Mary Johnstone-Louis

In her role as a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School, Dr Mary Johnstone-Louis is Programme Director of the Ford Foundation-funded Ownership Project led by Oxford Saïd’s Dean Peter Tufano and Professor Colin Mayer CBE FBA.

Mary is interested in how firms build strategy around areas of public good. She has undertaken research with leaders of prominent multinational firms, global NGOs, and key policy organisations for more than a decade and conducted fieldwork in a range of geographies, including Bangladesh, South Africa, and multiple countries across Latin America. Her current projects focus on owners and future owners of large, global family businesses. Through this work, she is a jury member of the IMD Pictet Sustainability in Family Business Award.

Mary’s research has been accepted for presentation in a variety of venues, including the Academy of Management, British Academy of Management, Consejo Europeo de Investigaciones Sociales de América Latina, European Academy of Business in Society, European Group for Organisational Studies, and for publication in leading journals including Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice and Business Ethics Quarterly as well as in the United Nations Global Compact’s Principles for Responsible Management Education series.

Mary has held fellowships from Green Templeton College and the United Kingdom’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), and has been awarded a Competitive Grant from the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship for her research. She has consulted with a range of organisations including, most recently, the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women.

Mary holds an MPhil with distinction from St Antony's College (University of Oxford) and a BA in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania. She received her doctorate from Saïd Business School, University of Oxford and is a Research Associate of Oxford’s Green Templeton College.