Kirsten Dunlop is the Chief Executive Officer of EIT Climate-KIC, Europe’s largest public-private partnership focused on climate innovation. A creative, energetic and inspirational leader, she brings to her role a deep conviction in our capacity to learn and evolve into a climate-resilient society, and her over 30 years of experience catalysing systemic transformations in a career spanning academia, consulting, banking and the insurance industry across three continents. As an expert communicator and enthusiast, she is a sought-after speaker on systems innovation, financial systems change and societal transformation in the context of climate.
She has extensive experience as a designer and leader of business model transformation, strategic innovation and cultural and organisational remaking. She worked in Italy leading the Generali Group Innovation Academy for Assicurazioni Generali with pioneering work in strategic risk management and innovation and created a bespoke division for strategic innovation at the Suncorp Group in Australia, including a focus on climate change. In leadership roles in Second Road and KPMG, Dunlop worked with senior leadership and management to prepare for non-linear change, combining elements of sustainability stewardship and innovation. Earlier in her career, she was engaged by UniCredit to design a new training academy for executives and worked as a leadership development consultant with Newton Management Innovation in Milan.
Dunlop serves on various Advisory Boards, including the AIT Strategic Research Advisory Board, EJP Soil Advisory Board, EAT Foundation Advisory Board, High-level External Advisory Panel of the OECD Horizontal Project on Climate and Economic Resilience, European Commission Industry 5.0 Community of Practice Steering Board, Advisory Council of Daughters for Earth and the UK Government EEIST Senior Oversight Group. She is also an Advisor to the Systemic Investing Initiative and a Director of Responsible.us. Dunlop has been recognised as a leader at the European Commission Economic and Societal Impact of Research and Innovation (ESIR) expert group and is sought after for her advice on how future EU research and innovation policy can best support sustainable development.
A specialist in experiential learning and a life-long exponent of cross-disciplinary thought and practice, Dunlop has taught in universities in Australia and the United Kingdom. She holds a PhD in Cultural History from the University of East Anglia focused on the marriage of rhetoric and architecture in Italian medieval and Renaissance cities. She also has a BA Honours in Art History from the University of Sydney. A global citizen with wide-ranging international experience, she has lived and worked in six countries and is based in Haarlem, Netherlands, with her husband and two teenage children.
