Rob Gray: Professor of accounting and director of the Centre for Social and Environmental Accounting Research (CSEAR). A considerable influence in accounting and reporting. Also huge fun.

Andrea Spencer-Cooke: A Muse, no question, both in developing my triple bottom line thinking and in establishing SustainAbility's long-running 'Engaging Stakeholders' programme.

Geoff Lye: Geoff joined SustainAbility as a director in November 1995. He has transformed my thinking on the business aspects of what we do and has been a much valued friend and invaluable 'thought partner' through a series of adventures, including our relationships with Shell and Ford.

Francesca van Dijk: Both when at SustainAbility and after, Fran has been a wonderful colleague and friend, and introduced us to Rupert Bassett.

Jane Nelson: I met Jane in 1994, having just made a panic flight in by small aircraft to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, for a keynote speech, following a problem with flights from London. She has been a close friend ever since. Her work at the International Business Leaders' Forum has closely paralleled our own - and she has been another loyal and inspiring ally. A founder-member of SustainAbility's Council in 1996. She moved to the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard in 2003.

Peter Kinder: A leader in the area of socially responsible investment, and a founder of Kinder Lydenberg Domini (KLD), Peter and I met back-stage in Stockholm while waiting to speak at a conference. We found we shared a fascination for military history. Once when I visited Boston, Peter took a day off and took me walking around the War of Independence battlefields of Concord and Lexington.

Murray Edmonds: He first turned up on our doorstep in High Street Kensington in 1997. Since then we have helped Murray and Dobrina Edmonds to develop a series of agenda-setting conference tours of Australia and New Zealand (www.edmondsmgt.com.au). Murray has been a world-class guide to both countries.

Sara Menguc: Since we first worked together on Cannibals with Forks, Sara has been hugely helpful as my third - and best - literary agent.

Steve Viederman: Previously president of the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation in New York, Steve has long been a member of SustainAbility's Faculty. He regularly reminds me that NGOs are not confined to brand names like Greenpeace or Amnesty; that there is a huge array of grassroots organisations that it is all too easy to overlook - and which do most of the grunt work.

Sir Geoffrey Chandler: Geoffrey has had an extraordinary career, straddling industry, government and the NGO sector - where he founded and chaired Amnesty International's UK Business Group. He has endlessly provoked me over the years, changing my thinking more than he knows.

Tom Delfgaauw: SustainAbility's first non-executive director, Tom was previously vice president for sustainable development at the Royal Dutch/Shell Group. A client during the early years of our post-Brent Spar re-engagement with Shell. A friend and, again, more influential than he suspects.

Pamela Hartigan: As managing director of The Schwab Foundation (www.schwabfoundation.org), she has helped introduce me to the extraordinary world of social entrepreneurs.

Jed Emerson: Venturing where others fear to tread, Jed's Blended Value Proposition maps the future 'beyond the triple bottom line'. www.blendedvalue.org

Other members of SustainAbility's Core Team, and other members of its Council and Faculty, have also had a huge influence on my thinking, among them Professors Tom Gladwin, Stuart Hart, Jean-Pierre Lehman, James Salzman and Ulrich Steger. Key influences are the heads of our various offices: Seb Beloe and Yasmin Crowther in London, Jeff Erikson in Washington, D.C., and Peter Zollinger in Zurich. I would also like to acknowledge the support in recent years of Joanna Bell, Oliver Dudok van Heel, Lynne Elvins, Shelly Fennell, Emily Foskett, Katie Fry-Hester, Elliot Jackson, Philippa Jeffrey, Kizzi Keane, Tzipora Lubarr, Francesca Müller, Tell Münzing, Kavita Prakash-Mani, Nick Robinson, Maddy Rooke-Ley, Jan Scherer, Frances Scott, Virginia Terry, Jodie Thorpe, Sue Newell and Katy Terroni. The names of the current Core Team, Faculty and Council can be found at www.sustainability.com.

Finally, my thanks to everyone else in the field, particularly Paul Ekins, Satish Kumar, Ed Mayo, Sarah Parkin, Jonathon Porritt, Alison Pritchard, James Robertson, Diana Schumacher, Tessa Tennant and Simon Zadek.

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