Irene-marié Esser is a senior lecturer at the University of Glasgow, a Professor Extraordinarius at the University of South Africa (Unisa) and a visiting professor at the Open University in the UK. At Unisa she was a full time professor and the Co-Subject Head of Corporate Law until March 2013 when she relocated, with her family, to Edinburgh, Scotland. Irene-marié obtained her LLB at Stellenbosch University (2001), her LLM at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland (2003) and her LLD at Unisa (2008). She is also an admitted attorney of the High Court of South Africa.
Irene-marié’s research interests are primarily in the area of directors’ duties, corporate social responsibility and stakeholder protection and she publishes widely in this field. She acted as a contributor of the first edition of the leading textbook Henochsberg on the Companies Act 71 of 2008 and contributes to the company law chapter in the Annual Survey of South African Law. She is also the co-editor of a recently released book: Corporate Governance Annual Review. She is on the panel of Experts of the EU/African Chamber of Commerce and will act as a judge at their annual CSR Business Awards during 2016. She has also been approached to act as an advisor to PASCAL International Observatory. Her work has been used by Government bodies in South Africa and Australia. The King Committee, drafting the South African, self-regulatory corporate governance code, also requested her input, especially during the drafting process of the King IV Report.
During 2009 Irene-marié received the ‘Women in Research: Youngest staff member with a doctorate degree’ award at Unisa, as well as the ‘Principal’s Prize for Excellence in Research’ award. Irene-marié has also been presenting workshops and seminars for professionals working in the field of corporate governance and a 4-day workshop, for numerous years, at the University of Johannesburg on board governance. She currently teaches corporate governance and company law and supervises a number of postgraduate research students in South Africa and the United Kingdom.