The World Circular Economy Forum 2017

The World Circular Economy Forum 2017 brought together the world’s leading experts and decision-makers in the circular economy field – a total of around 1,500 participants from over 100 countries. WCEF2017 featured 17 plenary and parallel sessions showcasing circular economy solutions for business, cities, and finance.

Read the Summary report HERE

See all Presentations and Full Agenda HERE

 

Sustainable tourism was one of the themes of the session on Collective Impact for Sustainable Consumption and a Circular Economy, held on the 5th of June. The objectives of the event were to share the concept of consumption in the context of circular economy and to present circular economy-related activities of the 10YFP programmes to new stakeholders. The 10YFP Sustainable Tourism Programme was represented by two of its partners, future.camp® and gutundgut gmbh, who shared information on their living lab hotel project, which aims at promoting sustainable lifestyles through tourism and their place-making approach which promotes adopting best practices of waste and energy management, water treatment, using local food and construction in tourism.

In addition, MAC member South Pacific Tourism Organisation (SPTO) participated in the side event on Sustainable Consumption and Production - From Science to Policy Action, held on the 5th of June, in a dynamic exchange about emerging science on the economic potential of resource efficiency and circular economy. The discussed innovative approaches are considered ideal for tourism stakeholders in the Pacific and in line with the objective of SPTO to advocate for effective waste and water management and renewable energy options, while at the same time creating jobs and growing the economy.

Published on August 3, 2022

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Speakers:

Mikko Kosonen

Mikko Kosonen’s job is to promote new future-oriented operating models to build Finland’s sustainable well-being. Economics, international business and technology are Mikko Kosonen’s forte. He has written books on strategic management, held leadership positions and board seats in multinational corporations and he acts as the chair of Aalto university. Now leading the “think-and-do tank” Sitra, Kosonen helps society change for the better by providing foresight, practical experimentation and developing sustainable business practices.

Kimmo Tiilikainen

Kimmo Tiilikainen was appointed Minister of the Environment, Energy and Housing in May 2017. Before that he served the same Government as the Minister of Agriculture and the Environment since May 2015. A graduate of the University of Joensuu (currently University of Eastern Finland), he holds a Master of Science in Agriculture and Forestry. He is also an organic farmer and forester and has a long-standing personal interest in finding solutions to the challenges of the global climate change.

Matti Vanhanen

Matti Vanhanen is an experienced Finnish politician and former Prime Minister of Finland. Currently he is a member of the Finnish Parliament and chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Parliament. He was also Chairman of the Centre Party, and in the second half of 2006 he was President of the European Council. In his earlier career he was a journalist. He is also chairman of the Board of Directors of Sitra and the Parliamentary Supervisory Council of the Bank of Finland.

Jan Vapaavuori

After an extensive career in Finnish national politics, Jan Vapaavuori became the Mayor of Helsinki in June 2017. As his first task he set forth a city strategy, laying the ground for an ambitious four-year agenda. The strategy champions Helsinki as the “most functional city in the world” with a special focus on sustainable growth, digitalization, global problem solving, creativity and the best possible conditions for happy everyday city life. The strategy also defined Helsinki as a test-bed for start-ups and smart city development projects resulting in an increased global relevance for the city. Between 2012 and 2015 Vapaavuori served as Minister of Economic Affairs and from 2007 to 2011 as Minister of Housing. Since 2015 he has worked as Vice President of the European Investment Bank. From 2003 to 2015 Vapaavuori was a Member of Parliament. During his term as MP, he served among other things as chair of the National Coalition Party’s parliamentary group.

Janez Potočnik

Janez Potočnik brings the knowledge of a scientist and economist to resource use and the environment. As an academic in economic studies Potočnik headed the negotiating team for Slovenia’s accession to the EU. He has served two terms as European Commissioner, first leading Science and Research and then directing Environment. Now at the International Resource Panel, Potočnik leads scientific experts as they help countries use natural resources sustainably without compromising economic growth and human development. He is also a partner in SystemiQ, an enterprise designed specifically to tackle system failures.

Achim Steiner

Achim Steiner is an expert at bringing together diverse partners on significant global environmental issues. Prior to joining the Oxford Martin School Steiner served as United Nations Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Steiner positioned UNEP as a central global player on climate change, technology innovation, ecosystems management and the role of the private sector in sustainable development. He was a major force behind the UN sustainable development goals.

Tadahiko Ito

Tadahiko Ito has experience on environmental matters in relation to several areas of policy-making. He was recently appointed as State Minister of the Environment of Japan. Previously, Ito worked at a publicity company and then, served for Aichi prefectural assembly. He has been a Diet member for over a decade. During his career, he has worked on policy-making in particular in the areas of transportation, agriculture, fisheries and international affairs. He has also devoted efforts to establish and deepen Japan’s Arctic policy.

Sergei Ivanov

Sergei Borisovich Ivanov is a Russian senior official and politician who has served as the Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation on the Issues of Environmental Activities, Ecology and Transport since 12 August 2016. Ivanov had held the posts of Minister of Defense of Russia from March 2001 to February 2007, of Deputy Prime Minister from November 2005 to February 2007, and of First Deputy Prime Minister from February 2007 to May 2008. After the election of Dmitry Medvedev as President of Russia, Ivanov was reappointed a Deputy Prime Minister (in office: 2008–2011) in Vladimir Putin's second cabinet. From December 2011 to August 2016, Ivanov worked as the Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office. Having served in the Soviet KGB and in its successor, the Federal Security Service, he holds the rank of colonel general. Before joining the federal administration in Moscow, Ivanov, served from the late 1970s in Europe and in Africa (Kenya) as a specialist in law and foreign languages. As an employee of the KGB in the Soviet-Union era, Ivanov became a friend of his colleague Vladimir Putin, who appointed him as his Deputy in 1998. He belongs to the siloviki of Putin's inner circle. He graduated from the English translation branch of the Department of Philology at Leningrad State University, where he majored in English and Swedish. In the late 1970s, Ivanov began a career spanning two decades on the staff of the external intelligence service. In 1976, he completed postgraduate studies in counterintelligence, graduating from Higher Courses of the KGB in Minsk. Upon graduating in 1976, Ivanov was sent to serve for the Leningrad and Leningrad Oblast KGB Directorate, where he became a friend of Vladimir Putin, then a colleague of his. In 1981, he studied at the Red Banner Institute of KGB. In the 1980s, Ivanov served as Second Secretary at the Soviet Embassy in Helsinki, working directly under the KGB resident Felix Karasev.

Alice Kaudia

Alice Kaudia promotes green growth at all levels of policy and action to tackle climate change and poverty in developing countries. She is the first Environment Secretary for the government of Kenya. Previously, she was the Eastern Africa Regional Director for the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and has also been Technical Advisor on Forestry Curriculum Development and community-based natural resources management (Zambia), Assistant Director at the Kenya Forestry Research Institute, Associate Research Officer at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and Programme Officer at the African Academy of Sciences. Alice holds various high-level international engagements in areas relevant to circular economy such as being a board member of World Resources Forum, Co-Chair of Global Green Growth Knowledge Platform as well as Climate and Clean Air Coalition.

Janez Potocnik

Janez Potočnik brings the knowledge of a scientist and economist to resource use and the environment. As an academic in economic studies Potočnik headed the negotiating team for Slovenia’s accession to the EU. He has served two terms as European Commissioner, first leading Science and Research and then directing Environment. Now at the International Resource Panel, Potočnik leads scientific experts as they help countries use natural resources sustainably without compromising economic growth and human development. He is also a partner in SystemiQ, an enterprise designed specifically to tackle system failures.

Ibrahim Thiaw

Ibrahim Thiaw has substantive experience in the fields of sustainable development, environmental governance and natural resource management at the national, regional and international levels. Currently as the Deputy Executive Director for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, he plays a critical role in providing leadership and shaping the strategic vision and direction of the organisation. Prior to this, Thiaw served as the Director of UNEP’s Division of Environmental Policy Implementation (DEPI). Before joining UNEP, he worked as the IUCN Regional Director for West Africa and later as the Acting Director-General of IUCN. He has been successful in the development and implementation of large scale, global environmental programmes and projects.

Veera Heinonen

Veera Heinonen has extensive experience from the world of media and government communications. Prior to Sitra, Veera was the spokesperson for the President of the Republic of Finland. Veera joined the President’s cabinet from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, where she led the communications department. Before joining the civil service, Veera worked as a journalist at Reuters news agency and Finland’s national broadcasting company Yle amongst others. At Sitra Veera gets to focus on communicating new ideas that will tackle the big challenges of our time.

Peter Woodward

Peter Woodward has wide experience of helping to bridge differing perspectives on issues. A skillful independent facilitator, he helps both clients and participants achieve outcomes beyond their expectations in a relaxed yet purposeful manner. He has a passion and expertise in designing and running participative processes on issues related to the sustainable development agenda. As Co-founder and Director of Quest Associates his clients include the European Commission and national governments, public agencies, businesses, universities and civil society organisations. His interventions range from small groups to major conferences of up to 1,000 participants, and he also runs training courses.

Jocelyn Blériot

Jocelyn Blériot joined Ellen MacArthur in 2007, after 12 years spent in the media and publishing industry. Initially in charge of editorial matters at the Foundation (overseeing content development and messaging), he now fully focuses on leading the organisation’s institutional engagement. He notably represents the Foundation at the European Commission and manages the relationship with governments and supra-national bodies such as the United Nations, the G7 Resource Alliance, the OECD and the World Economic Forum.

Wytske van der Mei

Wytske van der Mei currently works as an MT member at the Department of Sustainable Living Environment and Circular Economy of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management. Before that, she was head of the Seaports department/MT member of the Maritime Affairs Directorate at the same ministry. Wytske van der Mei studied Sociology of Planning and Policy at the University of Utrecht.

Elin Larsson

Elin Larsson works for a future with more sustainable fashion. Currently the Sustainability Director at Filippa K, she has a long history with Filippa K. She began in many different roles, the previous one being Supply chain director. Elin has now been a part of the management team for Filippa K for eight years and worked a lot with developing and implementing overall strategies for the company. She also participated in the COP22 meeting (in Marrakesh), has continuous discussions with the Swedish parliament, was the keynote speaker at Circular Transition conference in London and is also a part of the steering committee for STWI and on the board for Mistra Future Fashion and happy to have accepted the award for best Conscious Fashion Brand.

Mariel Vilella

Mariel Vilella has been successfully working in the field of socio-environmental project management for the last 15 years in collaboration with key European and international networks, NGO organisations, top researchers, policy-makers and other key stakeholders. Being the Managing Director of Zero Waste Europe, Mariel represents the vision and strategy of Zero Waste Europe, as well as manages the ZWE team in collaboration with ZWE members worldwide that are promoting zero waste policies and practices. Previous to this role she was the lead climate policy advisor with GAIA and today she continues to guide GAIA’s work on zero waste project guidelines for major sources of climate finance, and international energy policy with impacts on the waste sector. She has extensive experience in research, publications development and project management and in 2011, she was the lead author of the report ‘The European Union’s Double Standards on Waste and Climate Policy’.

Per Bolund

Per Bolund has experience in politics and in sustainable infrastructure, traffic and development. Currently the Minister for Financial Markets and Consumer Affairs in Sweden, he started in the Ministry of Enterprise, Energy and Communications as a Political Adviser. He then became member of the Riksdag, Industrial and Energy Policy Spokesperson and member of the Committee on Industry and Trade. He later joined the Riksdag again as Economic Policy Spokesperson and Member of the Committee on Finance. He has also been Stockholm City Opposition City Commissioner for the Swedish Green Party and Member of the Stockholm City Executive Board Council. He represents the Green Party, and serves as the Greens’ spokesperson for finance policy, and is a member of the party’s board of directors.

Kari Herlevi

Kari Herlevi is a versatile multi-talent in the field of the circular economy. He is currently leading the circular economy area at Sitra, the Finnish Innovation Fund. Previously responsible for the Resource-efficient economy area at Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation, he managed the “Green Growth – Towards a sustainable future” programme, which aimed to identify potential new growth areas for the sustainable economy business. Previously Kari led the Vigo accelerator programme at Tekes and supported Tekes management. Kari has also worked in the Tekes Silicon Valley office for a few years and his special interests are the circular economy, fast-growing cleantech firms and developing the BRIC countries.

Nancy Strand

Nancy Strand has a varied background in helping different sectors become greener. She is currently CEO of Avfall Norge, a trade association for the waste management industry in Norway including both the public and private sector. She brings leadership perspectives from LOOP and MiljøKompetanse, and has worked with both environmental communication and consulting. During her career, she has helped communities, municipalities and business become greener, and is an advocate for cooperation and partnerships between sectors.

Camille Duran

Camille Duran approaches sustainability and the circular economy through media. He is an international media producer and moderator specializing in sustainability and change management. Besides taking part in specialised events around the world, he produces and co-hosts the Green Exchange talk show, a fast-growing podcast channel for people who act as catalysts of change at all levels of EU communities. Camille is currently very involved in editorial work around climate finance and the circular economy.

Erik Bang

Erik Bang is committed to steering the fashion industry towards a circular economy. He holds a Master in Political Science from Uppsala University in Sweden. With a background in PR & communication and promoting of Swedish industry in emerging markets, he has also developed a handbook for managers called Management in Complex Environments. Erik joined H&M Foundation to set up the world’s largest competition for early stage competition, The Global Change Award, and is managing the Foundation’s commitment towards a circular fashion industry. Erik is a Swedish national with a passion for alpine skiing and he lives in Stockholm.

Håkan Nordkvist

Håkan Nordkvist identifies and builds new sustainability related businesses that drive value. He works as Head of Sustainability Innovation within IKEA Group. His role is to identify, enable and build new sustainability related businesses that drive value for IKEA customers and IKEA. Håkan joined IKEA more than 20 years ago, and has had a variety of different senior positions in the company, mostly in supply chain. He has also been on the advisory boards of Trading Greater China and Trading South Asia and for the past 5 years he has built up the sustainability innovation activities in IKEA Group.

Marco Zappalorto

  • Head of European Development
  • NESTA
Marco Zappalorto is a leading expert for challenge prizes and competitions design. He is currently Head of European Development at Nesta, the UK Innovation, leading the company’s European strategy to expand Nesta’s European reach and core partnerships. Prior to this, Marco contributed to the initial set-up of Nesta’s Challenge Prize Centre and its international expansion. He has led on the design of challenge prizes for the EU Commission, Italian Government and the United Nations Development Programme among others. He has also contributed as an expert to several challenge prize events, workshops and publications and is an EU Commission expert on innovation programmes design.

Claus Stig Pedersen

Claus Stig Pedersen has been professionally engaged in sustainability for more than 25 years. One of the pioneers in the development of LCA methodologies and sustainability concepts for business, he has been driven by the vision of combining “good for the world” with “good for business”. At Novozymes, a global sustainability leader, he lives that vision every day. He is currently also Liaison Delegate to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and he represents Novozymes in the UN Global Compact LEAD initiative, as well as serves in the Sustainability Council to the company Ingersoll Rand and in the Advisory Board to the organization Sustainable Brands. Before Novozymes, Claus was leading the Global Sustainability and Quality activities of the Hartmann Packaging Group, and he has served on several sustainability boards and councils.

Vigga Svensson

Vigga Svensson is a prominent entrepreneur, who has spent the last 12 years on developing business models that foster sustainable consumption. She is the founder of Danish VIGGA.us – an award-winning business model for a circular economy in the textile industry since 2014. VIGGA is a maternity and kids wear brand designed for a circular economy, because pregnancy bellies as well as kids grow and clothes don’t. The VIGGA product-service-system enables parents to lease organic maternity and children’s wear which saves time, money and resources.

Sofus Midtgaard

Sofus Midtgaard is an experienced sustainability and innovation executive. He is a purpose driven leader and connector, and as founding partner at Leaderlab, he is leading the LAUNCH Nordic partner and industry engagement. He has worked with global companies, governments and startups for more than 15 years, and has previously been Head of Corporate Strategy and Innovation at the Danish Broadcasting Corporation.

Toke Sabroe

Toke Sabroe’s focus is on driving sustainable transformation. He does this through collaborative Innovations processes, and multistakeholder partnerships, drawing from previous managing experience from areas as diverse as computer games and rail infrastructure. Toke has more than 15 years’ experience leading international cross-domain innovation projects of many different sizes and shapes. As a partner in Leaderlab, he is responsible for the innovation process within the LAUNCH Nordic partnership, as well as in other Circular Economy innovation initiatives.

Ashok Khosla

Ashok Khosla is a pioneer and expert of sustainable development. By helping create the concept of social enterprise he pioneered business-like approaches for eradicating poverty and conserving natural resources. Khosla has broad experience in environmental and development issues, from heading India’s environmental agency – the first in a developing country – to being a director in the United Nations Environment Programme. He is a promoter of commercially viable, environmentally friendly technologies.

May Al-Karooni

May Al-Karooni is bringing an online circular economy to the waste management industry. She is the founder of Globechain.com, a fast-growing reuse platform that connects corporates to charities and SMEs within a supply chain network providing a waste and social impact audit to its members. May set up Globechain after seeing a demand for a new online circular economy within the waste management industry after her own employer expressed a need to reuse items in a more collaborative way. She previously worked within the investment banking and asset management industry, fundraising monies for venture capital, property and hedge funds for the last 10 years totalling over £120 million in funds raised.

Heike Bach

Heike Bach’s motivation and passion is bringing scientific sound solutions into practice in order to solve societal challenges. She has founded the company VISTA, an innovative company specialised in applications of remote sensing in hydrology and agriculture. Since the foundation of the company she is Vista’s CEO and manages national and international projects. Her key areas of experience are environmental modelling of hydrological processes using remote sensing data, yield estimation, analyses of imaging spectrometer data, synergistic data utilisation (optical, microwave, GIS) and data assimilation. During the last years her research focus has been on the question how Earth Observation can contribute to food security and sustainable agriculture.

Anna Balez

Anna Balez aims at building new sustainable ways of life and believes it will happen through sustainable socio-economic business models. As chemist specialized in environmental management in private companies and knowing the complex story of how “things” are made, Anna worked for Véolia with environmental impacts, and then in a Belgian SME as an environmental strategy consultant. She has met inspiring people, precursors of new economic models, notably the circular economy and the economy of functionality, which has greatly contributed to Tale Me. Anna then joined the BSE Academy, the Brussels incubator for innovative start-ups, and hard work was rewarded with the Triodos Bank Prize. Anna then created Tale Me SPRL, the complete rental service of everyday clothes

Michael Bayer Thomsen

Michael Bayer Thomsen is interested in making sustainable plastic solutions for the circular economy. He has been working with plastics and metals for more than 20 years. He has always focused on sustainable products and in the past years, with a high degree of focus on circular economy. He is the CEO of Letbæk Plast A/S in Denmark, where the focus is on developing innovative plastic solutions for their partners.

Jelloul Bouguila

Jelloul Bouguila has vast experience in the sustainability of the textile industry. He worked for 12 years in the civil service before joining the private sector, with the Demco Group specialised in Jeans and Knitwear. Starting as a Production Manager at the head of the Knitwear division, he moved on to become the Chief Operating Officer for total group. Jelloul brings over 24 years of experience in the textile sector pertaining to sustainable growth and the principles of circular economy, implemented under challenging circumstances.

Luca Cervellati

Luca Cervellati and his team are fully committed to sustainable production and consumption. As CFO of CPR System, one of the key pooling companies in Italy that originated from a LIFE-funded project and is specialised in design and manufacturing of reusable and recyclable boxes for fruit and vegetables sector, he manages the accounting and financial division of CPR System. He has benefited from his financial experience and background in forecasting, developing and managing the economic and financial processes of CPR System with a special focus on environmental impact and circular economy. Previously he has worked at Uniaudit SpA, an independent audit firm where he specialized in auditing and accounting, developing and auditing of Project Financing, and Due Diligence.

Abdelhamid El Acham

Abdelhamid El Acham has experience in modernisation, innovation and adaptation, and is using it for a circular economy. Currently holding the post of Industrial Manager and QSE at Afrique Cables, part of the International group YNNA HOLDING, his career path has lead him through various technical positions in the Moroccan industries, with direct involvement and leadership in modernisation efforts, development of new products and adoption of new technologies. At the moment, he is overseeing the introduction of circular economy based innovations, which are already transforming the car battery industry in Morocco, earning prizes and recognition on a national and regional level.

Ignasi Fontanals

Ignasi Fontanals has experience in energy efficiency and city resilience. He is co-founder of OptiCits, a start-up from Barcelona at Universitat Ramon Llull that helps city experts to assess and manage resilience of urban services & infrastructures. He is member of City Protocol & BCN Urban Resilience Partnership for the City Resilience Profiling Programme – UN Habitat. Before founding OptiCits, he worked in multinational and SME companies introducing new technologies and new services in cities. He is also doing his investigation on resilience and business models at the IQS-Universitat Ramón Llull.

Enikő Hajósi

Enikő Hajósi Technical Advisor Enikő Hajósi joined the WEEE Forum as a Technical Advisor in 2014 and is part of the Technical department of the WEEE Forum. She is knowledgeable in the WF-RepTool programme and the Key Figures Database, is managing the WEEE Directory and the LibraWEEE websites and provides WEEE related technical advice for EU funded projects in which WEEE Forum participates. She has worked/is working on the following EU funded projects: Ecovitrum (LIFE), E-AIMS (Eco-Innovation), Countering WEEE Illegal Trade (FP7), ReVolv (Eco-innovation), Prospecting Secondary Raw Materials in the Urban Mine (H2020), C-SERVEES (H2020) and CEWASTE (H2020). Enikő completed her bachelor´s degree in Economics at the Budapest Business College (Hungary) at the faculty of Foreign Trade in 1999, and holds a master’s degree in Environmental Sciences and Policy (2001, Central European University, Budapest). After graduating, she worked at different environmental NGOs in Hungary examining environmental investments of the world’s leading banks. For 7 years, she was the operations manager of Electro-Coord Hungary, the largest Hungarian WEEE compliance scheme, and, while in this role, developed her expertise in the WEEE sector and operational and legislative aspects of WEEE treatment - WEEE value chain, reporting, auditing. She is a qualified WEEELABEX auditor.

Hans Axel Kristensen

Hans Axel Kristensen is profoundly committed to employing co-creative innovative processes as means to develop cleantech technologies. Therefore, he has contributed to solving the increasing “plastification” of our oceans and environments, reducing CO2 emissions, loss of valuable plastic resources and increasing the industrial usage of recycles – while at the same time proving that strong economic growth in a more circular economy and a safer environment can go hand in hand. Hans has been the CEO of Plastix since the establishment of the company. Previously, he has held executive management positions in listed international companies such as Scandic Hotels, Dell and Carlsberg.

Eric Logtens

Eric Logtens has distinctive experience within concepts for a circular economy. He began his career as an occupational healthcare therapist and ergonomist and worked simultaneously as a turnaround consultant. He later built an international sub distribution network in the office furniture industry. Eric then focused on C2C and gained in-depth knowledge and experience. He later founded the first Dutch full operational lease company for office furniture, which was seen as one of the very early adopters and a prime model of how to apply and implement the principles of the Circular Economy. Now he is Corporate Director at Noble Environmental Technologies that has developed ECOR (Enabling co-Creativity, co-Operation, co- Responsibility), an environmentally friendly and cradle-to-cradle building material.

Allan Ochieng Marega

Allan Ochieng Marega hopes to make renewable energy more widespread around the world. Allan has had a career in the Airline industry as a Director, Chief Pilot and airline Captain based mainly in Nairobi for over 15 years. His career has led to exposure in a wide range of disciplines and industries. He is now the Founder and Managing Director of Global Supply Solutions Limited. The company is a manufacturer of biomass briquettes. He oversees day to day operations, product development and client services. He gives the company its focus, direction and leadership with a vision of seeing it become a major contributor in Kenya’s renewable energy space with efficient products. He has overseen the company expand its facility to a high tech 50,000 metric ton a year world class facility and is now working on replicating the model in 7 countries.

Paavo Räisänen

Paavo Räisänen wants to transform the financial, social and environmental impact of waste. He is currently a VP and Head of Europe of Enevo, a growth company that enables communities with knowledge, services, and tools to reduce waste. Paavo is a member of Enevo’s management team and he was responsible for Solutions and Strategy before his current position. Before Enevo, Paavo has been a co-founder of Reddal and a management consultant at Accenture. During his professional services career, Paavo focused on global software, high-tech and industrial clients, while managing various strategy, go-to-market, and transformation efforts.

Urjinkhand Budee

Urjinkhand Budee promotes and supports more sustainable everyday procedure and policies of project implementation. She has experience in administration and project cycle management. Her career started in the Darkhan-Uul province, Mongolia, where People in Need Mongolia had its first branch. She started as finance and Administrative officer, connecting various types of development project implementation with project units. Afterward she was promoted as Project Manager and at the same time was Finance Officer, and then switched to work as Head of Finance and Administration at PIN Mongolia. She currently works as Project Manager there, and is also working as part-time consultant at ECO WOOL LLC on Foreign Trade.

Bat-Erdene Gomboragchaa

Bat-Erdene Gomboragchaa has a long experience in the construction, agriculture and wool manufacturing sectors. He researched the consumption of wool products in Mongolia when he was working in Ministry of Food Agriculture and Light Industry. While there, he completed “Seminar on management of eco-agriculture”. He has also completed a country-focused training course on reinforcement of agricultural extension systems. After this, he was promoted as head of innovation department of Ministry of Food Agriculture and Light Industry. Now, he has become director of the wool manufacturing factory of ECO WOOL LLC. His main responsibilities have included leading strategic intelligence function, circular economy business model, management of foreign trade of ECO WOOL LLC. He is also involved in business and financial management of the organisation.

Brent Vickers

Brent Vickers is an expert in bringing the circular economy to innovative technologies. Brent Vickers is the Innovation Manager at the Sinctronics – Green IT Innovation Center located in Sorocaba – São Paulo – Brazil. He has more than 20 years of experience creating, implementing, and managing the global application of innovative technologies in processes throughout various industries. Over the last 8 years, he has worked within the electronics manufacturing industry on process innovation and technology adoption at Flex with a focus on the application and propagation of the circular economy during the last 2 years.

Harm Voortman

Harm Voortman contributes to African companies wishing to develop their businesses and to improve their results. He was trained as a naval officer at the Royal Netherlands Naval College and has a Master of Science in International Economics and Business at Utrecht University. He is the managing director of Anatrans SARL in Burkina Faso, where he has set up a turnaround programme to ensure the future of the company. Harm also worked as the finance director of Kachema Meat Supplies Ltd in Lusaka, Zambia. He is credited for turning the company around from loss making to return on capital.

Dimitris Xevgenos

Dimitris Xevgenos has a strong scientific and engineering background in waste, wastewater and energy management. His start-up company SEALEAU B.V., exploiting the recognized scientific results of a EU LIFE-funded project, brings to life innovative wastewater treatment technologies that turns complex saline impaired industrial wastewater (brine) into useful end products. Throughout his studies, he obtained 8 scholarships and received 3 awards/grants for continuing his research into a business opportunity. After being selected out of 15,000 applicants, he participated in the acceleration program of STARTUPBOOTCAMP in High Tech Campus. Dimitris also newly conceived ZERO BRINE, a project for further developing the circular economy approach for the re-use of water and minerals recovered from brine effluents, under EU Horizon 2020.

Kitty van der Heijden

Kitty van der Heijden has a distinguished diplomatic career with accomplishments in sustainable development and humanitarian aid. The Director of the global research organization WRI’s Europe and Africa Offices, Kitty represents WRI’s vision and strategy in the areas, and is responsible for managing WRI’s liaison office. She also leads WRI’s engagement in the post 2015 Development Agenda. Prior to joining WRI, Kitty was the Ambassador for Sustainable Development and Director of the Department for Climate, Energy, Environment and Water in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. She was appointed the Netherlands representative on the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals and represented her government in a multitude of UN fora in New York. She is also a TED speaker and has been credited for her work with several acknowledgments.

Gunilla Blomquist

Gunilla Blomquist has extensive experience in environmental and sustainability issues. The areas include energy, research, nature protection, environmental management systems/life cycle assessment, waste, sustainable consumption and production etc. within Sweden, EU and internationally. Today her main responsibilities are the implementation of the 10YFP programme on sustainable lifestyles and education, transformation to a green, circular and bio-based economy and the support to developing countries to transform to a green economy, which Sweden is co-leading. She is also member of multinational steering Committee for 10YFP programme on Sustainable Lifestyles and education and of Steering Committee for UNEP initiative on Partnership for Action on Green Economy.

Harri Hakaste

Harri Hakaste has worked with sustainable building issues for two decades, first in NGOs and in his own architectural practice. For the last 15 years, he has been working as senior architect in Ministry of the Environment Finland. His areas of responsibility in the Ministry include material efficiency in building and carbon footprint of building materials. He is the Finnish Government focal point of 10YFP Sustainable Buildings and Construction Programme. He sees that putting sustainability into practice in the built environment requires more user-oriented solutions and applications.

Mark Hidson

Mark Hidson has a long experience in sustainability issues. He works at ICLEI – Local Government for Sustainability and is a member of ICLEI Europe’s Board of Directors. He is also responsible for ICLEI’s Sustainable Economy and Procurement work and is the Global Director of ICLEI’s Sustainable Procurement Centre. For 20 years he has worked for, and on behalf of, local, regional and national governments in policy and strategy development on sustainability issues such as procurement, climate change and transport.

Ulf D. Jaeckel

Ulf D. Jaeckel is an expert on all matters related to sustainability, consumption and the environment. He has been working for the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety for over two decades, and is currently Head of Division of Sustainable Consumption, Environmental Product Policy and Chair of the Advisory Board of the United Nations 10 Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production. He is also Vice-Chair of the national standardisation body on environmental management.

Gabriele Kull

Gabriele Kull is a journalist, media producer and social entrepreneur specialising in sustainable lifestyles. For 10 years she led a media production business and directed several feature length documentary films for cinema and television as well as web formats. After producing a web-series about ocean plastic pollution Gabriele broadened her research on ecological issues and specialised in sustainable lifestyles. Together with professionals from different areas she developed future.camp® as a centre of competence for sustainable lifestyles based in Zürich, Switzerland. Her mission is to scale the impact of sustainable lifestyle trends worldwide and provide knowledge for businesses – especially in the tourism sector – ready to invest into smart eco-technologies and behavioral change.

Martine Rohn-Brossard

Martine Rohn-Brossard approaches the environment from a federal point of view. Currently Deputy Head of International Affairs Division of the Federal Office for the Environment, she is in charge of trade and environment (free trade agreements, WTO), EU environmental issues, bilateral relations, development and environment, green economy international, OECD and UNECE. Previously, she has been Deputy Head of Section Europe, Trade and Development responsible for international environmental processes and conventions, namely in the framework of the UNECE, OECD and Environment for Europe process, as well as doing Environment Performance Reviews. She has also been vice-chair of the Environmental Committee of OECD and the Committee of Environmental policies of UNECE.

Tuuli Kaskinen

Tuuli Kaskinen is think tank director specialising in sustainable business strategies and inspirational routes to change. With over ten years’ versatile experience tackling climate change, she’s found systemic modelling and shared value thinking to be the key tools in the development of sustainable innovation. Before Demos Helsinki, Tuuli worked on environmental politics and cooperative networks at the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation (FANC) and has worked and volunteered at the urban environmental group Dodo. Tuuli joined Demos Helsinki to run the Ilmastotalkoot climate campaign, she has led the Peloton project, worked as a programme curator during Helsinki’s Design Capital year and has created a sustainable development plan for the Fiskars Village. She is also a speaker, commentator and facilitator, and serves as an advisor and a member of several boards.

Dimitri Zenghelis

Dimitri Zenghelis is an expert on climate change. He has been Acting Chief Economist for the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate and was recently Senior Economic Advisor to Cisco’s long term innovation group and an Associate Fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House. He is currently Joint-Head Policy at the Grantham Research Institute at the LSE. Previously, he headed the Stern Review Team at the Office of Climate Change, London, and was a senior economist on the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change. Before working on climate change, Dimitri was Head of Economic Forecasting at HM Treasury. He has provided regular briefings to the Chancellor Gordon Brown and Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Hans Bruyninckx

Hans Bruyninckx leads the European Environment Agency, which aims to provide sound, independent information on the environment. Over the last 20 years, he has conducted and managed research in the areas of environmental politics, climate change, and sustainable development. Earlier he headed the HIVA Research Institute in Leuven, Belgium, a policy-oriented research institute. His experience relates to the regional level, the EU and its Member States, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and processes of global environmental governance.

Esther Agricola

Esther Agricola has experience in stimulating the cooperation between heritage, urban planning and economic development in cities. After working for The ‘post-war’ Foundation, the High Rise Network and the Dutch Institute for urban planning and housing, she researched the development of European Capital Cities. She was then selected as the director of the Dutch Expert Center for Urban Renewal where she focused on creating a platform in which innovation and learning by doing was leading. She then switched to the city of Amsterdam where she became director of the department for monuments & archeology, putting transformation and re-use on the urban agenda. Currently she is director of the versatile department for urban planning and sustainability in Amsterdam.

Katie Thomas

Katie Thomas is interested in how businesses and communities can become more sustainable through applying circular economy principles at a city level. Katie now leads the ambitious Circular Economy programme in Peterborough, which aims to ensure that Peterborough is operating as a truly circular city by 2050. Katie’s work includes the launch and management of the innovative online sharing economy platform for businesses, Share Peterborough. Working with businesses and non-profit organisations, Katie has also recently established Peterborough’s ‘Circular City Champions Scheme’ which brings together local organisations with a desire to create projects that improve resource efficiency, reduce waste and improve quality of life of the city’s citizens through using circular economy approaches.

Pekka Möttö

  • Chief Executive Officer
  • Tuup
Pekka Möttö is an innovator in the area of mobility and transportation. He is a long-term transport operator and market disruptor. His previous company OnniBus.com thoroughly disrupted the Finnish intercity business by introducing digital sales channel and new business model to the market. Currently, Pekka is CEO at Tuup Ltd and Kyyti Group Ltd, which are aiming to revolutionise the mobility market globally.

Bryan Buggey

Bryan Buggey believes in a low-carbon future through innovative technologies, clean energy and sustainable urban design. He is responsible for economic and business development at the City of Vancouver’s Economic Commission. In his role as Director, he is leading a team in charge of several initiatives with respect to the low-carbon, knowledge based economy that is an integral part of Vancouver’s future growth. Bryan also heads up the team that is responsible for business development, investment capital and talent attraction in those key sectors representing the green economy and technology. He also sits on Vancouver’s Zero-Waste Advisory panel, the Greenest City Action Plan Steering Committee and has recently completed a technology talent strategy designed to attract and retain more knowledge-based workers for the regional economy.

Elizabeth Balkan

Elizabeth Balkan has worked extensively with cities to make sustainable development a viable option for both developed and emerging economies. In her current role, she has been responsible for developing and implementing NYC’s zero waste plan. She is also the Executive Director for the Foundation for New York’s Strongest, the official nonprofit organization of the New York City Department of Sanitation. Supported by private funding and in-kind donations, the Foundation leverages innovative strategies to promote sustainability and advance the essential services Sanitation employees provide. Previously, she worked on long-term planning and sustainability at the Mayor’s Office. Previously, she lived and worked in China for more than a decade, researching solid waste planning in China and running an energy and environmental consulting firm.

Funto Boroffice

Funto Boroffice wants to empower women to work and do it sustainably. She is a serial entrepreneur who is the founder and CEO of Chanja Datti Ltd, a waste collection and recycling social enterprise dedicated to transforming the waste in her environment to value while also empowering unemployed women and youth by creating jobs for them. Under her leadership, Chanja Datti was recently awarded the 2016 Energy Globe Award for Nigeria. She has been a Senior Aide to Nigeria’s Honorable Minister of Power, and before that, spent years gaining global financial, strategy and project improvement experience – most of which were as a Vice President in the largest GE Capital Americas business. Among others, she is a certified member of WEConnect International, a corporate led non-profit that helps to empower women business owners to succeed in global markets.

Tiina Kähö

Tiina Kähö provides a public-private co-operating model to circular cities. She is the Executive Director at Helsinki Metropolitan Smart & Clean Foundation, which is a five-year “step change” project comprised of 29 public and private partners from the cities in the Helsinki Metropolitan area, businesses, universities, research institutions and state administration. Smart & Clean works to orchestrate multi-stakeholder ecosystems, which can lead the way in making the significant changes needed to improve the scale and speed of climate and circular solutions in areas such as housing and renovation, smart mobility solutions and the closed circle of plastics. Tiina has more than 20 years of experience in the sustainability and energy business. She led Sitra’s focus area on industrial transformation to a carbon-neutral society 2014-2016. She has also held several executive positions within Pöyry Plc, where she was in charge of environmental consulting businesses.

Marja-Leena Rinkineva

Marja-Leena Rinkineva has throughout her extensive career worked with economic development in the public sector. Currently the Director of Economic Development in the City of Helsinki, she has also worked for the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment and the Ministry of Justice in Finland. She is a trained judge and, in addition, has strong knowledge and skills in Corporate Governance having worked for various boards of companies. Currently she is a chairman of the Helsinki Business Hub (Invest in Company), Forum Virium Helsinki and Helsinki City Marketing.

Mari Pantsar

Mari Pantsar envisages and works for a carbon-neutral and sustainable future. After working for forestry giant UPM in environmental affairs, Pantsar moved to public and private positions in the cleantech sector. She led, among other things, the Finnish Cleantech Cluster and the Finnish government’s cleantech strategy programme. She also served on the boards of several cleantech companies. Pantsar now heads Sitra’s “resource-wise and carbon-neutral society” theme area. Her job is to help Finland develop into an ecologically sustainable, competitive society. Pantsar has experience getting large groups of stakeholders to co-operate for a common objective – a critical part of developing the circular economy.

Xaver Edelmann

Xaver Edelmann is a scientist and technology expert with decades of experience. He started his career as a research and development scientist, went on to be a consultant, and was awarded with the Berthold Award of the German NDT Society for outstanding contributions in the field of nondestructive testing. He assumed the position as Head of Nondestructive Testing at the Corporate Research Department at Sulzer Brothers Limited, later becoming Head of the Department of Applied Sciences. For 22 years he was Member of the Board of Executive Directors of Swiss Federal Institute for Materials Science and Technology, Empa. Currently he is President of the Board of the Swiss Association for Quality and Management Systems, SQS and founder and President of the World Resources Forum, WRF. He is Full Member of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences, SATW and has been President and member of several organisations.

Dr. Cady Coleman

Having flown twice on the Space Shuttle and almost six months on the International Space Station, Dr. Cady Coleman has been privileged to see the world from a different perspective than most. She envisions a future where people from all over the world work together to solve problems that affect everyone on planet Earth, and she is certain that these problems can be solved when we seek diverse and inclusive teams. Cady was originally educated at MIT and at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst as a polymer chemist. In addition to her space flights, she served as the Lead Science Officer for Expeditions 26/27 on the International Space Station, Lead Astronaut at NASA’s Astronaut Office for supply ships from NASA’s commercial partners, and Chief of Robotics. Known for her ability to facilitate problem solving between groups with diverse interests, Cady went on to lead open-innovation and public-private partnership efforts at the Office of the Chief Technologist at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC. She is especially proud of her work with LAUNCH.ORG and LAUNCH NORDIC, innovation platforms dedicated to using public-private partnerships to address world-wide challenges in sustainability. Recently retired from NASA, Cady continues to share her experiences in leadership and inclusive collaboration thru speaking and consulting. She resides with her husband, son and two very large Maine Coon cats in Shelburne, Massachusetts, USA.

María Mendiluce

María Mendiluce has over 20 years’ experience in the energy sector and policy development. She has been leading the development of WBCSD’s Climate and Energy strategy, guiding the work of over 200 member companies to influence the global climate landscape. María developed and led the Low Carbon Technology Partnerships initiative (LCTPi) with over 150 global companies, one of WBCSD’s most successful flagship projects. María recently became part of WBCSD’s Senior Management Team (SMT) and is now also managing WBCSD’s work on water, ecosystems and circular economy. In this capacity, she has conducted important work around identifying global megatrends to help companies navigate the current global reality. She also initiated the first-ever Leading Women’s Awards on International Women’s Day in 2017 as part of WBCSD’s work on gender equality (SDG5).

Quentin Drewell

Quentin Drewell knows sustainability and the circular economy. He leads Accenture’s work on the Circular Economy, working with a range of Fortune 500 companies to design new businesses models and help clients realise competiveness and growth from going circular: ‘circular advantage’. He is also project advisor to the World Economic Forum on the circular economy and sustainable production, having set up the annual circular economy awards programme, “The Circulars”, and is now developing PACE – the ‘Platform to Accelerate the Circular Economy’ – a network of regional platforms to stimulate public-private action towards regenerative economic and ecological systems.

Isabel Fernandez

  • Member Management Board Banking and Head of Wholesale Banking
  • ING Group
Isabel Fernandez is an expert in financial strategy and sales. She is currently at ING in the Management Board Banking and is Head of Wholesale Banking. Isabel joined ING from General Electric where she was Global Commercial Leader and Head of Sales for the company, functionally responsible for GE’s 20,000+ global sales force. Her responsibilities at GE in a variety of leadership roles included GE’s Global Commercial Shared Services, GE’s Commercial Council and all Corporate oversight teams for Sales. The start of her career was at ABN Amro Bank N.V. as a management trainee.

Matti Lievonen

Matti Lievonen brings the corporate viewpoint to the circular economy and knows how to make profits while doing well. Before moving to the energy sector Lievonen worked in the forestry, power and automation industries. That experience served him well when he became CEO of Neste, a global leader in producing next-generation renewable fuels and chemicals. He is leading Neste towards cleaner solutions: the company is already the world’s largest producer of renewable diesel. Lievonen also understands the role of businesses in reducing emissions and mitigating climate change, particularly in the transportation sector.

Åsa Bergman

Åsa Bergman has vast experience in sustainable architecture and engineering. She has worked for Sweco for several decades in different positions, and is currently President of Sweco Sweden. Sweco is the leading architecture and engineering consultancy in Europe. Sweco Sweden is the largest business area in Sweco, with 5 700 employees at some 50 locations. Åsa has also been awarded several awards, such as the “Leading Women Awards” this year by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and “Leader developer of the Year” by the Swedish managers’ organisation Ledarna.

Karl-Henrik Sundström

Karl-Henrik Sundström has extensive experience in global industry. Now the CEO of Stora Enso, he joined the company as CFO and member of the Group Leadership Team. He then took on the role as Executive Vice President for division Printing & Living (today Paper and Wood Products divisions). Prior to joining Stora Enso, Sundström held the role as CFO of NXP Semiconductors. Before that, he held several managerial positions in Ericsson, including CFO.

Venkatachalam Anbumozhi

Venkatachalam Anbumozhi is an expert in subjects such as resource efficiency, international cooperation and development finance. He has published several books, authored numerous research articles and produced many project reports on resource management policies, sustainable infrastructure design, and private sector participation in Green Growth. His previous positions include Senior Capacity Building Specialist at Asian Development Bank Institute, Assistant Professor at the University of Tokyo, Senior Policy Researcher at the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies and Assistant Manager in Pacific Consultants International, Tokyo. Currently Senior Economist at ERIA, Anbumozhi was also invited as a member of the APEC Expert Panel on Green Finance, G20 Task Force on Low –Carbon energy systems and the ASEAN Panel for promoting climate-resilient growth.

Paul Ekins

Paul Ekins brings theory and practice together in the fields of economics and sustainability. In 2015 Paul Ekins was awarded an OBE for services to environmental policy. During his career Ekins has done everything from advising the UK government on environmental pollution and the European Commission on resource efficiency, to teaching senior business executives about sustainability leadership. In academia some of Ekins’ main research themes include economic analysis, energy, the environment and public governance.

Anni Huhtala

Anni Huhtala is an expert in environmental economics and policy. Director General of VATT Institute for Economic Research, an expert unit focusing on public economics issues including environment, energy and climate policy, she is also adjunct professor of environmental and resource economics at Aalto University. Her PhD thesis was on the environmental economic effects of recycling, and in her research she has evaluated environmental policy and instruments. She has been involved in the international development of environmental accounting and welfare measurement as well, and been a member of the European Academies Science Advisory Council (EASAC) Working Group that issued a commentary on circular economy for the European Commission.

Bing Zhu

Bing Zhu is a scholar in industrial ecology and resource efficiency with a special focus on circular economy theories and their applications in China. He previously specialized in energy systems engineering, but shifted his research focus to resource efficiency and circular economy. He was appointed by the relevant government departments responsible for macro economy, science and technology, and national statistics to serve as Scientific Coordinator to organize more than 30 institutions to carry out two national-level circular economy research programs. Now a Member of the Inter-Ministerial Panel of P. R. China on Circular Economy, he works with his team to actively provide scientific support for China’s circular economy. At Tsinghua University, he is the Director of the multidisciplinary Institute of Circular Economy.

Peter Börkey

Peter Börkey has been working on international and local environmental policy issues for more than 20 years. He has worked for the OECD for most of that time, primarily on issues relating to water, business and environment, as well as infrastructure finance. He is now leading OECD work on waste management and resource productivity, with a strong focus on resource efficiency and the circular economy. Prior to this, he has been leading OECD’s cooperation with countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus in the area of water management, as well as leading work in the framework of the OECD Horizontal Water Programme. Before joining the OECD, Mr Börkey worked as a consultant, specialized in environmental economics.

Antonia Gawel

Antonia Gawel is an expert on clean energy, environment and sustainability policy. Currently heading the World Economic Forum’s Circular Economic Initiative, she has worked in Bhutan as an advisor on environment and clean energy programmes and at the International Energy Agency (IEA). She was responsible for IEA’s work on monitoring and evaluating clean energy policy and deployment progress as input to the Clean Energy Ministerial and G-20 processes, and was a lead author of IEA’s flagship energy technology publication, Energy Technology Perspectives 2012. She was formerly Deputy Director, Energy and Climate, at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development in Geneva, and has worked in energy and sustainability policy in the private and NGO sectors, including with SustainAbility and the International Institute for Sustainable Development.

Scott Vaughan

Scott Vaughan promotes human development and environmental sustainability through research, communication and partnerships. A background in environmental policy, global trade, economics and finance serves Scott Vaughan well as he leads the global non-governmental organisation IISD. The group’s mission is to integrate environmental and social priorities with economic development. Although he is based in Canada Vaughan works around the globe, and has held leadership positions in organisations throughout the Americas and China.

Anders Wijkman

Anders Wijkman is an opinion maker and author. Anders is chairman of the Governing Board of Climate-KIC – the largest public-private partnership on innovation for low-carbon solutions in the EU. He is a member of the IRP (International Resource Panel), a UN-appointed expert body whose aim is “to build and share the knowledge needed to improve the use of our resources worldwide”. He is also chair of Circular Sweden, a platform for producers, retailers and recycling companies to advance the circular economy. Anders is honorary president of the Club of Rome, chairman of Circular Sweden, chairman of the Advisory Committee on the Swedish Clean Air and Climate Research Program, a member of the board of Swedish SIDA, a member of the International Advisory Board of Sitra (the Finnish Innovation Fund) and a member of SEAC (the Sustainability External Advisory Council) of DOW Chemicals. He is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Royal Swedish Academy on Forestry and Agricultural Sciences and the World Future Council. Anders has served as a Member of the European Parliament and the Swedish Parliament, as Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and Policy Director of UNDP, as Director General of SAREC – the Swedish Agency for Research Cooperation with Developing Countries) – as Secretary General of the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation and as Secretary General of the Swedish Red Cross.

Jeremy Wates

Jeremy Wates has a long experience with environmental organisations, especially NGOs. He is the Secretary General of the European Environmental Bureau, Europe’s largest federation of environmental organisations. Prior to this, he served for more than a decade as Secretary to the Aarhus Convention with the Geneva-based United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. Earlier, Jeremy led and coordinated the campaign by the European ECO Forum, an NGO coalition, to persuade governments to start work on a treaty on environmental democracy, which was later to become the Aarhus Convention. He has also founded and led the Irish environmental organization Earthwatch, the Irish member of Friends of the Earth International. During this period, he combined his environmental advocacy work with organic farming. He has also been awarded the David Brower Lifetime Achievement Award.

Brendan Gillespie

  • Partner
  • Green Solutions Network
Brendan Gillespie has worked on environmental issues for 40 years in a wide range of advanced and emerging economies. He has extensive experience of working with ministers, as well as with senior representatives from business, trade unions and NGOs. He currently works as a consultant in a company he helped set up -Green Solutions Network -, and is a member of a Task Force examining China’s green transition outlook. A recent project involved drafting a report for the OECD for submission to the G7 on policy guidance for resource efficiency. Much of Brendan’s work has been at the interface of economic and environmental policies. This has included negotiating the conclusions and recommendations of about 20 country environmental performance reviews, and leading several OECD programmes such as green growth indicators, water management and eco-innovation.

Ma Rong

Ma Rong has long experience in circular economy management and has contributed to the development of circular economy in China. She is currently Deputy Director General of Department of Resources Conservation and Environmental Protection at National Development and Reform Committee of the People’s Republic of China, which is the management department on macro economy in China. She is one of the key persons in drafting “Circular Economy Promotion Law of PRC” and supporting the legislation process at National People’s Congress. In addition, she oversaw the modification of “Regulation on Management of Recycling of Waste Electrical and Electronic Products”, and formulation of “Extended Producer Responsibility Implementation Plan” announced by the State Council in China.

Marc Palahí

Marc Palahí is an expert on forests, one of the vanguard fields of the circular economy. In many ways, forests are a case study of the circular economy, from management of resources to the use of waste. Marc Palahí is an expert on the topic and has experience from Mediterranean woodlands to boreal forests. He has written influential articles about adapting forest management to climate change, ways to strengthen national forest policies, and how forests serve water-related ecosystems.

Kati ter Horst

Kati ter Horst is an expert in paper and innovative solutions based on renewable materials to make it. Kati has been working in the paper industry since starting her career at Jaakko Pöyry in Singapore with market and cost competitiveness analysis. She then joined Stora Enso, working in the area of Marketing and Sales in the Netherlands. Since then Kati has held several positions within Stora Enso Nederland, eventually taking over the global responsibility for Stora Enso’s paper sales at the Stora Enso’s head office in Helsinki, Finland. Currently she is leading Stora Enso’s Paper division with some 5 800 employees and global sales of 3.3 billion euros.

Henrik Ehrnrooth

Henrik Ehrnrooth is a business leader and an ambassador for the sustainable development of the world’s forests in the context of the emerging bioeconomy. He started his career in Pöyry as an economist, then went on to become partner and co-owner of Jaakko Pöyry Oy before being appointed as President and CEO of the company. Today, he is Chairman of the Board of three organisations – Pöyry PLC, an international consulting and engineering company, Otava Group Ltd, a leading Finnish graphic publisher, and Climate Leadership Council, which has an overarching goal to actively participate in the mitigation of climate change. He is also a Member of the Board of the Marcus Wallenberg Foundation. His previous positions include Chairman of the Board of YIT Corporation and Chairman of the Board of Caverion Corporation.

Kai Merivuori

Kai Merivuori has a solid track record within the international softwood sawmill industry. He is presently Managing Director of Finnish Sawmills Association which promotes the interests of the independent sawmill industry. Prior to that, he worked as associate principal at Pöyry Management Consulting Oy. He has also experience in export sales and marketing from the time he worked at Metsä-Serla Oy. In addition, he is a member of Finnish Forest Council and Finnish Bioeconomy Panel and board member in Puuinfo Oy and European Organisation of Sawmill Industry (EOS).

Erika Mink

Erika Mink has a longstanding experience in sustainability, environment policies and economic development. The Vice President Public Affairs at Tetra Pak, a global market leader in food processing & packaging solutions, she heads the group’s Public Affairs and advocacy worldwide. She represents Tetra Pak vis-a-vis the EU Institutions and Intergovernmental Organisations as well as international industry bodies (the Consumer Goods Forum and the Global Dairy Platform). She serves as vice-chair of the European Association for Packaging and the Environment and in the Board of Directors of The Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment. Prior to joining Tetra Pak, Erika worked for a leading international consulting firm where she provided in the field of environment protection and international cooperation.

Pentti Hyttinen

Pentti Hyttinen has a PhD in forest planning and economics and studied in Texas, USA for a Master's degree in the use of natural resources. He is a docent at the University of Eastern Finland. Hyttinen has served as the director general of Metsähallitus, the regional director of North Karelia and the CEO of PenTen Oy. Hyttinen has also worked in Brussels at the European Commission as a forest expert, designer and first director of the Forest Academy of Decision Makers, director of the North Karelia Forest Center, project director of the European Forest Institute and in teaching and research positions at the University of Joensuu. Hyttinen has been a member of the Finnish Sustainable Development Committee, the board of the Finnish Forestry Center, the board of the Union of European Border Regions and the board of Tekes . In addition, he has chaired the regional advisory board of Metsähallitus and the large-predator advisory board. As the chairman of the company's board, he has worked, e.g. Metsähallitus Metsätalous Oy, MH-Kivi Oy and Solenovo Oy. Pentti Hyttinen was elected as the provincial director in 2001. As a provincial director, Hyttinen strongly promoted entrepreneurship, education and technology development. The development of Koli as a meeting place for influencers and international cooperation, especially with the Republic of Karelia, China and Catalonia, were high on the priorities. He pushed for the province's carbon neutrality with the title "Goodbye to fossils" already in 2010. Pentti Hyttinen left his position as provincial director in accordance with his director's contract at the end of 2015. Hyttinen was elected as the director general of Metsähallitus in 2016. During his term as CEO, Hyttinen led the organization of Metsähallitus in accordance with the Forest Management Act that came into effect in 2016.

Jyrki Kangas

Jyrki Kangas is a forest expert whose research interests include strategy processes and natural resources management. After managerial leadership, he is now a Professor of Forest Bioeconomy at the University of Eastern Finland. He worked as the Director General of Metsähallitus, a State forest enterprise governing the state-owned lands and waters in Finland, as well as Director of Forestry at UPM-Kymmene Ltd, a leading global forest-industry company, and as CEO of UPM’s daughter company Bonvesta. Kangas also worked in the research sector, e.g., as a Professor of Forest Planning at the Finnish Forest Research Institute. He is the chair of the Board of KoliForum and a docent of Forest Planning at the University of Helsinki. His other, varied positions of trust have been in the field of forests and their research, for which he has also been awarded.

Matti Rantaniemi

Matti Rantaniemi knows about lifecycle service especially in workplace environments. He is currently the CEO and Managing Director of Martela Oyj, where he has worked for a few years and is also a member of the management team. Previously he has worked at United Technologies, where he was Managing Director of Otis Oy, Carrier Oy, Kidde Finland Oy and UTC Building & Industrial Systems Finland.

Myriam Tryjefaczka

Myriam Tryjefaczka knows how to develop and implement sustainability for a circular economy. With a scientific background, she started her career as Quality and Environment manager in different industry sectors, packaging, electronics and air filtration. She then started the development and the implementation of Sustainability and public affairs strategies, also participating in EPBD related standards and eco-design directive development work for ventilation systems, air filtration and indoor environment quality. After this, Myriam joined the Tarkett Group, a worldwide leader of innovative and sustainable flooring and sports surface solutions, where she holds the position of Public affairs director for the EMEA division. There she coordinates the business approach towards recycling activities and new business models development in Europe.

Jad Oseyran

Jad Oseyran is leading the IBM Global Center of Competence (CoC) for Circular Economy (CE). The CE CoC is working closely with the IBM Global Asset Recovery Services (GARS) to offer business and technology solutions towards a CE transformation. Jad has strategic and operational experience in manufacturing industries such as Axel Christiernsson, Philips Semi Conductors and Johnson Controls Inc. Later he joined IBM as a senior consultant advising various multi-nationals around ecosystem and business transformations towards a Circular Economy. He´s also a Cradle to Cradle certified consultant.

Lorraine Francourt

  • Director in EH&S and Sustainabilty
  • Dow
Lorraine Francourt is an expert on chemicals and how to optimise them for a circular economy. Currently a Director in EH&S and Sustainability for Dow, her global leadership responsibilities include Product Safety, Compliance and Sustainability leadership for all Dow’s business and corporate interests. She also leads the Dow 2025 sustainability goal “Advancing a Circular Economy”, in which Dow collaborates with partners to optimise use of resources and reduce waste. She has more than 25 years of international experience primarily in EH&S, but also in Supply Chain, Customer Service and Technical Service. Lorraine is also a member of the European Chemical Industry Program Council on Product Stewardship (CEFIC) and in on the Board of the European Center for Eco-toxicology and Toxicology of Chemicals (ECETOC).

Kevin Moss

Kevin Moss knows how to transform sustainability into a business growth strategy. He is the Global Director of the Business Center, WRI’s program that helps the private sector develop strategies that support sustainable strategies and drive growth. He supports WRI’s Signature Initiatives in developing impactful strategies that leverage the private sector among other things. Prior to joining WRI, Kevin worked at BT where he was responsible for the Net Good program. He had previously been an integral part of BT’s sustainability activities with various roles in sustainability strategy, stakeholder engagement and sustainability reporting. Prior to his involvement in the world of sustainability, Kevin’s career path included product management, marketing and corporate strategy at BT, MCI and BP.

Ester van der Voet

Ester van der Voet applies her knowledge to especially the fields of the bio-based economy and the circular economy. Within the field of Industrial Ecology, she specialises in methodology development: life-cycle assessment, material flow analysis, substance flow analysis, natural resource accounting, and indicator development. She is Associate Professor at Leiden University at the Department Industrial Ecology of the Institute of Environmental Sciences, and has initiated two MSc programs in Industrial Ecology: a program between Leiden University and TU Delft, and an international program of Leiden, Delft, Graz University and Chalmers University in Sweden. She has conducted many research projects for the EU and in other international consortia, and is also a member of UNEP’s International Resource Panel.

Bas de Leeuw

Bas de Leeuw has extensive experience in UN processes and sustainability. He is Managing Director of the World Resources Forum (WRF), which is well-known for its annual flagship conferences, as well as for multi-stakeholder dialogue projects. He is a full member of the Club of Rome. Before WRF, he was Executive Director of the Donella Meadows Institute and a diplomat for the United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment). Based in UN Environment’s Economy Division, he has set up and managed several new UN initiatives, such as the Sustainable Consumption Program, the Marrakesh Process on Sustainable Consumption and Production, the International Life Cycle Panel, and the International Resource Panel, and he was Head of the Secretariat of the last two. Bas has also worked as a National Expert for the OECD on sustainable consumption policies, and has held various positions in the Dutch government.

John Sommer

  • Sales Director, Head of Strategy & Business Development
  • MT Højgaard
John Sommer has experience in making construction and buildings a part of the circular economy. He has comprehensive experience from managerial positions in production, innovation and sales management from different positions in Skanska and MT Hojgaard, where he is currently Sales Director, Head of Strategy & Business Development and a board member from 2013 to 2017 as employee’s representative. MT Hojgaard A/S is one of the leading construction companies in Scandinavia, which John represents in several different networks as well as on the board of Green Building Council Denmark. Moreover, he is the Co-author of the book ‘Building a Circular Future’ published in 2016 with support from the Danish Environmental Protection Agency.

Louise Koch

Louise Koch’s work is driven by a passion to build a better world through business. She believes that business holds an unlimited potential to develop sustainable solutions by activating the power of innovation, business thinking, and global relations. The focal point for Dell’s corporate sustainability in EMEA, she works closely with colleagues, customers and partners to share and develop Dell’s corporate sustainability program and identify new opportunities for business development through sustainability. Prior to joining Dell, Louise was Head of CSR for the Confederation of Danish Enterprise, where she built a dynamic platform for CSR and sustainable business development, counselling member companies on strategic CSR and driving public affairs issues in Denmark and the EU.

Per Stoltz

Per Stoltz brings the retail business knowledge to the circular economy. Stoltz started working for IKEA a purchasing organization in Italy, then moved to Sweden to work with global strategic purchasing and product development in the IKEA headquarters. Stoltz been engaged in sustainability issues, and for the past three years he has led the transition for the world’s largest furniture retailer to become a truly circular company.

Anton Brummelhuis

Anton Brummelhuis is an expert in sustainable business development. He started at Philips in industrial management and for 16 years was accountable for operations in and over factories as well as outsourcing. Afterwards he led businesses, innovations to markets and business creation. Currently Anton is responsible for sustainable business development programs for Philips Lighting in the areas of energy efficiency, circular economy and social innovations. In this role, he has represented Philips Lighting in supervisory boards, public private workgroups, memberships and events.

Sirpa Pietikäinen

Sirpa Pietikäinen is an expert on all aspects of the circular economy. Her emphasis is on financing the transition (sustainable finance), on systemic change and on product and ecodesign requirements. Currently a Finnish Member of the European Parliament representing European People’s Party (EPP), she is also a substitute Member of the Environment and Public Health Committee (ENVI) and full Member in the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON), and in the Women’s Right and Gender Equality Committee (FEMM). Pietikäinen has been Finland’s Minister of Environment and a Member of the Finnish Parliament. She was also a member of the high-level European Resource Efficiency Platform (EREP) and the European Parliament´s Rapporteur for the recent Report on Resource Efficiency: moving towards a circular economy. She has authored various articles on circular economy as well.

Thomas Graedel

Thomas Graedel literally wrote the book on industrial ecology. Graedel’s research is centred on developing and enhancing industrial ecology, the organising framework for the quantification of the Anthropocene epoch. He co-authored the first textbook on the subject. He currently researches the flows of materials within the industrial ecosystem and evaluates the criticality of metals. At its heart, the circular economy aims to continue this flow of materials in a productive way.

Stephen F. Lintner

  • Independent Advisor on Environmental and Social Sustainability
Stephen F. Lintner is a seasoned expert on environmental and social sustainability. He is an independent advisor to governments and development organizations and has over 40 years of worldwide experience in environment, infrastructure and water resources management, including the development of policies and procedures, design of strategies and programs, and planning and implementation of projects. During his long tenure at the World Bank, Lintner held leadership roles in a range of environmental and social policy, strategy, technical and capacity building activities at the global, regional and national levels. He served as the Bank’s Senior Technical Advisor, prior to which he was Advisor for Freshwater, Coastal and Marine Resources Management. He is the former President of the International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA).

Amra Balic

  • Managing Director and Head of Emea Investment Stewardship
  • BlackRock
Amra is an active participant in the public corporate governance, stewardship and responsible investment debate. She is responsible for leading BlackRock’s investment stewardship efforts in London, covering company engagement including voting in Europe, the Middle East and Africa on behalf of BlackRock’s clients globally and integration of extra financial issues in the investment process. Amra represents BlackRock on a number of industry bodies including the Investment Association Corporate Governance and Engagement Committee and the National Association of Pension Funds (UK) Stewardship Advisory Group. Amra is a founding member of the “2020 Stewardship” working party that co-authored the guide on “Enhancing Stewardship Dialogue” in 2013. Amra joined the board of Eumedion, an independent sustainability and corporate governance foundation, in the Netherlands, in October 2016.

Petri Alava

Petri Alava brings global business experience to a new way of doing global fashion industry. He is an experienced business and board executive who has been working last 15 years as a corporate CEO in several global businesses. Together with Ali Harlin he has founded Infinited Fiber Company Inc. The company’s objective is to revolutionise the global fashion industry with new cotton like fiber manufactured of post-consumer textile and paper waste.

Lisa Beauvilain

Lisa Beauvilain knows sustainability and environmental policy from an investment point of view. She is Director at Impax Asset Management, a specialist investment manager that invests globally in companies and projects within energy efficiency, renewable energy, sustainable food, water and waste management. There she heads the sustainability and environmental, social and governance (ESG) analysis, including investment research related to environmental policy. She is part of the investment team of the Impax Sustainable Food strategy. She is also a Trustee at the London-based think-tank International Institute of Environment and Development (IIED). Previously, she has worked as an independent consultant focusing on environmental policy and as an Executive Director at Goldman Sachs in London within the Investment Management Division.

Frido Kraanen

  • Principal Director Societal Impact
  • PGGM
Frido Kraanen has experience in corporate responsibility and the transition to a circular economy. Currently at PGGM, a Dutch pension service provider, he is responsible for PGGM’s cooperative principles, the societal agenda of PGGM and the corporate social responsibility program. He also chairs an international working group on the role of money and finance in the transition to a circular economy and is a board member of the Cooperative WeHelpen, Deltaplan Dementia (a nationwide program to fight Alzheimer’s disease). Before Frido joined PGGM, he worked for the Netherlands’ Ministry of Healthcare, Welfare and Sports. Additionally, he was the Netherlands’ delegate and council member of the Health Committee of the OECD.

Pavel Misiga

Pavel Misiga has environmental policy experience in various subject areas. He worked as an environmental consultant and later as a senior official at the Ministry of Environment in his home country Slovakia. He also represented his country in the EU accession negotiations in the field of environment. He then joined the European Commission and during the last decade he has led teams working on Sustainable Production and Consumption, Resource Efficiency, Circular Economy and Water policies. He is currently the head of Eco-innovation Unit in Directorate General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission.

Werner Schmidt

Werner Schmidt has been working on project, policy and sector advisory work for more than 25 years. He joined the European Investment Bank in its Project Directorate, where he was in charge of the appraisal and monitoring of projects in the agribusiness, fisheries and forestry sector. Later he was team leader in Operations Evaluation and in charge of the Quality Management/Coordination Division within the Projects Directorate. He then became the Director of the Environmental and Sustainable Territorial Development Department within the Projects Directorate. The Department is in charge of the techno-economic appraisal of investment projects in several sectors. Prior to joining the EIB Werner worked inter alia for the World Bank, the European Commission and the German bilateral technical assistance organization in Albania, Pakistan, Russia, Caucasus and Central Asia.

Andrew Shannon

Andrew Shannon has a long experience in the finance and investment industry that he ties into the circular economy. He is a Partner and one of the founders of Circularity Capital, a specialist private equity investment manager focussing on creating value for investors by supporting SME growth and innovation in the circular economy. Beginning his career in the London M&A team at Société Generale, Andrew also gained valuable experience in the debt markets whilst in New York. Andrew then left Société Generale to join the leading energy and utilities advisory team at UBS, and then went on to take on a role with Foresight. Andrew has successfully led several UK SME deals in several sectors, including plastic recycling and solar generation.

Timo Mäkelä

Timo Mäkelä is an expert in environmental policy and management, finance, sustainable development, clean tech and green growth. A diverse career has seen Timo Mäkelä protecting water in Botswana and giving environmental advice to the Chinese government. He has also worked on municipal and environmental finance for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and held several senior management positions in the European Commission. These include sustainable production and consumption, ecoinnovation and related financing, the environmental aspects of international relations and the negotiations for the UN sustainable development goals. Currently Mäkelä is a Senior Advisor at Sitra on issues related to the resource-wise and carbon-neutral society as well as the circular economy.

Anirban Ghosh

Anirban Ghosh is a gold medallist engineering graduate who has paved way for a sustainable future. He is with the USD 17.8bn Mahindra Group, where he is currently Chief Sustainability Officer. This role involves leading the strategy and implementation of the Group’s sustainability drive. Anirban has held other key positions in the Group prior to his current role. He led the business strategy function in M&M’s Farm Equipment business and has also worked in the USA as President of Mahindra USA Inc. Before joining Mahindra Group, Anirban has worked in the Information Technology and Office Automation industries in Sales and Marketing roles. He has also served on the committees of several Industry Associations in India and in the USA, including being a member of the Board of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, USA. He was recently appointed as Multi-Stakeholder Steering Committee (MSC) for GRI South Asia, SDG Agenda 2030.

Oskar Korkman

Oskar Korkman knows how to help businesses grow in sustainable ways. He works with several of the most valuable brands globally both in Europe and US to understand changing markets and how businesses can grow sustainably. He is the founder of Alice Labs, which is a Finland-based strategy consultancy, specializing in market exploration. Oskar is former Director of Consumer Intelligence at Nokia and Microsoft, and has years of experience in global-sociocultural research as well as turning insights into business decisions.

Annachiara Torciano

Annachiara Torciano has 14 years’ international experience in public affairs and sustainability. At Samsung she focuses on integrating sustainability even more into the business. Before joining Samsung, she was environment and EU affairs manager at a global electronics brand based in Stockholm and Brussels. She has also worked as account director at a leading EU-affairs consultancy in Brussels. There she advised blue-chip clients on policy advocacy and led communications campaigns.

Lea Kauppi

Lea Kauppi has a long experience on working at the science -policy interface related to various environmental issues. She has long been Director General of the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), a multidisciplinary environmental research institution. Her research focus has been on agricultural pollution of rivers and lakes, modeling of impacts of acidification, impacts of climate change as well as management of transboundary waters. She has also participated in evaluations of EU RTD Framework programmes and been a member of evaluation panels of various research institutions and research programmes in Europe. She was previously a member of the International Resource Panel of UNEP.

Karen Dahl Jensen

Karen Dahl Jensen has been expanding her knowledge in ecolabelling for 15 years. The Nordic Swan Ecolabel is a voluntary ecolabelling scheme that evaluates a product’s impact on the environment throughout its whole lifecycle, thus making it an obvious tool for promoting circular economy. Currently she is the Nordic Product Development Manager at Nordic Ecolabelling. Before this she was in charge of development and quality assurance of chemical technical products and services in Nordic Ecolabelling. As chairman for the competent bodies in EU Ecolabelling, she has worked to align the way applications are handled between them. Karen has also worked with the approval of products and services for both the Nordic Swan Ecolabel and EU Ecolabel in the Nordic region, Europe and Asia.

Matti Aistrich

Martin Stuchtey

Martin Stuchtey has dedicated his work to circular industrial systems as well as many areas of sustainability for various clients. He is founder and managing partner of SYSTEMIQ Ltd., a specialist firm for innovation and investment in the natural resource space. Before this, Martin worked for McKinsey & Co. for twenty years, co-founding McKinsey’s Sustainability Practice. He also initiated, together with Ellen MacArthur, the Circular Economy Initiative at the World Economic Forum. He has been a strategic advisor to the World Economic Forum and is the author of the book “A Good Disruption”. He is also a professor at Innsbruck University for Resource Strategy and Management and enjoys spending time on his farm.

Per-Anders Enkvist

Per-Anders Enkvist is an expert on climate change and circular economy. He is the founder and CEO of Material Economics, a consultancy advising top management on natural resource and sustainability strategies. Before that, he was a partner at McKinsey & Company for many years. Per-Anders was part of founding McKinsey’s sustainability practice, and specifically he was the global leader of all McKinsey’s work related to climate change and one of the co-leads on circular economy. His key publications include McKinsey’s cost curve for greenhouse gases, and a recent book, ‘A Good Disruption’, which discusses how the ongoing technology tsunami can be used to create a better economy.

Nabil Z. Nasr

Nabil Z. Nasr is an international leader of research and development efforts in disciplines that advance circular economy. With research interests focused on remanufacturing, circular economy, life cycle engineering, cleaner production and sustainable product development, he is Associate Provost for Academic Affairs and Director of Golisano Institute for Sustainability at Rochester Institute of Technology. He also founded RIT’s Center for Remanufacturing and Resource Recovery. Nasr recently led the proposal development effort which resulted in Golisano Institute leading the national consortium for the REMADE Institute, a national coalition that will work together on new clean energy initiatives, focusing on driving down the cost of technologies essential to reuse, recycle and remanufacture materials. He is also, a member of UNEP International Resource Panel (IRP).

Kirsi Sormunen

Kirsi Sormunen holds vast experience from positions in a variety of organizations and communities. She is Senior Advisor for Corporate Responsibility issues at the Directors’ Institute of Finland, Non-Executive Director on the Board of Directors of VR Group and DNA, as well as a member of the Board of Directors of Sitra. She also currently shares the co-chair of Finland’s Road map to a circular economy with Minister Kimmo Tiilikainen. She is currently also a member of the Board of Directors of UNICEF Finland, and the Advisory Board of Lappeenranta University of Technology. She has held several leadership positions in Finance and Control at Nokia Corporation and also had the role of Chief Sustainability Officer. During these years she was a member of the boards of several Nokia subsidiaries and affiliated companies.

Carol Lemmens

Carol Lemmens works to raise the awareness of the circular economy approach, and to identify the many challenges, enablers and opportunities available to Arup and others in making the circular economy a reality. Currently leading Arup’s global Management Consulting business and spearheading Arup’s circular economy work, Carol also coordinates Arup’s work as the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s (EMF) knowledge partner for the built environment. The partnership enables the Foundation and Arup to work together to develop circular economy principles across cities, transport, energy and water. Carol is also involved in research projects with EMF to scope a circular economy vision for India and China.

Sampo Hietanen

Sampo Hietanen is father to the concept “Mobility as a Service”, a paradigm change in transport offering. MaaS Global Ltd. is bringing the concept of MaaS into reality by building the World’s first Mobility Ecosystem. It aspires to upgrade the service level of transportation by joining together public and private transportation providers and creating a seamless and compelling travel experience for everyone, locally and globally. Currently the CEO of MaaS Global Ltd. Hietanen’s background is in executive positions in civil engineering and ITS and he has been founding and heading several international businesses in the field. He has also helped change transport network structures by having been CEO at Helpten, a driving data operator, and ITS Finland, a non-profit association for intelligent transport systems and services.

Jean-Philippe Hermine

Jean-Philippe Hermine is an environmental planning expert. He started at Renault, leading the environmental audits, and was next appointed head of the environmental network. He then also worked in the Strategic Environmental Planning Department to coordinate the implementation of Renault’s recycling policy and the creation of innovative and strategic partnerships on materials recycling and recovery, and as Head of the Energy & Hygiene Safety Environment Department worldwide. Currently Hermine is Vice President in charge of Strategic Environmental Planning and CEO of Renault Environment. He works to elaborate and apply a coherent environmental policy for the Group, its products and their production. He is also Managing Director of Renault Environment that specialises in the end-of-life of products and the valorization of metallic waste.

Rudolf Auer

  • Director International Environmental Initiatives
  • Apple
Rudolf Auer is an expert in the environmental life-cycles of electronic products. Having been serving Apple and the environment for more than 20 years, he currently leads Apple’s International Environmental Initiatives Team, which is spread across 14 locations in Latin America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. His team ensures environmental compliance related to the entire life-cycle of ICT and consumer electronic products. Moreover, it connects Apple with leading environmental experts around the world and scouts for opportunities to innovate for the environment in cooperation with Apple’s headquarter groups.

Carmen Ene

As CEO of 3stepIT and BNP Paribas 3 Step IT, Carmen Ene is focused on one single objective: to take care of the world’s technology by helping businesses to manage IT more sustainably. Since 2015, Carmen has made it her mission to work with businesses across Europe to tackle the issue of corporate e-waste, with the two companies preventing more than half a million IT devices from being dumped or destroyed every year. In 2019, Carmen Ene led 3stepIT’s joint venture with BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions, the strategic alliance which now provides sustainable technology lifecycle management services in France, UK, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands and Germany, with further market openings planned over the next 12 months. Carmen Ene also has more than 20-years’ worth of experience working in international IT and Finance, having held several positions at IBM including Vice President of Global Financing in Northeast Europe and Vice President of Enterprise in the Global Business Services.

Funto Boroffice

Funto Boroffice wants to empower women to work and do it sustainably. She is a serial entrepreneur who is the founder and CEO of Chanja Datti Ltd, a waste collection and recycling social enterprise dedicated to transforming the waste in her environment to value while also empowering unemployed women and youth by creating jobs for them. Under her leadership, Chanja Datti was recently awarded the 2016 Energy Globe Award for Nigeria. She has been a Senior Aide to Nigeria’s Honorable Minister of Power, and before that, spent years gaining global financial, strategy and project improvement experience – most of which were as a Vice President in the largest GE Capital Americas business. Among others, she is a certified member of WEConnect International, a corporate led non-profit that helps to empower women business owners to succeed in global markets.

Didier Gambier

Didier Gambier has devoted his career to energy research conducted in very large infrastructures. He is the Head of Department in the European Commission’s Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME), and supervises two CIP legacy programmes on Eco-innovation and Intelligent Energy Europe. He is also responsible in the European Commission for the implementation of the LIFE programme, as well as a large portion of the research and innovation programme of H2020 in the area of environment, raw materials, eco-innovation and circular economy, climate change, and energy efficiency. Gambier is a physicist by training and has also managed international programmes for the Commission directed at the civil conversion of military scientists of the former USSR.

Jennifer Gerholdt

Jennifer Gerholdt helps business become a part of the circular economy. In her role as Senior Director of Sustainability and Circular Economy Programs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation Corporate Citizenship Center, Jennifer directs high quality programming for business leaders to help them maximize their positive contributions to society’s challenges. Prior to CCC, she was Senior Manager of Conservation International’s Business & Sustainability Council (BSC), Program Officer with WWF’s Global Forest & Trade Network-North America program, and the Outreach Coordinator for Green America’s Better Paper Project. Jennifer also served as a Member, Board of Directors, of the U.S. Water Alliance.

Iain Gulland

Iain Gulland has decades of experience in sustainable resource management and recycling. Zero Waste Scotland works to deliver the Scottish Government’s Circular Economy strategy; Making Things Last, and other low carbon policy priorities, and is at the forefront of efforts to create a resource efficient, circular economy in Scotland. Chief Executive Officer Iain Gulland has previously worked with initiating recycling systems in the public and third sectors and leading the Community Recycling Network Scotland. He was named the ‘most influential person in the UK waste and resource efficiency sector’ by Resource Magazine (2014) and was granted fellowship of the Chartered Institution of Waste Management in 2016.

Stephan Sicars

Stephan Sicars moves resource efficiency to developing economies. The current Director of the Department of Environment at UNIDO, Sicars, together with his team is also working on climate change adaptation and mitigation, water, chemicals as well as pollutants where related to industries in developing countries and economies in transition. His previous roles include involvement with IPCC as a contributing lead author and managing the Research Center for Refrigeration in Germany. He has received the US-EPA Ozone Award.

Daniel Calleja

Mr. Daniel Calleja has a very broad experience at the European Commission as he has worked in many different areas since his nomination in 1986. Before being appointed Director General for DG Environment, he was Director General of DG Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs and earlier he was the Deputy Director General of DG Enterprise and Industry, and Special Envoy for SMEs. Mr. Calleja was as well, Director for Air Transport at the European Commission. Previously, he worked in the cabinets of several Commissioners, including the President of the European Commission. Mr. Calleja was also Head of Cabinet for both Commissioner Mr. Oreja and Vice-president Mrs. Loyola de Palacio, in charge of Transport and Energy. He started his career in the Commission as Member of the Legal Service, during which he represented the institution in numerous cases before the European Court of Justice.

Ligia Noronha

Ligia Noronha is an economist with over 30 years of international professional experience in promoting environmental sustainability. She was appointed in April 2014 as Director of the UNEP, Division of Technology, Industry and Economics – now known as the Economy Division. Ms Noronha acts as Lead Director of two of the seven UN Environment’s sub-programmes, namely chemicals and waste, and resource efficiency, and leads the emerging agenda on Environment/Pollution and Health. Until 2018, she also led the climate change sub–programme. Prior to joining UN Environment, she served in The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) as Executive Director (Research Coordination) and as Director of the Resources, Regulation and Global Security Division. Her work focused on conducting policy research on sustainable development in India and the Global South. From 2005 to 2011 she served as Secretary of the Asian Energy Institute focusing on policy research on energy, resources, climate change and sustainable development issues. From 2005 to 2009, Ms Noronha served as Coordinator of the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnerships (REEEP), South Asia. In 2004, she was appointed Team Leader of Ecosystem Approaches to Human Health at the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in Canada. Ms Noronha has served on the National Security Advisory Board of the Government of India focusing on the links between the environment, climate and security and on several expert committees of the Government of India and Goa. She has been a member of the Planning Board of the Government of Goa, the Goa Jubilee Development Council, Shell International’s External Review Committee on Sustainability Reporting, and Global Assurance Group of the Mining, Minerals and Sustainable Development project. From 2009 to 2011, she was a Visiting Senior Fellow at the University of Sydney-based Centre for International Security Studies (CISS).

Annika Rosing

Annika Rosing has diverse experience in growth and environment matters. She is currently Head of Department for Growth and Climate at the Nordic Council of Ministers, the official body for Nordic intergovernmental co-operation. Rosing’s portfolio includes the responsibility for the Nordic co-operation within finance, environment, climate, enterprise policy, regional development as well as energy co-operation. She is also responsible for three Nordic institutions, Nordregio, Nordic Energy Research as well as Nordic Innovation. Prior to joining the Nordic Council of Ministers, Rosing was Head of Department at the County Administration Office in Stockholm where she was responsible for the Department for Growth.

Andrés Pesce

Andrés Pesce is an experienced consultant, asset management, business development and innovation driver. Having previously worked at Mckinsey, Moneda, Compass and Finmeccanica (Quadrics), he is now the VP of Sustainability and Business at Fundación Chile (FCh), a technology developer, incubator and venture fund. Under Andrés’ leadership, FCh enabled the jumpstart of Chile’s solar energy industry, resulting in unleashing the creation of the largest FV solar plant without subsidies in Latin America. He also managed FCh’s Investment Fund and founded EmprendeFCh, an entrepreneurship platform. Currently he leads the Open Innovation Platform in Mining, Solar Energy, Clean tech fund, and was recently appointed FCh’s VP of Sustainability.

László Borbély

László Borbély has extensive experience in international affairs, environment and sustainable development, and regional development and infrastructure. Currently State Counsellor to the Prime Minister’s Office of the Romanian Government on the topic of Sustainable Development, he is a prominent ethnic Hungarian politician. He has significantly contributed to the democratic development of Romanian society, both as one of the most notorious leaders of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania and through the different high ranking functions held in the Romanian Parliament, where he has served for 22 years, and the Romanian Government, where he has been minister for regional development and minister for environment.

SDGs

SDG 12 Targets

Supporting document(s)

SUMMARY OF THE WORLD CIRCULAR ECONOMY FORUM 2017 %285-7 JUNE 2017%29.pdf
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Event start date
03:00 am
05/06/2017
Event end date
12:30 pm
07/06/2017
External source
Actors involved
Regions
Africa
Asia/Pacific
Europe and Central Asia
Latin America/Caribbean
Middle East
North America
Sectors
Water
Food & Beverage
Public Procurement
Transport
Agricultural and Fishery
Forestry
Waste, incl. Chemicals
Financial Sector
Scientific Research, Development and Innovation
Tourism
Industrial Sector
Plastic
Information and Communications Technology (ICT)
Health
Energy
Consumer Goods
Buildings and construction
Education
Impacts
Biodiversity
Decent Jobs
Energy Use
GHG Emissions
Health Risk Factors
Inequality
Material Use
Reduction Of Pollutants
Waste
Water Use
Value Chains:
Disposal/ Treatment of waste /Recycling
Distribution / Retail
Extraction / Production of raw materials
Finance / Investment
Packaging
Policy / Regulation
Processing raw materials /product parts/components
Production / Manufacturing / Construction
Product/ Service Design and Planning
Research and Development / Innovation
Service
Transportation
Use / Consumption
Programme(s):

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