Helle Bank Jorgensen
CEO and Founder
Helle Bank Jorgensen is the CEO and founder of Competent Boards, offering online climate and ESG programs that draw on the experience of more than 150 renowned board members, business leaders, and investors. Hundreds of directors and senior executives have enrolled in these programs in order to transform their careers and their companies.
Helle is an internationally recognized expert on sustainable business practices, with a 30-year record of turning environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risks into innovative and profitable business opportunities. She works with many global Fortune 500 board members and executives, as well as smaller companies and investors.
Public speaking
Helle is a regular keynote speaker, moderator, and panelist for major event hosts, including:
- Finance Executives International (FEI)
- The Wall Street Journal Sustainable Business Forums
- GreenFin
- The Conference Board
- International Federation of Accountants (IFAC)
- Institute of Directors of India and the Philippines
- World Economic Forum
- Reuters Responsible Business Summits
- edie23
- Good Governance Academy
- A4s Sustainability Summit
- League of Corporate Foundations
- Academy of International Business
- Nasdaq
Amazon bestselling author
Helle is the author of Amazon bestseller Stewards of the Future: A Guide for Competent Boards. The book gives invaluable guidance on what boards must do if the businesses they guide are to respond successfully to today’s enormous economic, environmental, and social challenges. Through practical examples, guides, and real-life experiences, this highly praised book will help any business leader who wants to keep up with new environmental, ethical, financial, and societal demands.
Thought leadership
Helle’s book, blogs, articles, and posts make her one of the world’s most read and followed voices in ESG, and one of LinkedIn’s Top 15 2022 Voices to Follow in the Green Economy. Articles include:
- Corporate Board Member – Investors are demanding sustainability—Is Your Board Ready?
- Chief Executive – The game of risk that will make or break your company
- Environment Journal – Lessons in ESG: The road to net zero is paved by board education
- TRIUM Connects – Stewards of the Future: Can and should we count on boards to do the right thing?
- Board Agenda: Why nature is a business priority
- Thinking the Unthinkable – Talking about... why boards must think like activists with Helle Bank Jorgensen
- Real Leaders – Corporate Boards are Facing Unprecedented Pressure. Here are My Top 3 Solutions
- Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance: Crafting the ‘G’ in ESG: Accountability in the Boardroom
- Corporate Compliance Insights: New Year, Same ESG Challenges: Overstretched Boards Face Barrage of Global Regulation
- CEO World Magazine – Make stakeholder concerns your concerns. All of them
- GreenBiz - How do you redesign your supply chain in a chaotic world?
- Agenda: Six New Criteria That Future-Fit Boards Must Have in Their Skills Matrix
Awards
Helle’s work has been widely recognized, including:
- The Globe and Mail 50 Changemakers for 2023 list
- Onalytica: Who's Who in ESG - Top 50 Influencers to Follow in 2023
- SustainabilityX® Magazine's Global 50 Women In Sustainability Award in 2022
- One of LinkedIn's Top Voices in the Green Economy in the US and Canada in 2022
- One of Canada's Most Powerful Women, 2022: Top 100 Award Winner by the Women's Executive Network
- Global Impact Award 2020, and named one of "5 people in ESG to look out for"
- Clean50 award in 2019 for outstanding contribution to clean capitalism
Other accolades
Helle serves on:
- Nasdaq Center for Board Excellence’s Sustainability & ESG Insights Council
- World Economic Forum (WEF) Expert Network for Corporate Governance, Leadership, and Emerging Multinationals
- Co-chair, Global Expert Panel, Accounting for Sustainability (A4S) established by HM King Charles III
- The Non-financial Digitisation Working Group of the Impact Management Project (IMP)
- Judging panel Diligent's Modern Governance 100
- Canadian Climate Governance Experts –- a Commonwealth Climate & Law Initiative
She has served as the Chair of the European Sustainability Reporting Association (ESRA), the Global Compact Network Canada, Datamaran, and as a member of the Sustainability Advisory Panel of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), and the Sustainability Policy Group of the Institute of European Accountants (FEE).
About Helle
Helle pioneered corporate reporting of ESG as part of the widening recognition that environmental, social, and governance issues are a crucial contributor to any organization’s success — or failure. She created the world’s first “green account” based on lifecycle assessment, and the first integrated annual report that combines ESG with financial performance. She has worked on natural capital accounting for the International Finance Corporation and the World Bank.
Helle trained as a business lawyer and state-authorized public accountant (CPA) in Denmark, and holds a master’s degree in business administration and auditing. She is a former PwC audit and advisory partner in Denmark and the United States, where she led the firm’s sustainability and climate practices.
In 2020 she was awarded the Global Impact Award and named one of “5 people in ESG to look out for”.