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 obtained a Doctorate in Engineering and Management in 2011 after defending her thesis on Corporate Social Responsibility.

Simina has been part of the Department 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, national, regional and EU, the transition towards circularity from the bottom up with concerted actions, developing practical and scalable solutions, organized local-regional-EU campaigns, communicating and involving others in the dissemination of the circular economy information and sustainable development message. Simina is Romanian and is fluent in English and Italian.

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

Currently, Walter Stahel works as an author, keynote speaker and storyteller. He promotes understanding of the structure of an economy in loops and its drivers and obstacles (circular industrial economy), spreads knowledge about the competitiveness of a performance economy selling goods and molecules as a service, and identifies the levers to speed up the shift from a linear industrial economy managing flows to a circular economy managing stocks. He does this through workshops, lectures and policy groups.

The CSCP is a think and do tank that not only contributes to advancing sustainable consumption and production (SCP) agenda through its think tank activities, but also implements innovative SCP projects and activities on the field as a do tank.  

Michael Kuhndt is the Founder and Executive Director of the CSCP with more than 20 years of experience in the fields of international co-operation, development and sustainability.

Michael Kuhndt has managed programs for numerous multinational companies, ministries, European and UN organisations in the fields of: strategy development for sustainable supply chains & circular economy, development / set up for an approach for sustainable consumption, upscaling of sustainable business models, triple bottom line innovation, sustainable finance and policy strategies based on multi-stakeholder.

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.

Kari Herlevi is a versatile multi-talent in the field of circular economy. He is currently leading the circular economy area at Sitra, the Finnish Innovation Fund. Previously responsible for the Resource efficient economy area in 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 circular economy, fast growing cleantech firms and developing countries like BRIC.

Ladeja Godina Košir is recognised as the regional "engine of circular economy". She is the founder and executive director of the Circular Change platform, finalist of The Circular Leadership Award 2018 and Chair of the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform. Ladeja has more than 20 years’ experience in communications on economic and societal transformation across the Adriatic region, empowering a new narrative of circular culture.

Circular Change is a private non-profit organisation serving as the entry point for circular economy projects across Europe. Instrumental in the stakeholder-led drafting of the Roadmap towards the Circular Economy for Slovenia, adopted by Slovenia's government in May 2018, the platform also serves as Slovenian Circular Hotspot within the Circular Hotspot Network. Overall the platform advocates for a stronger link between design and circular economy as the key to creating products that are useful, efficient, repairable and beautiful.

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.

Carsten Wachholz joined the Foundation in 2020 after two years working for the European Investment Bank on Corporate Responsibility and another four years working for the European Environmental Bureau on the first EU Circular Economy Action Plan. Carsten leads the Foundation's newly established Brussels-based team supporting the development of circular economy policies at EU and international level (e.g. G20, OECD), in close collaboration with the Foundation's systemic initiatives on plastics, fashion and food.