David MacKay Memorial Lecture: Making the Circular Economy Profitable – By Someone Who's Done It

Stef Kranendijk: Affiliate Partner, SYSTEM IQ Ltd

Stef is an entrepreneur in sustainability, highly convinced the world needs reforestation, can completely run on renewable energy and successfully implement the circular economy in all sectors. As Chairman and CEO of Desso from 2007 (since 2015 acquired by Tarkett), he led for 6 years the transformation via a massive program of product and business innovation based on Cradle-to-Cradle principles. This move towards the implementation of the circular economy helped Desso to double its market share and tenfold its profit. At SYSTEMIQ, Stef supports activities that will accelerate the implementation of the circular economy in all business sectors. Stef is a regular speaker about the profit and market share building Circular Economy concept at the European Commission, UNECE, EIB and before that at London Business School, IMD Lausanne, Rotterdam School of Management, The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the WEF at Davos and other occasions. Prior to his independent entrepreneurship, he held board positions of a variety of companies and was President EMEA of Stanley Works (1998-2000). Before that he was 19 years with Procter & Gamble (1979-1998) assuming senior leading positions, e.g. end responsible for Germany and the Netherlands. Stef is an alumnus of Rotterdam School of Management (Master Business Administration) and University of Groningen (Bachelor Economics). Today he is CEO of FlareOut, a company that strives to fully eliminate continuous flaring by the Oil & Gas Industry by 2020, Chairman of Solar Polar Ltd., a company that turns sun energy into cooling and air conditioning and Member of the Board of Tribes Holding BV, a flexible work space company. He was also Member of The Board of the Dutch Sustainable Business Association, previously Chairman (De Groene Zaak) and he serves in a variety of other boards, including the Board of the Concertgebouw Fund in Amsterdam.