The Adjunct Professor and director executive of the Master's Degree Executive in Human Resources and Digitalisation of the University of Navarra, Alberto Andreu, has been recently appointed president of DIRSE association DIRSE, the Spanish Association of Directors of Social Responsibility. "Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and sustainability are now part of the public discussion and of the diary of company boards of directors", said Alberto Andreu.

As president of DIRSE, he stated that he will continue to work to "highlight the value of the work that CSR and sustainability professionals have been doing for many years: non-financial risk maps; climate change strategies; corporate policies on non-financial matters (supply chain, privacy, diversity, conflicts of interest...); sustainability reports (today called Non-Financial Information Statements); or stakeholder listening strategies... to name but a few tasks".

Andreu also highlights some of the most important challenges that CSR and sustainability professionals will have to face, such as "knowing and complying with the regulatory avalanche at subject ESG, especially the new directives on sustainability reporting or due diligence; financial taxonomy and sustainable finance; responding to TFCD (Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures) recommendations on subject investment; the transition to a Net Zero (carbon neutral) continent; sustainable corporate governance; technology and digitalisation applied to sustainability; impact investing; or the creation of long-term value deadline, etc.".

For Andreu, CSR and Sustainability are equivalent concepts, "both have to do with how companies, once the legal requirements have been met, have to develop strategies to minimise their negative impacts and maximise their positive impacts on their social, environmental and economic development ", he concludes.

First Spanish association of Social Responsibility professionals in Spain

Alberto Andreu Pinillos (Madrid, 1963) holds a PhD from Economics and business; Adjunct Professor of Social Responsibility at School of Economics, IESE and Master's Degree in Corporate Reputation at the University of Navarra and director executive of the Master's Degree Executive in Human Resources and Digitalisation of the academic centre. He is also Visiting Professor of the University of Piura (Peru); member of the committee advisor of the Chair of Economics and Business Ethics of the Universidad Pontificia de Comillas; and member of the Boards of Experts of Corporate Excellence-Centre for Reputation Leadership and of the Fundación Máshumano.

Andreu's professional career has led him to participate directly in transformation processes in sectors core topic of the Spanish Economics for the last thirty years. He has been manager global CSR and Sustainability at Telefónica (2000-2015) and director of Identity and Corporate Culture at Banco Santander (1999-01). He is currently senior advisor in CSR/Sustainability at EY, Atrevia, Corporación Pascual and Cosentino.

With 500 members, including managers, consultants and academics, DIRSE is the first association of Spanish Social Responsibility professionals in Spain and the entity with the largest social base in Europe. Created in 2013, its goal is to value and promote the development of CSR/S managers and professionals, as well as to improve their capacity to influence the creation of value in organisations. Among its lines of action is the promotion of training, research and networking programmes, as well as participation in reference letter forums and interaction with other institutions.