One voice. One mission. Real change.
Some people build companies. Others build movements.
The Change Makers Breakfast is a series of intimate conversations with people who have turned conviction into action. People who challenge the status quo, inspire others to think differently, and prove that one voice can create meaningful change.
This is not a keynote. It is not a polished business presentation. It is a conversation about the personal mission behind the public story. About the moments of doubt, the courage to persist, and the decisions that transformed an idea into a movement.
Because every meaningful change starts with someone who decides to speak up.
Mark van Baal – Founder & CEO, Follow This
What happens when one person decides that waiting for change is no longer an option?
When Mark van Baal looked at the climate crisis, he saw a problem that seemed impossible to influence. The world’s largest oil companies appeared untouchable. Governments moved slowly. Consumers had limited power. Most people accepted that meaningful change would have to come from somewhere else.
Mark chose a different path.
With no background in finance, shareholder activism or corporate governance, he bought a single share and walked into a world few outsiders ever enter: the boardrooms and annual meetings of the world’s most powerful energy companies.
What started as a simple question – why aren’t oil companies aligning their business models with the Paris Climate Agreement? – became Follow This, a global shareholder movement representing thousands of investors and challenging companies such as Shell, BP, Chevron, Equinor and ExxonMobil.
The journey was anything but straightforward. He was dismissed, underestimated and told repeatedly that one person could not influence corporations worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Yet year after year, support for Follow This grew. Institutional investors joined the movement. Climate resolutions gained momentum. And some of the world’s largest oil companies were forced to respond.
Then came the backlash.
In 2024, ExxonMobil took the unprecedented step of suing Follow This in an attempt to stop climate resolutions from reaching shareholder ballots. For many, it would have been a reason to step back. For Mark, it was proof that the movement had become impossible to ignore.
His story is not just about climate change.
It is about conviction in the face of resistance. About challenging systems that seem too large to change. About turning a lone voice into a global movement. And about what becomes possible when someone decides to act instead of waiting for permission.
At the Change Makers Breakfast, Mark shares the personal story behind the public mission: the doubts, the setbacks, the unexpected victories and the lessons learned while taking on some of the most powerful companies in the world.