Prof Othmar Lehner

Prof. Dr. Othmar M Lehner works in the field of sustainability accounting and impact investing. As professor for Accounting and Finance in London and Helsinki, at the Hanken School of Economics, with additional backgrounds in information sciences and entrepreneurship, he uses his knowledge to drive forward the field through high-impact publications, keynotes at global industry events and through consulting the financial services sector on ESG accounting, impact portfolios and shareholder engagement strategies. He is also the Director of the Hanken Center of Accounting, Finance and Governance in Helsinki.

Previously, Prof. Lehner worked as professorial fellow at the University of Oxford from 2014-2019. During that time, he developed one of the first portfolio optimization models to include ESG related social and environmental risks and has contributed to the revisions of the UK Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 on Crowdfunding for social ventures. He was nominated on the expert panel of ESG measurement of the OECD, and contributes to the OECD reports on sustainability accounting standards.

In 2018 he was nominated for the prestigious Carolyne B. Dexter award for the best global management research by the Academy of Management and won the best paper award for the Public and Non-Profit Division at the annual Academy meeting in Chicago for his research on “Legitimacy and Discourse in Impact Investing: Searching for the Holy Grail”.

Before his academic career he was a CPA and risk manager in the banking industry for more than 10 years. He is also the author of the influential Routledge Handbook of Social and Sustainable Finance and a regular guest lecturer at Oxford and Cambridge.

His motto is: “Robust, interdisciplinary research for a positive societal impact”

Work w/ CUSP

Othmar is collaborating with Prof Fergus Lyon and Prof Robyn Owen to explore the essence of legitimacy in crowdfunding of social ventures. Crowdfunding is especially well suited for funding of projects with great societal value but sub-par financial returns. Legitimacy of the projects in the eyes of the public is key to a successful funding, however the exact roles of signalling and trust building in this remain unknown so far.