Cambridge Judge Fellow honoured for corporate governance

The International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN), which celebrates excellence in stewardship and corporate governance in the global investment community, has awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award to David Pitt-Watson, a Fellow at Cambridge Judge Business School. The award was presented at a ceremony in London on 1 December.

The ICGN Awards 2025 are given to people, organisations and teams, and the awards received a record number of nominations this year.

Setting new global standards for governance and stewardship

“We are proud to honour David Pitt-Watson with the ICGN Lifetime Achievement Award,” said Michael Herskovich, Chair of the ICGN Board of Governors. “His pioneering work on the purpose of finance and responsible business, and his valued service on the ICGN Board, have left a lasting mark.”

The organisation added in its award announcement that David was honoured as “one of the most influential pioneers of responsible investment and stewardship. His leadership in creating ventures that advanced governance advocacy and institutional stewardship services set new global standards and inspired market-wide change.”

David’s work on award-winning Purpose of Finance course and new Cambridge Initiative for Purposeful Finance

David helped develop a course at Cambridge Judge, called Purpose of Finance, which examines whether finance is fulfilling its societal purposes, and he teaches this course to Cambridge MBA and Master of Finance (MFin) students at the Business School. The course won first place in the Teaching category of the Financial Times 2024 Responsible Business Education Awards.

In addition, David is one of the leaders of the recently launched Cambridge Initiative for Purposeful Finance, which is a research, teaching and advocacy programme to promote transparency and accountability on the purpose of finance. The multidisciplinary initiative will work on projects in various fields where such accountability is important for individuals, firms and societies, including corporate governance, financial inclusion and pensions.

In addition, the initiative will continue ongoing advocacy by the initiative’s leaders to help ensure that material climate risks are included in company financial statements.