Loyola Lecture

Loyola holds Busch Lecture with Virgin Unite-founder Jean Oelwang

BALTIMORE—Loyola University Maryland’s Sellinger School of Business will hold the 2022 Busch Lecture on Friday, April 8, at 3 p.m. with Jean Oelwang, founding CEO and president of Virgin Unite, the foundation of the Virgin Group and Branson family that works to change business for good, address climate change, support entrepreneurs and protect human rights.

Oelwang will present “Forging Great Partnerships and Collaborations through Deep Connection.” Her talk will center on the content of her new book published by Penguin Random House entitled “Partnering: Forge the Deep Connections that Make Great Things Happen.”

Virgin Unite facilitates collaboration between entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and leaders to work toward positive change. Oelwang has 15 years of experience forming partnerships to develop and launch global initiatives, including The Elders, The B Team, The Carbon War Room (merged with the Rocky Mountain Institute), Ocean Unite, The Caribbean Climate Smart Accelerator, 100% Human at Work, The Virgin Unite Constellation and The Branson Centres of Entrepreneurship.

Oelwang has worked with over 25 Virgin businesses across 15 industries to help them prioritize the wellbeing of people and planet. She also led people strategy as a partner in the Virgin Group. Prior to starting Virgin Unite, Oelwang was the joint CEO of Virgin Mobile in Australia. In addition, she spent 18 years living and working on six continents to start and help lead mobile phone companies.

She has worked for the Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife in Australia and been a VISTA volunteer serving homeless teens in Chicago. She has also been on the TED and TEDx stages as a host and speaker and has received awards including the Bernie Glassman Trailblazer Award and the FilmAid Philanthropic Leadership Award.

John Michel, Ph.D., associate professor of management at Loyola’s Sellinger School, is the faculty Busch Scholar hosting the Busch Lecture this year. Free and open to the public, the lecture will be held virtually via Zoom. To learn more and register, visit Loyola.edu/BuschLecture.

The Busch Lecture, supported by the Anheuser-Busch Foundation, aims to feature leaders in business who have led innovative and entrepreneurial initiatives and are of interest to the academic, business, and civic communities. The Anheuser-Busch Foundation also designates a Busch Scholar, a faculty member who conducts and publishes high-quality research in a business discipline.

Loyola University Maryland’s Sellinger School of Business and Management delivers an internationally recognized Jesuit business education. Recognized for its scholarship, ethical leadership and tradition of excellence, the Sellinger School delivers a wide range of sought-after fields of study including eight undergraduate majors and seven undergraduate minors as well as full-time, part-time and fully online MBA and Master of Accounting programs. In-person classes are available on campuses in Baltimore, Columbia and Timonium, Maryland. (www.loyola.edu/sellinger)