KEVIN DE CUBA
Executive Director
GLORIA RESTREPO
Project Consultant
HOWIE FENDLEY
Principal
KEN WEBSTER
Senior Lecturer Circular Economy
ALEXANDER FERNANDES
Associate Director
Americas Sustainable Development Foundation & CEP
National Center for Cleaner Production and Environmental Technologies
Fendley Sustainability
Advisors
University of Exeter Business School
GeoCidades & CEP
Kevin is a co-founder at the Circular Economy Platform Americas. He developed and managed the U.S. Department of State funded - Closed Looped Cycle Production in the Americas Program, he introduced and led the first regional effort to apply and validate the concepts of Cradle to Cradle®, Closed Looped Cycle Production & Circular Economy, engaged in the first practical SME application and
drafted Circular Economy policies & roadmaps for several nations in the LAC region.
Gloria is a Support Professional at CNPMLTA providing technical support in projects such as:
Identfication and Implementation of Initiatives that Promote Circular Economy, Corporate Water Management Initiative in Colombia de Cosude, Integration of Sustainable Production and Consumption Policies to promote Eco-innovation, promotion of Green Chemistry. As well as a Professor at Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, Advisor at Urrao E.S.P in the valuation of urban organic waste with a focus on Circular Economy.
Howie is the founder and principal of Fendley Sustainability Advisors established to help companies evaluate the sustainability potential of products, technologies, and basic raw materials using peer-reviewed scientific data. The ultimate goal is to help companies develop a plan of continuous improvement toward 100% good for humans and the environment.
Ken is former Head of Innovation at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and continues to serve as an Ellen MacArthur Foundation Associate. He is a visiting fellow at Cranfield University and Supervisory Board Member of Madaster Foundation (Materials passports and data). He is the author of two critical books, (1) Circular Economy: A wealth of Flows (2nd Edition 2017) and (2) Sense and Sustainability Education for a Changing World (with Graig Johnson, 2009).
Alexander is a Circular Economy & Cradle to Cradle® pioneer in Brazil the past 7 years. He dedicated many years in field research, supply chain & policy analysis, and the social impacts of the Circular Economy in Brazil.
He has 6 years of experience in training organizations teams and leaders to design innovative strategies to recreate products, processes and systems applying the Cradle to Cradle® design principles for a Circular Economy.
Alexander is a dedicated senior member of the Circular Economy Platform Americas.
MARK DORFMAN
NICOLA CERANTOLA
WALTER STAHEL
Head Biomimicry Chemist
Founder & Director
Founder & Director
Biomimicry 3.8
Mark seeks out and applies the design principles of nature's time-tested chemical strategies to the development of innovative solutions to the toxic chemical and material challenges facing the 21st century.
Ecologing
Mechanical engineer, trainer, speaker, consultant & researcher on Sustainable Design, Circular Economy and Green Entrepreneurship. Founder and Director of Ecologing.
Product-Life Institute
In 1976, Dr. Walter Stahel sketched the vision of an economy in loops (or circular economy) and its impact on job creation, economic competitiveness, resource savings, and waste prevention. His ‘corner’ books are ‘Jobs for Tomorrow, the Potential for substituting manpower for energy’ (1981) and ‘The Performance Economy’ (2010). His latest publication is the book titled: The Circular Economy – A User’s Guide (2019).
LUISA LEMA
ALEX SAER
International Advisor
Director of Sectoral & Urban Environmental Affairs
Independent
Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development Colombia
Luisa Fernanda has worked with environmental policy and international cooperation for more than 15 years. Her career has been carried out by institutions such as the United Nations Environment Program, the United Nations Foundation, and the Inter-American Development Bank, among others.
Director of the Sustainable Productive Chain program of the Sustainable Business Network of the Autonomous Regional Corporation of Cundinamarca (RedES-CAR), whose objective is to productively transform chains of large companies and their SME suppliers based on the application of cleaner production. He also served as Senior consultant of the Center for Strategy and Competitiveness of the Faculty of Administration of the Universidad de los Andes. And since 2019 he is the Director of Sectoral and Urban Environmental Affairs at the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development of Colombia.
ARMANDO RUDY LAMPE
Minister
Ministry of Education Aruba
OCTAVIO TORRES
MAURICIO ZENTENO
KEN ALSTON
SLENDY DIAZ
Director
Circular Innovation Director
Founding Partner
General Manager
Valopes & CEP
Camel Hub
Circularity Edge & CEP
Conescombros
In 2003, Lampe founded a new political party (Democratic Network) and was a member of the Foro de Sao Paulo, a Latin American organization of the left and middle political spectrum. From 2005 to 2009, Lampe was a member of the Parliament of Aruba. From 2010 to 2013, Lampe was President of Democratic Network in Aruba. Since 2018 he is leading the Ministry of Education, Science and Sustainable Development of Aruba which launched in June 2019 Aruba’s Circular Economy Vision 2050 which is the guiding policy for Aruba’s transition toward a sustainable circular island economy.
Octavio is co-founder of Valopes, a company where they are innovating in the development of technological solutions that focus on tackling down resource scarcity by leading the digital transformation of the recycling industry and the industrial metabolism throughout their B2B cloud based platform. Octavio is an industrial engineer from the University de los Andes, has a Master's Degree in Industrial Ecology from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and a postgraduate certificate in Energy, Sustainability, Cycle Analysis of Life and Analysis of Environmental Systems at MIT and is a member of the Circular Economy Platform of the Americas.
Mauricio is a skilled business developer with an eye for creating exceptional strategies when creating business opportunities through innovation with focus on constructing triple impact for SME's that want to transition towards circularity. With 16+ years of experience implementing high-impact project all over the world. The past 5 years of Mauricio has been passionate about circular innovation, catalyzing and creating awareness through his work.
Ken is exceptionally skilled at presenting the business, social and environmental benefits of a Sustainable Circular Economy and Cradle to Cradle® design. 35+ years of experience in the international private sector on topics of sustainable development. Ken leads the innovation division of the Circular Economy Platform Americas. Ken is a outstanding teacher on the principles of Circularity and sustainable business practices.
Slendy is a Civil Engineer with studies in senior management and extensive experience in structuring and project management, sustainability, construction waste, energy infrastructure, real estate projects and stone aggregates Lecturer in circular economy and proper waste management. Member of the advisory board of the Sustainable Habitat Cluster and the UNIDO green industry policy development team.
FEDERICO RESTREPO
Co-Founder
NICOLAS GUARIN
Digital Business Analyst
IRINA REYES DONOSO
Founder
CARLO MONSANTO
International Director
JORGE LOPEZ JARAMILLO
Founder
Impact Hub Medellin
Independent
Reversible Chile & CEP
IOLEE Ecosystem
Enlace Professional
Entrepreneur and social innovator with 10 years of experience working in sustainability and youth development. Federico is the creator of Youth for Global Goals, a global initiative that mobilizes the world's youth to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals. He is the founder of Vectorial Energy, an enterprise focused on the decarbonization of mobility by accelerating the adoption of electric mobility; and co-founder of Impact Hub Medellín, innovation laboratory in entrepreneurship and Sustainability. He currently leads Impacto2030, an Incubation and Acceleration program for businesses with Impact on SDG.
Nicolas is a Digital Business Analyst and Innovation Manager with a Master’s degree in Creation & Management of Innovative & Technology based companies from the University of Barcelona, and a degree in International Business at EAFIT University.
He is honorary member of the Management Projection Group of the EAFIT University. Passionate about blockchain technology, the new digital economy and the impact it can create for society through new decentralized data-driven services. Experience developing marketing & communication strategy with Spanish startups. He has experience undertaking and developing personal e-commerce projects and has worked on B2C & B2B digital marketing strategies.
Founder of Reversible, a platform that supports the implementation of circular economy, sustainability, waste management and community relations strategies. She has worked in organizations that promote sustainability,
inclusion and productive promotion. Currently, she serves as a counterpart for Chile of the CEPA team in the execution of the study, "Assessment of the current status of the Circular Economy for developing a Roadmap for Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Uruguay," project funded by UN CTCN/UNIDO for the realization of the Diagnosis of the Circular Economy in Chile, whose counterparts in Chile are the Ministry of Environment and the Agency for Sustainability and Climate Change.
Carlo is an original thinker, international director of IOLEE ECOSYSTEM (NY), and a scholar at the Ronin Institute (NJ). He helps communities deliver IOLEE-based educational programs for wellbeing. This process reframes the minds of stakeholders towards sustainability thinking, which is an important aspect of the circular economy.
Jorge is an entrepreneur and business administrator at the EAFIT University of Medellín. With a master's degrees in International Management from the University of Exeter in England, diploma in Innovation Management from the University of Rosario of Bogotá, diploma in innovation management for the textile sector, certified in the “Las Cajitas” methodology of Goal Boxes, among many other studies. He worked 25 years for the Medellin fashion sector in commercial and marketing management positions of companies such as Fabricato, Fashion Studio, Protela, Bianchi, OffCorss, Phax, among others.
SANTIAGO MURILLO
ADRIENNE ZSAKAY
CARLOS BERNAL
CATALINA ZULUAGA
CLAUDIA LORENA GARCIA
Lead, Internationalization
Strategy of AMVA
Founder & CEO
Director, Sustainable Habitat
General Manager
Program Manager
Metropolitan Area of
the Valley of Aburrá
Circular Economy Asia
Chamber of Commerce of Medellin
Vrica
Americas Sustainable Development Foundation
Political scientist of the National University of Colombia and the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain and specialist in Public Management at EAFIT University. Founder and Director of the Social Knowledge Center - CPIENSA. He currently works as a metropolitan professional of international cooperation and agreements of the Metropolitan Area of ​​the Aburrá Valley, where he leads the internationalization strategy of the metropolitan region, through projects such as the orange economy in the framework of the 4th industrial revolution, the orange districts metropolitan and the realization of the metropolitan creative and circular economy.
For many years Ms Zsakay worked in the food industry, setting up Asia Connect (Korea) to import food from Australia, New Zealand and the EU. Ms Zsakay has a BA (Asian Studies & Politics) from the University of Western Australia and has studied International and Asian food law from Michigan State University. Ms Zsakay wrote The Nine Steps Towards a Circular Business, a comprehensive guide any business can use to transition to the circular economy. Each of The Nine Steps can also be explored as a hands-on workshop. CEA’s other programs include Recyclable Resource Recovery, the Asian Plastics & Packaging Agreement and consultancy services.
Carlos led the Construction Industry Research Center; processes of reference and identification of trends in construction technologies; structuring and management of research and development projects with sources of private, public cofinancing and international organizations. Leadership in the transformation process of the Cluster Construction to Sustainable Habitat initiative, a business development strategy focused on the exploration of global trends, reference processes, knowledge transfer with greater use of technology, and identification of new profitable and sustainable business models.
Catalina is a very talented and innovative industrial designer, founder of the furniture design company VRICA which is in operations for more than 10 years. Catalina has more than 15 years of experience in the field, and is now venturing into Circular Design with a new line called “Ecolab Furnitures”.
Chemical Engineer, Master in Innovation Management. Emphasis on sustainable innovation and Circular Economy. Total experience of 7 years in the manufacturing industry, and training and advising projects of Circular Economy and sustainable innovation.
Her master's thesis focused on analyzing the opportunities and challenges of making the transition to a Circular Economy in Colombia. In recent years he has advised different circular economy projects in the automotive, packaging and textile industry and at the government level. Passionate about contributing to the development of sustainable businesses through innovation tools, product design and Circular Economy.
JUAN CAMILO DE LOS RIOS
Coordinator of Environmental Studies
MasBosques
Juan Camilo has 15 years of experience in management, formulation, execution and projects of environmental conservation and rural development. He is a forestry engineer from the National University of Colombia and has a PhD in Rural Development from the University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. In recent years he has been very interested in studying relationships between risk management, ecosystem management, climate change and rural development. He currently serves as Coordinator of Environmental Studies of the Corporation for the Sustainable Development of Forests - MasBosques.
KARI HERLEVI
MATTHEW GREENLEY
PETER DESMOND
RICARDO CARDONA ACEVEDO
Director, Circular Economy
Sitra / World Circular Economy Forum
Kari Herlevi is project director in Sitra’s Circular economy focus area and a multi-skilled circular economy expert. Previously, Kari led the Green Growth programme at Tekes, which was associated with the circular economy and had a financing volume of more than 100 million euros. Sitra is the founding entity of the World Circular Economy Forum (WCEF) which is the principle global forum on Circular Economy.
Director, Institute for Research in Circular Economy & Environment
European Circular Economy Stakeholders Network
Matthew is Director for International Cooperation at IRCEM, an independent non-governmental organization, formed as a research think tank, that accelerates the transition to circularity, starting from the bottom with concentrated actions consisting of the development of practical and scalable solutions, national campaigns, and communication to spread the concept of circular economy and sustainable development. A joint initiative by the European Commission and the European Economic and Social Committee, the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform brings together stakeholders active in the broad field of the circular economy in Europe.
Co-Founder
African Circular Economy Network
Peter is a Chartered Accountant and MBA graduate bringing a broad commercial perspective to his work on the circular economy. Using his experience from 40 years as a strategic advisor, coach, trainer and senior finance executive, he now supports SMEs and corporates in the UK and Africa in getting started on their circular economy journeys. He is a Circular Economy Club Mentor and Local Organiser for Brighton & Hove, and organises monthly meetings to help accelerate the transition towards Brighton & Hove becoming a circular city.
Director
National Recovery Center, SURA Insurances
Ricardo Cardona Acevedo is currently the Director of the National Recovery Center of the Insurance Company SURA Colombia. Subsidiary in charge of generating Competitiveness and Sustainability for SURA Car insurance, and at the same time the environmental-friendly management of vehicles that reach the end of their useful life through a collision. Ricardo is a Mechanical Engineer, specialist in Risk Management and Insurance. Expert in Auto Insurance and automotive repair, and has been leading the initiatives of the National Recovery Center for three years to frame its operations in the Model of a Sustainable Circular Economy.