Lunch Practice & Research Seminar: Can We Stop Greenwashing?

The session will be a discussion between an academic and a high-level practitioner. Garen Markarian will present his views about sustainability regulation as it comes to company level information, and the massive upcoming European regulations (CSRD), while Mr. Martin Abel will present his counterpoints.

Issues to be discussed are :

• What is the extent of greenwashing, and can financial disclosures be useful / reliable?
• Will the CSRD improve ESG in Europe / world?
• What would financial information in an ideal world, look like?
• Are we better off with a US-style environmental regulation?

Garen Markarian is a professor of accounting at HEC - University of Lausanne. As an international scholar specializing in corporate finance and governance, he has taught at WHU-Otto Beisheim (Dusseldorf), University of lowa, lE Business School (Madrid), HEC (Paris), Institut Mines-Télécom Business School (Paris), Bocconi, (Milan), Concordia (Montreal), Rice (Houston), and Case Western Reserve (Cleveland). Previously holding the position of First Regional Economic Officer for Western Asia at the United Nations, Dr. Markarian has extensive experience in research on governance mechanisms, executive compensation, the banking crisis, stock markets, and financial statements and valuation. His publications have received awards both from the American Finance Association and the American Accounting Association, and have been mentioned in the Financial Times, Bloomberg, Washington Post, and CFO magazine. Dr. Markarian has published in journals such as The Review of Accounting Studies, Contemporary Accounting Research, and The Journal of Banking and Finance, etc. Beforehand, he was a consultant for Standard & Poor's "Society of Industry Leaders," as well as for starts-ups and private equity. An executive member of the scientific committee of the European Accounting Association from 2015-2020, he currently is an advisor at Lux Point Partners. Dr. Markarian has 20yrst experience in management education at the undergraduate, masters, executive, and Ph.D. level. Dr. Markarian has a Ph.D. from the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University.

Martin-Sebastian Abel holds an MBA from WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management and studied Accounting under Professor G. Markarian. Currently, he leads CSRD implementation projects for financial sector clients at a Big4 firm, leveraging his expertise in ESG reporting and sustainability regulations. During his term as a member of parliament in North Rhine-Westphalia, Martin introduced a groundbreaking bipartisan bill to establish sustainability investment criteria for the state pension fund. This legislation, updated and adopted by several federal states, has led to the reallocation of over €4 billion to sustainable investments. In addition to his role in business and govern-ment, Martin holds various certifications, including the Certified Expert in Sustainable Finance from the Frankfurt School of Finance, where he also serves as a lecturer for the Green and Sustainable Finance courses. His research interests extend across the Atlantic, where he analyzed the impact of fossil fuel divestment on US financial markets through the ACG USA DZ BANK Fellowship in 2019. He is also an alum of the U.S. State Department's prestigious International Visitors Leadership Program (IVLP), further enriching his global perspective.