Sustainability-driven Innovation Expert, Board Director, MBA, MFA
Leader in Sustainability-driven Innovation
Professional Experience
Fernanda Torre is a recognized expert in sustainability-driven innovation and CEO of the consultancy Next Agents, whose mission is to create value for people and the planet—both now and into the future. She is also the co-founder of One Global Action, an international initiative that fosters capacity-building and collaborative innovation to tackle major sustainability and ESG challenges.
Fernanda serves as Chief Operating Officer and co-founder of the Boards Impact Forum, the Nordic chapter of the World Economic Forum’s Climate Governance Initiative, where she co-leads training programs on Board Oversight of Sustainability and Responsible AI for Value Creation.
She is the co-author of the book AI Leadership for Boards: Leading Responsible AI for Value Creation, published by Springer Nature, which explores how boards can shape innovation, risk oversight, and strategic renewal in an AI-powered world.
Fernanda is affiliated with the House of Innovation at the Stockholm School of Economics and teaches at the Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship (SSES), where she leads programs on strategic innovation, foresight, and entrepreneurship.
With an award-winning background in graphic and experience design, she has worked across industries and institutions, including Stora Enso, the Stockholm Resilience Centre, and Karolinska Institutet. She holds an MBA with distinction (President’s List) from SSE, an MFA in Experience Design from Konstfack, and a BA in Graphic Design from the University of Porto.
Leader in Sustainability-driven Innovation
Professional Experience
Fernanda Torre is a leading expert in sustainability-driven innovation and co-founder of the international initiative One Global Action, and CEO of Next Agents, a consultancy with a mission to generate value for people and the planet, now and into the future. Next Agents is the affiliated for the Nordics for Rapid Learning Cycles (RLC) and agile project management framework that supports businesses accelerating the development and deployment of hardware and sustainable innovations. Furthermore, Torre is a Swedish expert in the technical committee for the 56000 ISO standard on innovation management. Fernanda is also co-founder and the Operations Director at Boards Impact Forum, the Nordic chapter of the Climate Governance Initiative in collaboration with the World Economic Forum, where she engages board directors across the Nordics and internationally to accelerate climate actions and foster sustainable business practices. Her role involves leading training programs on Board Oversight of Sustainability and Responsible AI for Value Creation. Fernanda is also affiliated to the House of Innovation at the Stockholm School of Economics, and faculty at the Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship (SSES), where she is the co-director of the “Trendspotting and Future Thinking” program and of the Educator Lab. Previously, she taught Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Executive MBA program at the Stockholm School of Economics and worked at the Stockholm Resilience Center where she co-created the leadership program BALTICLEAD and the Biosphere Code, a set of principles to help guide the current and future development of algorithms in AI and other exponential technologies, in a way that is responsible for both people and planet.
Fernanda Torre’s research explores how corporate boards can actively shape innovation and sustainability outcomes in the age of AI and systemic disruption. She is co-author of the Springer Nature book AI Leadership for Corporate Boards – Leading Responsible AI for Value Creation (2025), which expands on strategic oversight, risk governance, and value creation in AI-driven contexts. Her research also includes a peer-reviewed article on dynamic board capabilities—Dynamic Board Capabilities: Developing Board Practices That Impact Corporate Renewal and Performance (Journal of Risk Management in Financial Institutions, 2024)—which proposes a process framework for how boards can develop their own dynamic capabilities to support corporate renewal, balancing exploration and exploitation in fast-changing environments. Taken together, her work seeks to empower boards with the tools, insights, and governance structures needed to lead responsibly in a time of technological and sustainability transitions.
With a background in graphic design (Red Dot Design award 2014 with Gabor Palotai) and experience design (Beam me up, Scotty! award in Helsinki design fair, 2013), Torre has made her way into innovation management (Stora Enso Innovation Award for Intelligent Packaging, 2016). Fernanda has experience in the most diverse sectors such as innovation & design consulting (consulting for Above), renewable materials & manufacturing industry (Group Innovation and R&D in Stora Enso) in sustainability leadership (LEAD program in the Stockholm Resilience Centre), gendered medical innovations (Karolinska Centre for Gender Medicine, Department of Medicine) and entrepreneurship in creative industries (Balticlab, Swedish Institute and CBSS).
Fernanda Torre has a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) in Innovation and Entrepreneurship from the Stockholm School of Economics, awarded with the President’s List (for outstanding academic achievement) and the SSE Award for Class Contribution (voted by fellow MBAs). Fernanda has also a Master’s in Fine Arts in Experience Design from Konstfack (Vasakronan scholarship nomination and Ulla Fröberg-Cramérs Foundation scholarship) and Bachelor in Arts in Communication Design – Graphic Art Porto University. Fernanda also has a Trendspotting and Future Thinking course from the Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship and the National Institute of Design (NID) in India, and is a recognized public speaker and thought leader (TEDx Matosinhos, Design Talks Business in Gdynia Design Days). Fernanda is also the founder of Frames – Portuguese Film Festival in Sweden.
Torre is furthermore very engaged with the Portuguese community in Sweden and was the founder of Frames – Portuguese Film Festival in Sweden.
More about me in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fernandastorre/
Read my Substack: https://substack.com/@fernandatorre845701
Publications:
2025 Coming Soon – book “AI Leadership for Boards – Enabling Responsible AI for Sustainable Value Creation” Business Guides on the Go, Springer. Written with Robin Teigland and Liselotte Engstam
2024 Engstam L., Forzelius H., Magnusson M., Torre F., Van der Heyden L. (2024). Dynamic Board Capabilities: Developing Board Practices That Impact Corporate Renewal and Performance. Journal of Risk Management in Financial Institutions, 17(2), pp142-160.
2020 book “AI Leadership for Boards – The Future of Corporate Governance“, written with Robin Teigland and Liselotte Engstam
2019 Chapter in the book The Digital Transformation of Labor (Open Access) published by Routledge – Title: Ai Leadership and the Future of Corporate Governance – Changing demands for board competence, written with Robin Teigland and Liselotte Engstam
Awards/Prizes:
2018 MBA Stockholm School of Economics – President’s list (for outstanding academic achievement)
2017 Nomination for the Stora Enso People and Purpose Award
2016 Winner Stora Enso Innovation Packaging Challenge in Intelligent Packaging, together with a team from Innovation Center for Biomaterials.
2014 Red Dot Design Award – Communication Design with project Oddjob – Live in Bremen developed during work in Gabor Palotai Design.
2013 Beam me up, Scotty! winner in design and future forecasting competition in Habitare – Interior, Design and Furniture fair in Helsinki, Finland. Mentoring of Hrafnkell Birgisson
2012 Ulla Fröberg-Cramérs Foundation scholarship for studies in Experience Design in Konstfack, Sweden.
2005 Queima das Fitas 2005 Poster winner graphic design competition for Federação Académica do Porto, Portugal.
2000 II Concurso de Artes Plásticas winner 1st prize in Escola Secundária Alcaides Faria, Portugal.