The Work of Gresham College

415 years ago the City looked very different to the way it does now: Elizabeth I was on the throne, Shakespeare was still to write Hamlet or Macbeth, and the English were yet to settle in America. So it is little wonder that an institution that dates back to 1597 should occupy a curious place on the capital’s cultural and intellectual landscape. But we at Gresham College would like to think that this is what makes us more, not less, relevant in today’s economic climate.

Since our founding in 1597, Gresham College has provided free public lectures in the City of London. It is through these lectures that the College realises its raison d’être of disseminating knowledge and learning to the public. In this way, the College provides a platform for some of the country’s top business leaders, public figures and academics to speak to a wider public audience about some of the issues that are closest to their hearts.

In the City as we find it today it will not come as a surprise that many of these burning issues which are thrashed out at the College concern the meeting point of business and ethics. Recent speakers to address this area at Gresham College include Lord Green (Minister of State for Trade and Investment), Charles Goodhart (Emeritus Professor of Banking and Finance at LSE), Matthew Hancock (MP and senior economic adviser and Chief of Staff to George Osborne), Andy Haldane (Executive Director, Financial Stability, Bank of England) and many others. The public in attendance at these lectures have been treated to talks on subjects like: Values and Value in the Marketplace; The Future of the EU and Global Markets; Gresham’s Law in Economics; Reforming Sustainable Finance; Emerging Markets and Climate Change; How do we deal with rewards for failure while supporting growth?; Unweaving the Anti Money Laundering and Counter Terrorist Financing System; Get Shorty; The Price of Fish and many more.

But of particular note over the past three years is the fact that Gresham College has enjoyed excellent and topical lectures by Ken Costa, who holds the position of Gresham Professor of Commerce as well as being Chairman of LDN Connection. Professor Costa’s series of lectures over the past three years include:

Re-shaping Commerce in the Post-Crisis World

Leadership at a time of Transition and Turbulence

Vision and Values in a Volatile World

The wealth of the conversations going on at the College is heightened by the fact that every lecture and event that takes place here is recorded and released online, where it will be available indefinitely. This resource currently has over 1,000 lectures available to watch, read or download, from an archive that stretches back to 1988. It is interesting to note that this archive serves to highlight the cyclical nature of debates about corporate responsibility and ethical business as the earliest available lectures include ones by Bishop Chartres, Chairman of LDN Connection and formerly the Gresham Professor of Divinity, and lectures by the then Professor of Commerce, Rev Jack Mahoney, on topics such as Business and Ethics: Oil and Water?, Business and Social Responsibility and Personal Morality and Business Morality. By looking at the past and taking stock of where we are today, we might be in a better position to go forward into the future. We believe that this is a central part of what Gresham College has to offer.

We believe that there is a great wealth of important conversations going on at Gresham College. In this we are proud to be able to offer a podium for the voices of reason during these troubled times in the City. We hope that we can continue in this role long into the future, and when we are speaking in terms of another 400 years and beyond, Gresham College is perhaps in a better position than most to take a robust stand on ideas like the long-term or sustainable business in the City. It is out of this that we hope to play our part in building a stronger future for the City and all of those whose lives are affected by it.

For all information about future events and to access the archive of lectures, please visit the website: www.gresham.ac.uk

James Franklin, Communications Manager, Gresham College