Dr. Suneel Kunamaneni
Suneel Kunamaneni stands at the forefront of sustainability and inclusivity trend: packaging, agri-food and social care. He has spent the past ten years supporting social and eco innovation and entrepreneurship through his various teaching, mentoring, research and consultancy activities.
Suneel drives innovation ecosystems for developing and diffusing ideas and solutions to address pressing socio-environmental problems. A calculated risk taker with deep technical knowledge of materials, Suneel has championed commercialisation of eco materials and technologies with Universities, MNC labs, Startups and private technology licensors, and has built a reputation for developing new business strategies and incubating new business models that minimise the impact on the environment.
In his current role as an academic at Leeds Business School (UK), Suneel has also fed his insatiable interest in sustainable innovation in emerging countries and inclusive growth. His interest in emerging countries is rooted in his concerns that current growth-based business models cannot solve issues surrounding the environment, and affordable access to food and well-being. Suneel believes that entrepreneurship and mission-driven start-ups are key to challenging the status quo.
Suneel also advises social enterprises in the UK working on refugee entrepreneurship and mental health for the BAME community, thus facilitating the inclusion of marginalised communities. With his experience in both corporate technology innovation and social enterprise, Suneel offers new business models and strategies for a more sustainable and equitable world.
Suneel holds a bachelors in Chemical Engineering from Bangalore University, a masters in Chemical engineering from Indian Institute of Science, a PhD in Polymer physics from University of Leeds, and an MBA from Alliance Manchester Business School.
Clément Affholder
Clément Affholder is an innovation manager at VAUDE Sport, where he works on materials and plastic engineering. After a master in materials science from the University of Lille, where he gathered a background in polymer science and composites, he joined VAUDE to help develop innovative and environmentally friendly materials. Outside the office, Clément likes to go and test VAUDE gear in the nearby Alps.
Clemens Feigl
Clemens Feigl is one of the founders of everwave and CMO. The organisation everwave is a social enterprise that is dedicated to protect the ocean from plastic waste. By creating a brand in the market of sustainability, Clemens and his team were able to establish partnerschips with international corporates.
Clemens studied at the university of Munich and worked for several years as a host for tv- and radio-stations and brands such as The Northface, Allianz, Media Markt and many more.
Orkun Kaymakçı
Orkun Kaymakçı is the Team Leader of the Polymers & Chemistry Technology Group at Arçelik R&D. He received his B.Sc. degree in Chemistry from Koç University and his M.Sc. degree from Macromolecular Science & Engineering from Virginia Tech. He completed his Ph.D. in Polymer Science & Technology from Istanbul Technical University.
Before joining to Arçelik, he worked at Massachusetts General Hospital-Harvard Medical School as a Biomedical Engineer on development of polymer based implants. He has been working for Arcelik Global for seven years. He has a distinctive research and development experience in diverse fields of polymer science and technology. His current primary research interest includes advanced recycling technologies and renewable polymers for home appliance applications. He has 14 patent applications and numerous papers and presentations in the field of polymers.
Allard Max
Allard became intrigued by aquatic pollution whilst working on the Delfino (the Italian word for dolphin) car project and wanting to off-set the car's footprint not by planting trees but by doing something valuable in the ocean.
Seemingly there was no existing method to attribute damage costs to water pollutants and so the marine pollution acquatrail was born with the help of marine scientist Prof. Roberto Danovaro and sustainability specialist Susannah Stewart.
Danovaro and Corinaldesi had just published the damage done to coral by sunscreens and Allard decided to establish Aethic and develop Sôvée with world’s only scientifically proven and patented eco-compatible sunscreen formula - 100% proven reef safe.
Aethic’s various products have been and/or are retailed on board Air Canada, Alitalia and KLM as well Whole Foods, Planet Organic and online with Victoriahealth.com, net-a-porter.com and krisshop.com
Marcia Taylor
Dr. Marcia Taylor is the Vice President in charge of Research at Treventis Corporation. She has enabled key assays in the discovery of small molecules to prevent formation of toxic oligomers. She has led her team through small molecule synthesis, activity, DMPK, preclinical, and toxicity studies on the road to a disease modifying treatment for diseases of protein misfolding. Dr. Taylor received a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Dalhousie University.
Travis Palmquist
