Sophie Bacq, IMD Professor of Social Entrepreneurship and Coca-Cola Foundation Chair in Sustainable Development, has been named a Sustainable Shaper 2026 by Sustainable Switzerland.
This annual award recognizes individuals who make an outstanding ecological or social contribution to sustainable development. Following her nomination among the Top 30 Sustainable Shapers, alongside IMD Professor of Business Transformation Julia Binder, Bacq was named as one of the three winners in the Knowledge & Opinion category.
“I am honored to be recognized as a Sustainable Shaper,” said Bacq. “The award reflects my 20 years of commitment to social entrepreneurship and to bringing business and society closer together. It also affirms my efforts to put the social dimension at the center: strengthening communities, civic action, and the commons as foundations of impact, and making them a priority for leaders in business, government, and civil society.”
A globally renowned thought leader in social entrepreneurship, Bacq serves as IMD’s Co-Managing Director of the Enterprise for Society Center (E4S) and Co-Director of IMD’s Center for Social Innovation. Her research examines how entrepreneurial action can address complex social and environmental challenges at the individual, organizational, and civic levels.
She believes that ecological transition must also be a social transition, with communities playing a central role. She argues that the transition can accelerate when actors across sectors find common ground and collaborate. Her upcoming book with MIT Press (2027), Civic Wealth, explores how corporate leaders, philanthropists, government officials, and entrepreneurs partner with communities to solve local problems.
Read more about Bacq.
