TOP 10 Most-Read Thought Leaders of the Year in Sustainable Business

Discover also our 2026 Rankings of the Most Read Thought Leaders in Business Impact, Carbon, Circularity, Climate Change, Energy, Energy Transition, Environmental Sustainability, ESG, Ethical Governance, Green Tech, Nature, Renewables, Social Responsibility, Sustainable AI, Sustainable Finance, and Sustainable Lifestyle. Explore how this year's leaders compare to the most influential Sustainable Business voices of last year!

illuminem is proud to present the Most-Read Thought Leaders in Sustainable Business globally, as recognised by illuminem's ever growing community of 700,000+ readers.

The sustainable business conversation in the past year was shaped by a single, uncomfortable question: whether the corporate sustainability project, as built over the past two decades, could survive contact with reality. The EU's Omnibus simplification package gutted key provisions of the CSRD and CSDDD, stripping mandatory due diligence and reporting requirements from thousands of companies. In the US, ESG became a political liability. Voluntary commitments frayed as cost pressures mounted and the patience of shareholders, regulators, and the public pulled in opposite directions.

What emerged from that pressure was not consensus but a sharper set of arguments. Some on this list – Tim Mohin, Andreas Rasche, Ioannis Ioannou – pushed back against the retreat, making the case that sustainability embedded in strategy is more durable than sustainability bolted onto compliance. Others, like Martin Reeves and Luca Dagnese, asked questions about whether the frameworks themselves needed rethinking. The result was a body of work that was less optimistic than in previous years but, for that reason, more deeply insightful.

What distinguished Lamé Verre in that conversation was the precision she brought to the table. As Director of Net Zero at The Crown Estate, one of the UK's largest property portfolios, she has had to translate net zero from policy commitment into operational reality. Her most-read piece made the case that this is not a case of ideology but economics.

Drawn from over 2,500 thought leaders publishing on illuminem Voices, the ranking below reflects the voices that shaped how the sustainable business conversation evolved in the past year. Please join us in congratulating the Thought Leaders of the Year in Social Responsibility, and every voice contributing to this vital global debate on illuminem.

1️⃣ Lamé Verre - Director of Net Zero of The Crown Estate
Country: United Kingdom 🇬🇧
Most-Read Thought Piece: Net zero is not an ideology, it is economics
Profile: Lamé Verre is the Director of Net Zero at The Crown Estate, driving the decarbonisation agenda across the enterprise portfolio and contributing to the UK net zero and energy security agenda. She serves as a board trustee of Green Alliance, an independent think tank and charity focused on ambitious leadership for the environment, and sits on the Global Future Council on the Future of the Energy Transition at the World Economic Forum. She is a member of the illuminem Leaders Cohort.

2️⃣ Tim Mohin - CEO of Greenhouse Gas Protocol
Country: United States 🇺🇸
Most-Read Thought Piece: Reasons for hope
Profile: Tim Mohin is a globally recognised sustainability executive, former CEO of GRI, and LinkedIn Top Voice with 20+ years of experience embedding ESG into Fortune 500 companies. He is the author of Changing Business from the Inside Out and a weekly ESG newsletter, and the founder of the Responsible Business Alliance.

3️⃣ Andreas Rasche - Professor at Copenhagen Business School
Country: Denmark 🇩🇰
Most-Read Thought Piece: Sustainability post-Omnibus: in search of a new narrative
Profile: Andreas Rasche is a Professor at Copenhagen Business School (CBS) and Associate Dean for the CBS Full-Time MBA Program. He is a widely recognised international expert and public speaker on corporate sustainability, ESG, and sustainable finance.

4️⃣ Martin Reeves - Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute
Country: United States 🇺🇸
Most-Read Thought Piece: Corporate sustainability is in crisis — what should companies do now?
Profile: Martin Reeves is Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute and a regular contributor to Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, Fortune, and other management journals on business strategy and management. He has authored several books, including Like and The Imagination Machine, exploring innovation and business growth.

5️⃣ Philip Corsano - Mediator and Legal Advisor at The Barrister Group
Country: United Kingdom 🇬🇧
Most-Read Thought Piece: The governance imperative for verified impact reporting: why boards can no longer afford green bond complacency
Profile: Philip Corsano-Leopizzi is a conflict resolution advisor and qualified barrister with experience in climate, human rights, and corporate governance. A former diplomat in Russia, he has led major initiatives in energy, transport, and finance, and advised on UN SDG compliance with a focus on the Arctic and sustainable development. He specialises in mediating high-stakes disputes through integrated legal, economic, and human rights frameworks, and is committed to building coalitions for a just energy transition.

6️⃣ Saja Mahtat - Commercial Manager at NMDC Group
Country: United Arab Emirates 🇦🇪
Most-Read Thought Piece: Why Amazon, Google and Meta are quietly betting billions on nuclear energy
Profile: Saja-Rosa Mahtat is a Commercial Manager at NMDC Group. She has a background in civil engineering and served as Director at Accenture, working with top institutions including BlackRock, Aviva Investors, and Barclays. She has contributed to major projects including the Northern Line Extension and HS2 Enabling Works, and was named a WICE Top 10 Young Woman in Construction.

7️⃣ Ioannis Ioannou - Professor at London Business School
Country: Greece 🇬🇷
Most-Read Thought Piece: From disruption to coercion: the new rules of business
Profile: Ioannis Ioannou is an Associate Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at London Business School, where he specialises in sustainability leadership, corporate responsibility, and ESG integration. He is an award-winning researcher with publications in top-tier journals including Strategic Management Journal and Academy of Management Review, and serves as an Associate Editor for Strategic Management Journal. He is also a Senior Academic Advisor at Evolution Ltd. and Co-Chair of the Sustainability Advisory Panel at Merck KGaA.

8️⃣ Marco Buti - Fmr. Chief of Staff of the Commissioner for the Economy
Country: Italy 🇮🇹
Most-Read Thought Piece: Efficiency, sustainability, security and equity: key words for industry
Profile: Marco Buti is a part-time professor at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, holding the Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa chair since April 2023. Before joining the European University Institute, he was Chief of Staff to Paolo Gentiloni, the European Commissioner for the Economy. From 2008 to 2019, he served as Director-General for Economic and Financial Affairs at the European Commission and represented the Commission at the G7 and G20. He is a Senior Fellow at Bruegel and a member of the CEPR Research Policy Network.

9️⃣ Jian Zhang - Vice Dean of the Institute of Climate Change and Sustainable Development at Tsinghua University
Country: China 🇨🇳
Most-Read Thought Piece: Why Hungary could be the future of Europe's EV industry and transition policy
Profile: Jian Zhang is Vice Dean of the Institute of Climate Change and Sustainable Development at Tsinghua University and Deputy Secretary-General of the Global Alliance of Universities on Climate (GAUC). His work focuses on integrating health considerations into climate action and negotiations, and he has been instrumental in promoting sustainable design practices to achieve carbon neutrality.

🔟 Luca Dagnese - Director at Cassa Depositi e Prestiti
Country: Italy 🇮🇹
Most-Read Thought Piece: A Davignon plan for the European car industry
Profile: Luca Dagnese is a senior executive with 30+ years of international experience in leadership roles across consulting, utilities, and infrastructure. He has held key positions at McKinsey and Enel, where he served as CEO Americas. He is currently an executive in the equity division of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, Italy's development bank. Jointly with Roger Abravanel, he co-authored the bestseller The Great Hypocrisies About Climate.

Congratulations to our most-read thought leaders of the last year. In a time when the sustainability conversation was pulled in every direction at once, the voices on this list helped move it forward with clarity and intellect. We are proud to amplify their voices, and look forward to what comes next.

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