (Saudi-Arabia)

Mohammed Jameel is President of Adbul Latif Jameel Co. Ltd., one of the most important automobile trading and consumer financing companies in the Middle-East. A great philanthropist as well as a respected businessman, Mr. Jameel has developed several community programs committed to further promoting job opportunities for thousands of young Saudi men and women each year. Among many other initiatives, Jameel has been the driving force behind the Grameen Jameel Pan Arab Initiative, which aims to reduce poverty through micro credit. In addition, he opened the first Bab Riza (Gateway to Prosperity) Jameel Center in June 2007 in Jeddah. The center specializes in creating employment opportunities for women, offering financial support for start-ups, and loans for vocational training in both the public and private sectors. The various programs initiated by Mr. Jameel created more than 22,000 jobs in the Saudi labor market by the end of 2007.

Shi Zhengrong (China)

The Chinese-Austrialian solar scientist Mr. Shi Zhengrong is the founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Suntech Power, one of the leading solar energy companies and the largest solar module manufacturer in the world. When in 2001, he decided to start his own company, he was acutely aware of the growing need for renewable energy and he wanted to be part of the solution to that need. Now, only eight years later, he is considered to be one of the world’s leaders in the development and commercialization of renewable energy technology. Mr. Shi guided Suntech into designing and providing low-cost solar generators so more common people can afford clean energy. His idea and vision is to bring environment-friendly power to the world.

Josephine Okot (Uganda)

Josephine Okot is the Founder and Managing Director of Victoria Seeds Ltd, a full line seed company in Uganda. She founded the company for the purpose of delivering quality seed to smallholder farmers producing over 90% of agricultural output in Uganda and other countries of the region. Her company’s efforts to work at all levels from grass roots to policy advocacy to reverse Africa’s declining agricultural productivity have been recognized internationally. She was awarded the YARA Prize 2007 for a Green Revolution in Africa for her pioneering work with the agriculture input sector and being an outstanding example of a new generation of African entrepreneurs willing to take risks, take the lead and break new ground within African agriculture. Josephine Okot has handled extraordinary challenges. Despite a civil war that lasted 20 years in her home region, she established her business in the post conflict area of Northern Uganda commissioning a seed processing and research facility, and through it empowering rural women, generating employment and lobbying for partners to support innovative financing approaches appropriate to crop farming patterns that takes into account women’s limited control and access to productive household resources.

Jiang Jianqing (China)

Jiang Jianqing has served as Governor of the Shanghai Bank and the Pudong Subsidiary Bank before becoming the Head of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) Under the leadership of Mr. Jiang, the ICBC became the first Chinese bank in the domestic banking to introduce and apply the notion of “Green Credit”, strictly constraining credit inputs for heavily polluting and/or high energy-consuming corporations. For the ICBC, the environmental protection compliance serves as the ultimate determinant to reject or accept any projects and business entities requesting for loans.