Prof Cristina Neesham
Professor Cristina Neesham
SENIOR ASSOCIATE
Cristina Neesham (PhD, University of Melbourne) is a business ethicist and a former Associate Dean and Professor of Business Ethics and Sustainability at Newcastle University Business School (UK). She is currently Adjunct Professor at Swinburne School of Business, Law and Entrepreneurship, Swinburne University (Australia). Cristina has also held academic positions at Monash Business School (Australia), and visiting positions at the University of Paris Nanterre (France), and the University of Adelaide (Australia). Her other senior academic leadership roles include Director of Business Ethics (Newcastle University) and Deputy Chair of Department (Swinburne University), as well as Program and Division Chair of the Social Issues in Management division of the Academy of Management (2020-2025).
Cristina’s research in artificial intelligence (AI) ethics and governance, business ethics, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability has been published in leading international journals in these fields. She has (co-)authored over 100 publications (including public policy and industry reports), and her work has contributed to attracting over $7 million in research funding (including an EPSRC-UK grant). As an ethics specialist in AI-human interaction in organisations, Cristina leads and collaborates with inter-disciplinary teams (with specialists in computing and cybersecurity, finance and accounting, law, media and cultures, medicine, linguistics) to apply ethics and responsibility principles and frameworks in practical contexts of wide societal interest (global public health, smart homes, online media). Her research in AI ethics and digital transformations addresses key policy issues in digital technology governance and regulation. As a leading international scholar, Cristina has collaborated with senior academics from all regions of the world – and in particular from US, UK, Germany, France, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria, Romania, and India. She is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Philosophy of Management journal and the Springer Handbook of Philosophy of Management, and Associate Editor for Business & Society.
Cristina is a highly respected higher degree by research supervisor and mentor of junior supervisors, with 27 completions (including 10 PhD). She has developed an effective personalised research training and development program for the full course of a PhD candidature, as well as an intensive PhD methodology course for sustainability research. Informed by over 20 years of experience in leading courses and curriculum development in advanced postgraduate and executive education (E-MBA, MBA, MSc and MA), Cristina has led and directed business school reviews of education policy and strategy in her specialist fields, and has received Swinburne’s Faculty Pro-Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence. Her co-authored textbook in Sustainability Management (2025) is the first in the world to apply a systems approach to global sustainability.
Prior to her academic career, Cristina was a workplace inspector in the Australian Public Service. In parallel and complementary to her academic work, Cristina has consulted in executive coaching, strategy and leadership for multinationals, small businesses, government agencies and NGOs, in Europe and Australia, since 2006. Her expertise is particularly strong in research strategy and grant development, research training program development, ethics and academic integrity (including AI adoption policy and strategies for learning-teaching-assessment, research, and publishing), governance and strategic planning, academic leadership coaching and mentoring, editing and publishing.