prof. dr. R.A.J. (Roland) Mees

Roland Mees is currently a director of Sustainable Finance at ING Wholesale Banking, where he mainly focuses on the moral practice of sustainability, for example when granting Sustainability-Linked Loans to corporate customers. Mees has gained over 30 years of experience in the banking sector, not only at ING, but also at ABN Amro and Triodos Bank.

While pursuing his career in a business environment, he felt the need to reflect more deeply on the pragmatic reality of the organizations he worked for. Thus, Mees sought to deepen his academic knowledge with a master’s in Philosophy in Business at Utrecht University, followed by a PhD at the Ethics Institute of Utrecht University. Both alongside his full-time job at ING.

Mees is an expert on motivational obstacles to taking sustainable action and pathways for individuals, institutions and humanity. As a professor of Practice of Business Ethics, he works in close collaboration with professor of Financial Ethics, Boudewijn de Bruin. Together with the other professors at the EE&F department that focus on topics such as sustainable development, sustainable banking & finance and corporate governance, Mees contributes to setting up, innovating and carrying out education in the field of business ethics. Apart from his educational contributions, he takes part in research projects within the faculty and develops his own research in the field of business ethics.

Roland Mees works as director of Sustainable Finance within ING's Wholesale Banking division. Roland Mees has been appointed professor of Practice of Business Ethics at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration of the University of Groningen (RUG) as of 1 September 2022. He performs this function one day a week. ING allows Roland Mees to use his knowledge and experience one day a week for the benefit of social organizations while retaining his terms of employment. ING has agreed that he uses this day a week for his professorship at the RUG. Roland Mees enjoys academic freedom in this respect, he can research, publish and discuss what is relevant in the context of his professorship, without prior permission from ING and without being accountable to ING afterwards. In doing so, he naturally adheres to all laws and regulations applicable to scientific research, such as the Dutch Code of Conduct for Scientific Integrity (2018) and the sectoral regulation for Ancillary Activities of the University of Groningen.