Alberto Arroyo Schnell is responsible for policy and programmes at the European Regional Office of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). He has held leading positions on EU environmental policy for the past 15 years. His current focus is working together with the key sectors related to / impacted by / benefiting from biodiversity and nature, aiming to find ways to achieve the environmental targets jointly and to ensure ownership of these targets by all stakeholders. He is Spanish, with a background in Forestry Engineering.

Freek van Eijk is CEO of Holland Circular Hotspot (HCH), a private-public platform that facilitates the transition to a circular economy at international level by bringing together government authorities, knowledge institutes and especially businesses. HCH supports knowledge exchange with the aim of stimulating entrepreneurship in the field of the circular economy.

Freek van Eijk is also vice-chair of Circular Biobased Delta, an alliance of Dutch provinces, businesses and knowledge centres pioneering a sustainable circular and biobased economy. He is one of the more senior Dutch experts in the field of waste management and the circular economy. He also serves as Managing Director of Acceleratio.

Previously, Freek van Eijk worked for over a decade as Director of strategy and PA at the multinational SUEZ and as a board member of the Dutch Waste Management Association and the Society and Enterprise Foundation and acted as a Sherpa for the EU Innovation Partnership on Raw Materials.

He has a MSc. Eng. (Delft University of Technology).

Ignacio Calleja has a Bachelor's degree in Organic Chemistry from the University of Zaragoza, an M. Sc. in Technology and Environmental Management from the University of the Basque Country, an M.Sc. in Environmental Chemistry from the University of Edinburgh, and is a postgraduate in Technology Management at the University of Sevilla.

He joined EIT Rawmaterials in September 2016 as Thematic Officer for Circular Economy and Recycling, leading the Circular Economy strategy and representing EIT RM at different European entities. He is currently involved in coordinating the Cross KIC Circular Economy Action. 

The EIT Circular Economy Community consists of five Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) – namely EIT RawMaterials, EIT Climate-KIC, EIT Food, EIT Manufacturing and EIT Urban Mobility.

The KICs carry out activities that cover the entire innovation chain: training and education programmes, reinforcing the journey from research to market, innovation projects, business incubators and accelerators. Through the KICs, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) strengthens cooperation among businesses (including SMEs), higher education institutions and research organisations, forms dynamic pan-European partnerships, and creates favourable environments in which creative thought processes and innovations can flourish.