Interview with The ExCo Group: An Ethics Test – Are We Considering The Unintended Consequences of Tech?

An Ethics Test: Are We Considering The Unintended Consequences of Tech?

By:  Leading Through Disruption

August 30, 2022

 

Di Rifai, chairman of Creating Future Us, a not-for-profit aimed at identifying and developing evidence-based solutions for societal impacts arising from the rapid transition to the digital age, shared key leadership lessons with my colleague Adam Bryant, managing director of The ExCo Group, and me in our latest “Leading Through Disruption” interview. 

 

Lauterbach: How did you come to start your organization?

 

Rifai: I spent almost a decade in technology, before going into investment banking for many years. Then I started my own advisory firm in clean tech, including energy and infrastructure. I got involved in the ESG movement, back when it was called responsible investing and ethical investing. I saw the clean tech space as a way to transform the world.

 

That’s when I really started thinking about the imperative for ethics, which was not particularly on the agenda at investment banks. But as ESG became more important, it started me thinking: what are the intended and unintended consequences of everything companies do? If you change the energy system, what effect does that have on the grid system and distribution system and the pricing structure of energy markets? And who are the winners and losers geopolitically? It starts you thinking on a much greater scale.

 

 

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