International Experts Join Empower in the Pursuit of a fully Circular Economy
We are proud and happy to finally launch our first Board of Advisors!
In the last year we have been looking for experts that can complement the internal team with expertise, experience and networks. A team of strong individuals that can ask the right questions, help us make the right decisions and keep us on (this high-speed) track also in the years to come.
After evaluating several potential candidates we contacted these four amazing people that we met along our journey, and that we believe will each contribute in a great and unique way to our continued journey. To our great joy they have all accepted to join the Empower Team! We are already reaping the benefits of this wealth of added competencies and are proud to announce them here!
Empower Presents its first Advisory Board:
Empower Advisory Board Profiles
Biography: Josse Kunst
Josse Kunst is a circular economy entrepreneur. He has lived and worked in China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and The Netherlands and has 25+ years business experience in more than 60 countries worldwide. After leading DSM’s circular economy initiative Niaga® he has recently founded his own company Kiduara focussing on molecular recycling, designing with advanced bio-based materials and impact investing in early stage circular start-ups. He is currently active in molecular recycling projects for polyester, polyamide 6 as well as polylactic acid. Josse also acts as Holland Circular Hotspot Special Envoy, representing the thriving Dutch circular economy industry around the world. He is co-founder and co-owner of circular start-ups in Vietnam (CL2B) as well as The Netherlands (Arapaha).
Biography: Margaret Jacob
Margaret Jacob is a sustainable innovator who embraces circularity and transformative solutions to drive progress towards a more sustainable economy. As Independent Consultant her role spans business-led sustainable development, NGO environmental education and social projects in support of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Margaret has over 20 years’ direct industry experience in textiles, sportswear, packaging, plastics and architectural materials. Her multi-disciplinary expertise is based on roles in new business development, innovation, sustainability, marketing and business strategy. She is experienced in managing complex multi-stakeholder projects globally and has worked at both start-ups and multinational corporations Adidas, Puma, Invista, DuPont.
Biography: Elena Ortiz
Elena Ortiz is a passionate and driven leader and entrepreneur with 12+ years business strategy experience (8 years within business management & marketing and 4 years within Google). She founded & ran own business within the travel industry for 4 years in Switzerland and pivoted to social entrepreneurship by founding an e-commerce for second hand bags. Elena has broad expertise in all areas of digital communication and strategy across different platforms and is currently working in Google as a digital strategy consultant specialized in YouTube and Google Display.
Biography: Jonas Rinde
Jonas Rinde, is the CEO and Co-founder of Nomono, an AI sound startup. Before Nomono, Jonas was CEO of Huddly where he took the business from 0 to 30+ million USD revenue in less than 3 years, 200+ MUSD valuation, signed strategic partnerships with Google, Microsoft, Zoom, and sold +100k units globally. Jonas has more than 20+ years of experience in all aspects of world-class product development, user experience, engineering, and management in both start-ups and large corporations in the high-tech industry. Earlier in his career he worked as VP Products in Acano and Co-founder of Cisco Webex Board and Apps, Engineering Director at Cisco, Tandberg, Volvo, Sony Ericsson, Ericsson and he has experience from three exits; 3.3 BUSD, 700 MUSD and 50 MUSD. Nomono is now Jonas 4th startup to scale globally.
