100 People & Organizations in Circularity to Follow in 2025: Summary of the List
- Christine Nikander
- Dec 25, 2025
- 8 min read
With all 25 parts posted and all 100 stories told, the list of 100 people and organizations in circularity to follow in 2025 is now complete! For ease of reference, you will find a condensed version of the full list below. By clicking on the category titles, you can easily navigate to the relevant part of the list and read the full stories of the individuals and organizations featured.
Please note that this list aims to foster community building and not competition, and therefore there is no particular order in which people and organizations are named in the list. We simply gave each of the 25 posts in the series a theme, divided the 100 people and organizations across these themes, and then sorted the individuals in alphabetical order by their first names.
1) Brooking Gatewood is the host of The Indisposable Podcast® by Upstream.
2) Caitlyn Socwell works as a global circular sustainability consultant at The Waste Not Spot.
3) MaryEllen Etienne is the creator and author of the Women in Circularity® series.
4) Janina Nieper, Robert Blaauboer, and Pardis Faqiri are the creators of the Circular Pioneers Podcast.
5) Jessica Saunders is an expert on e-textiles and a programme director of fashion at the University of the Arts London.
6) Nicola Peel is an expert advisor at the Design Council.
7) Saskia Tykkyläinen co-created modules on sustainable, circular, and planet-centered design for The E-Waste Learning Hub.
8) The Ellen MacArthur Foundation is a non-profit working to accelerate the transition over to a circular economy.
9) Elin Bergman co-founded the Nordic Circular Hotspot, she was a founding member of the Circular Economy Coalition, and she is the vice chairman at Cradlenet Sweden.
10) Hilde Sijbring co-founded the Circular Finance Lab, and she currently works as a senior policy advisor on circular economy at the Dutch Banking Association.
11) Sabine Rau-Oberhuber is the chairman of the supervisory board at the Holland Circular Hotspot.
12) Vojtech Vosecky works at Circle Economy and The Circular Economist.
13) Antonia Sommerfeld, a senior research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, and Veronica Ruiz Abou-Nigm, a professor for private international law at the University of Edinburgh Law School, are looking into the role that private international law can play in supporting circularity within the fashion industry.
14) Arjan Hassing and Romy Snijders are the co-founders of CircuLaw, which was started as an initiative by the City of Amsterdam and Dark Matter Labs.
15) Tom Voege is a policy director at the PRO Circularity Alliance and GRS PRO.
16) Walter R. Stahel is the founder of the Product-Life Institute in Geneva.
17) Piret Liv Stern Dahl, the co-founder of BonoLab, and Jeyanthi Subramanian, the founder of Experiential Math Solutions, created the “E-waste Circularity Challenge” initiative together.
18) Scott Butler is the executive director of Material Focus, which runs the Recycle Your Electricals campaign in the UK.
19) Tim de Ridder is the creator of “Closing the E-Loop” available on Cool.org.
20) Timmy de Vos started the E-waste Race initiative and founded Race Against Waste.
21) Janet Gunter and Ugo Vallauri founded The Restart Project, which is also a founding member of Right to Repair Europe.
22) Martine Postma started Stichting Repair Café International.
23) Paul Kerssens and Thami Schweichler are the co-founders of the United Repair Centre.
24) Sabri Cheriha is the founder of WeFix.
25) Anne Gillespie is an expert in sustainable textiles and ethical supply chains, who previously worked at Textile Exchange and Impact Alliance.
26) Immaculate Maliachi is the founder of Green Stitch Africa.
27) Nicole Bassett and Jeff Denby co-founded The Renewal Workshop.
28) Ola Bąkowska is the textile programme lead at Circle Economy.
29) Chui-Lian Lee and Valentina Gomez co-founded Werewool.
30) Moby Ahmed and Shay Sethi started Ambercycle.
31) Peter Majeranowski is the co-founder of Circ®.
32) Petri Alava co-founded Infinited Fiber Company.
33) Arthur Huang and Jarvis Liu are the co-founders of MINIWIZ.
34) Bhakti Loonawat and Suyash Sawant started ANOMALIA.
35) Hugo Silva and Joana Santos founded DAM.
36) Marije Remigius founded Inter Matter, Circu Leren, and Jutplaats.
37) Damien Melotte and Paul Paton co-founded Dinadj.
38) Maria Cleto works on the circular economy at the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
39) WarīNkwī Flores is the founder and principal consultant at Kinray Hub: Indigenous R&D Think-Do Tank.
40) Rebecca Hui is the founder of Rurban, which works to show that circularity and culture heritage go hand-in-hand.
41) Heidrun Kordholste-Nikander co-created modules on the role of Indigenous people’s knowledge, regenerative practices, and circular material use for sustainable agriculture and protecting forest biodiversity for The E-Waste Learning Hub.
42) Julia Watson and Melissa Hunter Gurney co-founded the Lo-TEK Institute.
43) Natalia Krylova examined food waste management based on the principles of the circular economy in her PhD thesis at the University of Geneva.
44) The Platform for Accelerating the Circular Economy (PACE) was created by the World Economic Forum in 2018, and a part of its programs have now transitioned over to the World Resources Institute.
45) Boyan Slat is the founder of The Ocean Cleanup.
46) Gunter Pauli launched Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives (ZERI).
47) Katrin Schuhen founded Wasser 3.0 gGmbH.
48) Mere Takoko is the co-founder of the Pacific Whale Fund and an ambassador of the Circular Bioeconomy Alliance.
49) Joan Marc Simon started Zero Waste Europe.
50) Stephanie Barger is the director of TRUE Zero Waste at the U.S. Green Building Council. She also founded the Earth Resource Foundation and the U.S. Zero Waste Business Council.
51) Teresa Bradley is the president of the National Recycling Coalition and the founder of Race to Zero Waste.
52) Zoë Lenkiewicz founded the Global Waste Lab, and she works as a strategic waste management lead at United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR).
53) Apoorva Arya is the founder of the Circular Innovation Lab ApS.
54) Chris Whyte co-founded Africa Circular with the African Circular Economy Network (ACEN).
55) Kelvin Wong is the co-founder of Terra SG Pte Ltd and Circular Asia.
57) Elisa Achterberg is the co-founder of cise.network and the Circular Finance Lab. She also works as an associate at the Sustainable Finance Lab.
58) Harald Friedl is the founder of the Circular Economy Innovation Agency.
59) Kavita Sachwani works as a lead on the circular economy and pollution at the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI).
60) Martijn Lopes Cardozo is a partner at Regeneration.VC, a member of the board of directors at Orbisk | Zero Food Waste, an expert advisor for building a waste-free world at The Earthshot Prize, and an entrepreneur in residence at YES!Delft.
61) Connor Bryant and Jack Schneider co-founded Rubbish Ideas, The Rubbish Project, and Rubbish Reusables.
62) Lorna Rutto founded EcoPost Ltd.
63) Maria Westerbos founded the Plastic Soup Foundation and co-founded the Plastic Health Council.
64) Olga Kachook works at GreenBlue Org, where she leads the Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC).
65) Jiacai Lau, Nicholas Lim, and Jong Kai Jie Tylor co-founded TreeDots.
66) Joost de Kluijver founded Closing the Loop.
67) Najla Abdellatif Vallander founded Zero Waste Palestine.
68) Saasha Celestial-One and Tessa Clarke are the co-founders of Olio • Share More, Waste Less.
69) Isabela Bonatto works as a consultant for the UN Environment Programme, and she is an ambassador for the Circular Movement.
70) Jan Carel Diehl and Tamara Hoveling conduct research into how to implement circularity into hospitals and medical devices at the Delft University of Technology.
71) Prashant Prahlad and Nadine Audi co-founded Diva'Me.
72) Sofía Lara Schlezak works on chemical waste with the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR).
73) Cheryl Coleman is the vice president of sustainability at the Recycled Materials Association (ReMA) and a board member of SERI.
74) Jacqueline Cramer is the chairman of the supervisory board of Holland Circular Hotspot, the chairman of the Dutch Circular Textile Valley - Textielregie, and a patroness of the Plastic Soup Foundation.
75) Janine Benyus is the founder of Biomimicry 3.8 and the co-founder of The Biomimicry Institute.
76) Michael Braungart and William McDonough developed the “cradle-to-cradle design” concept.
77) Ambarish Mitra, Mikela Druckman, and Nikola Sivacki are the co-founders of Greyparrot.
78) Davide Labolani, Jacopo Lottero, Michele Olivieri, and Tomaso Manca are the co-founders of Hiro Robotics.
79) Hans Hon Sang Chan and Martin Holicky co-founded Matoha.
80) Peter Hedley and Victor Dewulf co-founded Recycleye.
81) Enrico Pizzi and Gianluca Torta are the co-founders of RarEarth.
82) Marie Perrin is a co-founder of REEcover.
83) Pietrogiovanni Cerchier is the founder of 9-Tech.
84) Rod Eggert is the deputy director of the Critical Materials Innovation Hub (CMI) and a professor at the Colorado School of Mines.
85) Bas van Abel is the founder of Fairphone.
86) Julie-Ann Adams is the secretary general of the EBRA (European Battery Recycling Association) and the CEO of both EERA - WEEE recyclers and the European Electronics Recyclers Association.
87) Pascal Leroy is the director general of the WEEE Forum, and he set up the WEEELABEX Organisation.
88) Verena Radulovic is the vice president of business engagement at the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES). She is also a board member of the Global Electronics Council and SERI.
89) Césare Peeren and Jan Jongert are the co-founders of Superuse Studios and the platform Oogstkaart.
90) Cody Ryan and Denise Braun are the co-founders of All About Waste.
91) Marthijn Pool, Sascha Glasl, and Tjeerd J. Haccou are the co-founders of Space&Matter.
92) Thomas M. Rau founded RAU Architects and co-founded Madaster.
93) Anne Raudaskoski is the founder of Re-Generous Unlimited, and she also co-founded Ethica Finland.
94) Fabiana Di Lorenzo works as a senior director at the Responsible Business Alliance, where she leads the Responsible Minerals Initiative’s impact and innovation work.
95) Jack Arnold, Martin Dietrich Brauch, and Perrine Toledano conduct research on critical minerals and circularity at Columbia University and the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment.
96) Ralitza Naydenova is a specialist on materials systems at the World Economic Forum.
97) Almira Selin Kahya and Simon Röckinghausen co-founded the School of Circularity.
98) Anna Tarí founded the Circular Economy Club and the Circular Economy Institute.
99) Louise van Schaik, Rem Korteweg, and Vera Kranenburg have conducted research into the geopolitics of critical raw materials and the circular economy at The Clingendael Institute.
100) Oiva Nikander joined Sitra when it was founded in 1967 to conduct research into the electrification of mobility. Today, both Sitra and the World Circular Economy Forum WCEF continue to push the circular economy forward.
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