Executive Director
Dan Vermeer is a leading scholar and consultant on business and environmental sustainability and has spent the last three decades working on some of the world’s “grand challenges,” including water security, climate change, and ocean sustainability. At Fuqua, he is an Associate Professor of the Practice, teaching classes including the Daytime MBA electives “Climate Change, Sustainability, and Corporate Governance” and “EDGE Seminar on Energy & Environment,” as well as the Executive MBA course “Energy Markets & Innovation.” Dan is also the executive director of EDGE. His latest research is on climate change in MBA education and innovation in the blue (ocean) economy.
Working with colleagues across Duke, Dan launched a new Oceans@Duke initiative in 2020, bringing together diverse experts to develop innovative solutions to the world’s ocean sustainability challenges. Together with the EDGE team, he leads the Center’s ClimateCAP initiative, which is focused on educating MBA students about the business implications of climate change.
Dan is actively engaged in the wider sustainability community. He serves on the board of Conservation X Labs, and on advisory boards for Trane Technologies’ Center for Energy Efficiency & Sustainability (CEES) and SeaAhead. He is also the founder of the Global Water Challenge and co-author of the CEO Water Mandate.
Dan joined Duke from The Coca-Cola Company, where he led the Global Water Initiative, an industry-leading effort to protect the company’s primary ingredient. At Coca-Cola, he designed a new risk management methodology, and founded the company’s Community Water Partnerships program, resulting in over 500 public-private partnerships in 90+ countries.
Dan plays a leading public role in advocating for sustainable development through speaking, research, and institution-building. He has published numerous articles and reports on topics related to sustainability and business, appearing in leading academic journals such as Science Advances and One Earth. His academic background includes a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Hope College, a Master’s degree in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Virginia, and a Ph.D. in Learning Sciences from Northwestern University.
Videos
- “Business Leadership in the Decisive Decade” (2021)
- “The Ocean 100: Diving into the Growing Ocean Economy” (2021)
- “Reshaping the Ocean Economy,” TEDxDuke (2020)
- “Climate Change: How to Tackle a Wicked Problem” (2018)
- “Power Shift: The Business Role in Addressing Climate Change” (2016)
- “EDGE Chats” interview with Dan Vermeer (2015)
Articles
- Read EDGE blog articles by Dan Vermeer
- Clean Energy Pathways article series, in partnership with Deloitte (2021-22)
- “The Ocean 100: Transnational corporations in the ocean economy” (co-author), ScienceAdvances (2021)
- “A new guide to managing environmental risk,” Dialogue (2014)