A Call to Prospective GRLI Board Members

Expressions of interest and nominations due by 24 November 2025

Today, in the face of ecological peril, growing inequality, deepening geopolitical divides and fragile economies, this inquiry is more urgent and relevant than ever and provides numerous opportunities to think and act differently. Yet, beyond the GRLI, it is not as visible or widely activated as it needs to be.

As we look toward 2025 and beyond, we are inviting nominations for Board members who can steward this critical work – not to grow GRLI bigger as an organisation, but to keep the inquiry alive, visible, and generative, and to enable its wider adoption, activation, and ownership across the business- and management education ecosystem.

An Initiative That Takes Initiative

The GRLI is small, nimble, and catalytic by design. We are grounded in simple but foundational Guiding Principles refined since our founding, combining four potentially impactful practices that create a rhythm ensuring our work remains relational, resilient, and grounded in action:

• Invite – bring diverse voices and perspectives together  
• Inquire – hold the space for questions, reflections, and sharing of learnings  
• Initiate – start collaborative actions and prototypes  
• Impact – amplify learnings and stories that ripple outward into education, business and society

Developing global responsibility in leadership and practice through business education begins beyond pledges or box-ticking. It requires deep, systemic shifts in how we live, learn, and lead – moving from “I” to “We” and ultimately to “All of Us.”

The GRLI Foundation’s office provides a light but steady backbone of governance and enabling support. The active engagement of our Partners and Associates drive initiatives, and the broader ecosystem carries the inquiry into new contexts where it is activated. The opportunity and the need now is for our Council of Partners alongside Associates and Strategic Partners, supported by our Guardians and Board, to act as co-stewards of this shared inquiry.

The Leadership We Seek

The composition of the GRLI Foundation Board is described in our living Governance Framework, which seeks to embed the principles of global responsibility and our ways of working to life.  

We invite nominations and expressions of interest for Partner representatives and/or independent Board members who bring:

• Strategic Vision: Aligned with keeping the inquiry alive and generative while ensuring wider ecosystem adoption and activation
• Collaborative Stewardship: Understanding that governance means enabling the work rather than controlling it.
• Systems Perspective: Capable of working across the interconnected domains of how we live, learn, and lead.
• Catalytic Mindset: Committed to remaining small and nimble while creating systemic change
• Global Consciousness: Embracing the shift from individual responsibility to collective and ultimately planetary responsibility
• Action Orientation: Moving beyond pledges to tangible initiatives that create ripple effects

We particularly welcome individuals who can contribute to establishing a balance in participation between business, business schools and society while bringing diverse geographical, cultural, gender and experiential perspectives to our collective stewardship.

How to Express your Interest or Apply

If you are the senior executive responsible for your Institution’s Partnership with GRLI (e.g. Executive Dean, Rector, C-suite executive) and ready to co-steward this shared inquiry into global responsibility, please submit your expression of interest / nomination via email to the Chair of the GRLI Board, Peter Møllgaard at rektor@cbs.dk, copying the GRLI Executive Director, John North at john.north@grli.org and the GRLI Associate Director for Enablement, Gwen Dereymaeker (gwen.dereymaeker@grli.org) by 24 November 2025.

Your application could unpack the following:

• Your commitment to the core inquiry: What does it mean to be globally responsible?
• How you will contribute to keeping this inquiry alive, visible, and generative;
• Your approach to collaborative stewardship and ecosystem thinking;
• Examples of catalytic leadership that creates systemic change;
• The networks and perspectives you bring to our collective work;
• Your understanding of governance as enabling transformation rather than institutional control.

New Board Members will assume duties in January 2026, joining us at a critical moment when global responsibility must move from phrase to visible, felt, and transformative reality.

All applicants are welcome to take part in our AGM during November and appointments will be ratified by the current Board at its next meeting before the end of December. For questions or to learn more, please contact the GRLI Executive Director, John North at john.north@grli.org or the Chair of the GRLI Board, Peter Møllgaard at rektor@cbs.dk. 

Together, we can ensure that global responsibility becomes not just a concept but a lived reality that transforms how we live, learn, and lead.