Meet our three Keynote Speakers
Jill Atkins from Cardiff Business School, UK
Warren Maroun from University of Witwatersrand, South Africa
Shahzad Uddin from University of Essex, UK
Programme Outline
Thursday, 22 January 2026
10:00-12:00 Research projects
12:15-13:45 Working lunch
14:00-14:30 Workshop presentation
14:30-15:30 Plenary session 1
15:30-17:00 Parallel sessions 1
17:00-17:30 Coffee break
17:30-18:30 Plenary session 2 (virtual)
20:00 Dinner
Friday, 23 January 2026
09:00-10:30 Parallel sessions 2
10:30-11:00 Coffee break
11:00-12:30 Parallel sessions 3
12:30-13:00 Closing words
13:15-14:45 Working lunch
15:00 City Tour
Speakers
Jill Atkins is an academic in accounting and finance, with her research crossing interdisciplinary boundaries and informing practice. Her primary focus is on sustainable accounting and finance, with her current research interests including extinction accounting, extinction governance, extinction finance, ESG (environmental social and governance) accounting and ESG investment. She also has an interest in exploring the historical roots of environmental and ecological accounting. Accounting for biodiversity and financial mechanisms for the protection of biodiversity and species is an overriding theme across all of her current projects. She is well-known throughout the ESG investment industry and governance area as a thought leader and is regularly invited to give keynotes at international practitioner and academic events on sustainability accounting, finance and governance.
Warren Maround is a Chartered Accountant with a PhD from King’s College London. Before joining academia, Warren served in different capacities at PricewaterhouseCoopers in South Africa (PwC). He held a visiting role at the firm from 2010-2018 and currently serves as a non-executive director of the Professional Provident Society (PPS) in South Africa. Warren consults widely on a range of accounting, assurance and sustainability-related matters. He serves/has served on different task forces, working groups and committees for the Integrated Reporting Committee of South Africa, the Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors, the Chartered Governance Institute of Southern Africa and the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB). Warren is the co-editor of “Meditari Accountancy Research” and is an Associate Editor of “Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal” and the “British Accounting Review”.
Shahzad Uddin is a Professor of Accounting and Director of the Centre for Accountability and Global Development at Essex Business School, University of Essex. He is the founding editor of the Journal of Accounting in Emerging Economies. Professor Uddin received the British Accounting and Finance Association ‘Distinguished Academic Award’ in 2022, He was conferred as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in 2024. His research sits at the intersection of accounting, political economy, and critical social theory. Geographically, his research draws from varied research sites located in four continents: Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America. Methodologically, his research is in qualitative traditions drawing from sociology, anthropology, development economics and philosophy. Shahzad has published in accounting, development, sociology, and philosophy journals such as Accounting, Organisation and Society, Work Employment and Society, Public Administration, Social Science and Medicine, Development and Change, and Journal of Critical Realism.