Lecturer
Dr Jacqueline Mees-Buss
- B(Lit) Spanish Language and Literature, Rijksuniversiteit Leiden (The Netherlands)
- MScBA Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam (The Netherlands)
- PhD (International Business) University of Sydney (Australia)
Business School
School of Management and Governance
Prior to joining academia, I worked as a senior executive for large multinational corporations - primarily Unilever - in the Netherlands, South Korea, the Philippines, Germany and Australia, and as an independent consultant for companies such as CBA, Westpac, Lendlease, and Colgate Palmolive. My main motivation to exchange my international business career for doing a PhD and joining academia, was a deep unease with the lack of theories and tools I had as a practitioner to respond to the big challenges of the 21st century.
My research focusses on contributing to our understanding of the evolving role of large multinational corporations in shaping our society. More specifically, I seek to excavate the underlying systemic forces that shape our current reality, in order to help international managers make better choices for the future. Unless we develop a better understanding of the complex mechanisms that perpetuate climate change, inequality, loss of biodiversity etc., managers of these powerful institutions may unknowingly continue to exacerbate these problems (or create new ones) despite sincere commitments to being a force for good.
- Publications
- Awards
- Engagement
- Teaching and Supervision
- Gunnar Hedlund Award (2014 - 2016). The Gunnar Hedlund award is an international prize, awarded to the PhD thesis that in the opinion of the jury has the greatest potential to impact the field of International Business. Awarded thesis: Multinationals in Transition. Unilever's response to the demand for corporate social responsibility in a changing world.
- Associate consultant for One Stone Advisors. One Stone Advisors is a B-Corp advising large corporations on how to incorporate the United Nations SDGs into their core strategy. Clients include Carlsberg, Kimberly Clark, Ericsson, and closer to home, the Sydney Opera House.
- Specialist Coach for Impact Consulting. Impact Consulting is a platform initiated by one of my former students, linking talented young graduates as consultants to socially conscious organizations and start-ups.
My teaching is focused on helping students think through complex problems. Problems they may not be able to solve, but they can make them better. Sometimes through experimentation, sometimes through collaboration, certainly not always through competition.
In the past, I have taught both under-, and postgraduate courses in Ethical decision-making in international business and have designed and coordinated a number of work-integrated learning courses at the University of Sydney. I bring this expertise into the courses I'm currently responsible for at UNSW:
- COMM1900: Organizations in their Environment
- MGMT5610: Integrative Cases in International Business