Luis Tejado was born in 1969 in Mexico, is an industrial engineer from Universidad Panamericana and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. His career spans finance and strategy at P&G, BCG and Time Warner before shifting to sustainable agriculture. He has led large-scale forestry (Proteak), palm oil (Prolade), organic bananas and coconut operations (Tabascoco). Passionate about circular economy solutions, he specialises in biochar, regenerative agriculture, alternative energies and irrigation efficiency. A strong advocate for waste circularity, he integrates sustainability into agribusiness models, enhancing productivity while reducing environmental impact.
Pavan works for a global leader in impact data and analytics, harnessing the power of impact economics, technology and AI to uncover a business's full value contribution to the world. A scientist by education, a banker by profession and an environmental economist by passion, he previously led the UN’s Green Economy Initiative and The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) study. His groundbreaking work has been recognised through several awards including the Blue Planet Prize (2016), the Tyler Prize (2020) and the EAERE European Practitioner Achievement Award in Applying Environmental Economics (2024).
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Tatiana Prazeres
Secretary of Foreign Trade
Ministry of Development, Industry, Trade and Services (MDIC), Brazil
With over 20 years of experience in trade, Tatiana Prazeres has worked in government, the private sector, international organisations and academia in Brasilia, São Paulo, Geneva and Beijing. She was a senior advisor to the director-general of the World Trade Organization in Geneva between 2013-2018. While living in China in 2019-2021, she was a senior fellow at the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE). In 2022, she was the head director of the Department of Trade and International Relations at the Federation of Industries of São Paulo (FIESP). A career government official, she holds a PhD in international relations and a master’s in law. In 2014, she was recognised as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.
Luciana Pellegrino is the first woman to take over the presidency of WPO, a 58-year-old institution that represents the packaging industry with members in 64 different countries. She aims to expand WPO’s activities and relevance for the global packaging industry. Her vision is to raise the voice of packaging at strategic global forums and foster packaging’s positive impact in modern life. Pellegrino has worked in the Brazilian packaging industry for over 27 years and has been general manager of the Brazilian Packaging Association (ABRE) since 2002. She has been awarded academic credentials from Mackenzie University, Brazil; the Illinois Institute of Technology, USA; and Instituto Brasileiro de Governança Corporativa (IBGC) in Brazil.
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Liza Kengran
Bioeconomy Youth Champion
International Advisory Council on Global Bioeconomy (IACGB)
Liza is a food security advocate and agricultural engineer. She has an extensive experience in developing and managing sustainable food systems, and is a sustainable food systems curriculum manager at the Kings Foundation. Liza has worked with organisations like the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and various institutions in Cameroon, driving innovative solutions and promoting food security through hands-on education and research. Her expertise spans multiple areas of food systems, from food preservation to sustainable farming practices and youth involvements.
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Tim Forslund
Senior Lead, International Programmes
Sitra, the Finnish Innovation Fund
Tim works with Sitra’s international projects, and he spends most of his time with the European Union Circular Economy Resource Centre and its Policy Lab. Almost anything circular is close to his heart, including a multitude of international circular economy initiatives – not least in the Global South – road maps, policy design and implementation, circular bioeconomy business models, development, trade and EU policy. Before joining Sitra, Tim worked at the Embassy of Sweden in Beijing and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. He studied the circular economy, environmental management and policy and languages in Stockholm, Lund, Montreal, Rock Island and Beijing.
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Emma Westerlund
Education and Sustainability Designer
Novia University of Applied Sciences
Emma Westerlund works as a sustainability and education designer at Novia University of Applied Sciences in Finland. With twenty years of experience in higher education and strategic development processes, she now focuses on higher education's responsibility and curriculum development when it comes to transition and system change. Westerlund initiated and leads a unique master's programme in circular design. She also serves as a key expert in various RDI projects related to a circular economy, circular design and curriculum development, both on a national and a global scale.
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Henry Roman
Regional Representative: Southern Africa
International Water Management Institute (IWMI)
Henry Roman is a principal researcher in the Integrated Circular Economy Transformation Research Group at IWMI and chair of the board of the Sustainable Seas Trust. Roman initiated the development of the science, technology and innovation points for the circular economy strategy for South Africa, which has been approved for implementation. He obtained his PhD in environmental biotechnology in 2005 from Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa.
Fernando is a biologist with a master’s in environmental engineering from the University of São Paulo. He is a board member of the Green Chamber of Commerce in Colombia. He has gained international experience through aquaculture consultancy with the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), circular water economy projects with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and conservation initiatives with The Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar). He is an international speaker on topics such as circular water management, bioprospecting, biomimicry, ecological restoration, blue carbon, nature-based solutions and climate change adaptation. His expertise includes sustainable development, environmental risk analysis, monitoring and ecological modelling with a focus on water and hydrobiological resource management, as well as environmental certifications such as ISO 14000, LEED, BMP, ASC and Global GAP. Heis renowned for his creativity, disruptive thinking, interdisciplinary collaboration, leadership and social sensitivity.
Marvin Nusseck is a seasoned expert at the intersection of the circular economy and the financial sector, with over eight years of experience in stakeholder engagement and strategic solution development. He has successfully brought together leading international financial institutions and facilitated collaboration among major Multilateral Development Banks on circular economy finance. He helped initiate the Dutch financial sector working group on the circular economy, as well as the the Circularity Gap Report Finance. Marvin has contributed to key initiatives such as the ISO Circular Economy standards, CSRD E5, and multiple UNEP-FI publications on the circular economy, resource management and waste. He holds an MSc in political economy from the University of Amsterdam.
