Simina LAKATOS is founding President of the Institute for Circular Economy and Environment "Ernest Lupan" (IRCEM) since 2012. Simina has economical and technical knowledge, abilities and experience: she holds a B.A. in Economics and a B.A. Honours  in Materials and Environment Engineering. She obtianed a Doctorate in Engineering and Management in 2011 after defending her thesis on Corporate Social Responsibility. Simina has been part of the Dept. of Management and Economical Engineering of UTC since 2011, where she teaches and researches the following areas: Sustainable Development with focus in circular economy, Strategic Management with focus in social economy, Enterprise Assessment and Marketing and International Management, all of which helps her to develop the IRCEM. Her focus is to accelerate the transition towards circularity from the bottom up with concerted actions, developing practical and scalable solutions, national campaigns, communicating and involving ohters in the dissemination of the circular economy and sustainable development message. Simina is Romanian and is fluent in English and Italian.

Stahel has been founder-director of the Product-Life Institute (Switzerland), the oldest established consultancy in Europe devoted to developing sustainable strategies and policies, since 1983. From 1986 to 2014, he was also director of risk management research of the Geneva Association.

current activity:

Promoting the understanding of the structure of an economy in loops and its drivers and obstacles (circular industrial economy); spreading the knowledge about the competitiveness of a performance economy selling goods and molecules as a service; and identifying the levers to speed up the shift from a linear industrial economy managing flows to a circular economy managing stocks; through workshops, lectures and policy groups; member of the Coordination Group of the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform of EESC and the European Commission.

Founded in 2015, the Circular Economy Coalition for Europe is a platform of scientists and universities in the fields of resource management, waste management and anthropogenic metabolism. In their endeavour to support the transformation of the EU to an effective and efficient circular economy, the experts provide European Institutions, national decision makers, businesses, and the interested public by providing facts and data, based on scientific methods and evidence.

Ladeja is recognised as the regional "engine of circular economy". She is the founder and executive director of Circular Change platform and the finalist of The Circular Leadership Award 2018 (WEF). Transdisciplinary approach and holistic view is what she is implementing as an entrepreneur, speaker, moderator, lecturer, mentor and passionate connector. She is marketing-communications professional with more than 20 years’ experience in the Adriatic region, focusing on economic and societal transformation – empowering a new narrative and circular culture.

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation is a UK charity with the aim of accelerating the transition to the circular economy. 

Since its creation the charity has emerged as a global thought leader, establishing the circular economy on the agenda of decision makers across business, government and academia. Maja has been with the Foundation’s the Gov. & Cities team since 2015, where her work revolves around supporting policymakers at international, national, regional and local level in driving circular economy initiatives.