Contact Emmeline Cooper
- Email: Emmeline.Cooper@cranfield.ac.uk
- Twitter:
Background
Emmeline's research addresses the governance of pension schemes, focusing on the shift towards sustainable investing among institutional investors. Her PhD developed the case for member voice in pensions, and examined governance innovations involving member voice in sustainable pension schemes. She designed and delivered a unique governance model to bring enhanced member voice into the governance of sustainable investing for the retail sector pension fund of the Netherlands, Deelnemersdialoog | Pensioenfonds Detailhandel, which was recognised in the Pensioen Pro awards 2025. In partnership with Nest Corporation, one of the largest pension schemes in the UK, she designed the Member assembly at Nest Pensions, a governance model to bring member voice into decision-making about Nest's investment. Her working paper 'Investor Democracy', available won best paper award at GRAFSI 2026.
At Zurich University her research addressed the sustainability preferences of institutional investors. At the University of Basel, her research addressed corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the financial sector, and she taught CSR courses at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. As TH Marshall Fellow, London School of Economics and Political Science, she led comparative research on the organisation of deliberative public governance. Prior to this, she was Research Manager at the UK Audit Commission, and Senior Research Executive at Ipsos MORI Social Research Institute, London.
Emmeline is an experienced sustainability and sustainable finance lecturer and trainer for MSc students, MBAs and Boards of financial institutions. She speaks regularly at industry conferences on member voice in pensions governance and the democratisation of pension schemes.
Current activities
She is an affiliated researcher at the Competence Center of Sustainability, University of Zurich, and a Fellow at Nestspar (Network for Studies on Pensions, Aging and Retirement).