Ian Thomson

Ian Thomson is Professor of Accounting and Sustainability at Birmingham Business School, convenor of the Centre for Social and Environmental Accounting Research, Director of the Lloyds Banking Group Centre for Responsible Business He has been researching topics relating to responsibility, sustainability and accountability for over 30 years, including cleaner technology, stakeholder engagement, risk governance in water and salmon farming, sustainable development indicators, government policy making, climate change, effective pedagogy, use of accounting by activists, human rights, plastics and international development. His current projects include carbon accountability, operationalising the SDG for business and responsible business outcome measurement. He is the co-author of Urgent Business and a report Net Zero Accounting for a Net Zero UK and worked with Business in The Community to develop their Responsible Business Tracker. He was an expert reviewer for the latest IPCC report, advisor to Scottish Parliament’s Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change Committee, an accountability expert to UN World Food Programme and Food and Agriculture Organisation, advised large corporations on their sustainability strategy and reporting. In 2019 he was awarded British Accounting and Finance Association Distinguished Academic of the year. Prior to becoming an academic he worked as a management accountant in the NHS and the BBC.