Volker Beckers

Trustee

Volker Beckers graduated from Cologne University in Economics/Business Administration. With more than 20 years’ senior experience within the energy industry, he has a comprehensive knowledge of European energy markets.

Volker was Group CEO, RWE Npower plc until the end of 2012 and prior to this, its Group CFO from 2003 to 2009.
He has worked in a variety of trade and industry bodies, including the CBI President’s Committee, on the Board of the German-British Chamber of Industry & Commerce, and since 1999 as Deputy Chair of the Executive Commercial Management Committee at the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW) and was also member of the Executive Committee of UKBCSE (now Energy UK).

He held a number of non-Executive directorships in the public and private sector as well as academia.

Volker’s current activities include: non-Executive Chairman, Open Utility/Piclo Ltd; non-Executive Chairman, Cornwall Insight Ltd; Chairman of PwC UK Advisory Council; Non-executive Director, Nuclear Decommissioning Authority; non-Executive Chairman, Albion Community Power; non-Executive Chairman, Reactive Technologies Ltd; non-Executive Chairman, Foresight Metering Ltd; Director and Honorary VP, British Institute of Energy Economics; Honorary VP, Energy and Utility Forum.

Volker currently sits on the Advisory Board of the EU Centre for Energy and Resource Security (EUCERS) at King’s College, and is Chair of the Advisory Board with Erasmus Centre for Future Energy Business (ECFEB), a specialist research centre at Rotterdam School of Management. In 2014 he joined the Board of Trustees of Forum for the Future. He is also a member of The Worshipful Company of Fuellers and a Fellow of the Energy Institute (FEI). Further, he works for a couple of charity organizations and fund his own family trust supporting charitable initiatives (German Heart Foundation etc).

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Change is possible if businesses step up to help influence, rethink and reshape our economic structures. This includes intellectual property rights, corporate tax regimes, limited liability legal entities, the global financial structure and more. Forum is collaborating with key stakeholders throughout the market ecosystem, such as financial institutions, regulators and civil society organisations, who influence the actions, goals and incentives of businesses.
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Emily Bushby

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Rita Clifton CBE

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Laura McGonigal

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Andrew Winston

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Noa Gafni

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Jonny Wates

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Heather Grady

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Charlotte Ersbøll

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Anita Tiessen

Anita has worked in international development and human rights for more than two decades, and is a trustee/advisory board member for organisations working in the children, human rights and social policy sectors, including for the Children’s Commissioner for England.

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The Five Capitals Model provides a basis for understanding sustainability in terms of the economic concept of wealth creation or ‘capital’. Any organisation will use five types of capital to deliver its products or services. A sustainable organisation will maintain and where possible enhance these stocks of capital assets, rather than deplete or degrade them.
For a just and regenerative future

Forum for the Future is a leading international sustainability non-profit running out of offices in the UK, US, India and Singapore.
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We are a growing organisation and we are regularly on the look out for new recruits to join our teams around the world.
Growing our Future US

Working together to accelerate the transition to a just and regenerative agriculture system in the United States.
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Climate change, malnutrition, inequality, poverty, ecological degradation. The global challenges we face are so urgent and tricky that we need a solution to match their scale and complexity. This is where system change comes in. We use systems thinking to understand the web of interrelations that create complex problems, anticipate unintended consequences, and identify how and where to take action to meet the SDG goals.
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We reinvent strategies for a 1.5°C world. Our Net Positive approach helps business put back more into society and environment than it takes out. Unilever’s pioneering commitment to eliminate fossil fuels from its operations and directly support the generation of more renewable energy than they consume was driven behind the scenes by Forum.
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A year ago this week, Unilever launched its Sustainable Living Plan (USLP), one of the most ambitious strategies that a global company has ever embarked on. Pioneering a bold new business model, the company pledged to double in size at the same time as halving its environmental footprint.