Growth in a circular economy | Summit 2021

Audrey Choi, Chief Marketing Officer & Chief Sustainability Officer, Morgan Stanley

Audrey Choi is Morgan Stanley’s Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO), Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and serves on the firm’s Management Committee.

As founding CEO of Morgan Stanley’s industry-leading Institute for Sustainable Investing, Audrey oversees Morgan Stanley’s global efforts to promote sustainability through the capital markets. Audrey has been a pioneer in bringing sustainable investing into the mainstream, and in a career spanning the public, private and nonprofit sectors, she has been a proven thought leader on how finance can be harnessed to protect the environment, strengthen communities and create economic opportunity.

In her role as CMO, Audrey is responsible for stewarding Morgan Stanley’s global brand to reflect the firm's core values across its businesses and geographies.

Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Audrey held senior policymaking positions in the Clinton Administration. She is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School and was a Fulbright Scholar and a White House Fellow.

Bill McRaith, Chief Supply Chain Officer, PVH

Bill oversees the Company’s global supply operations and is responsible for developing the global supply strategies, structure, process and manufacturing topography to service the needs of all PVH retail and wholesale divisions across all three time horizons.

Bill, his team and key supply partners established the Hawassa Industrial zone in Ethiopia which was recognised by both the World Bank and the US Government as an apparel best practice approach to future supply models, with PVH receiving the Secretary Of State’s Award for Corporate Excellence in 2018. 

Before joining PVH, Bill served as Senior Vice President of Global Sourcing at Walmart overseeing the supply of toys, electronics, hardware, and home goods. Before that, he was Senior Vice President of Product Development and Supply Chain Operations with Spiegel Brands.

Earlier in his career, Bill served as Executive Vice President of Manufacturing, Sourcing and Product Development for Victoria’s Secret, Chief Supply Chain Officer Intimates at Limited Brands.

Carolina Schmidt, Minister of the Environment, Chile

Carolina Schmidt has served as Chile’s Minister of Environment since 2018. She has created a circular economy office, led the development of a National Circular Economy Roadmap, as well as laws and regulations to tackle plastics and food waste. As COP25 President, she has promoted the inclusion of CE in NDCs, following Chile’s updated commitments. Before, Mrs. Schmidt served as Minister for Women and Gender Equity (2010-13) and Education (2013-14), and as director and CEO of various companies.

David Sävman, Head of Supply Chain, H&M Group

David Sävman was appointed Head of Supply Chain for H&M Group in March 2020. In his role, David is responsible to drive and implement the group’s global sourcing and logistics strategies. H&M Group is continuously introducing improvements all along its supply chain to ensure that the right product arrives to the right place at the right time. One focus area is to have production processes that enable circular economy principles, taking us one step closer to our goal to become climate positive by 2040. Another focus area is to ensure that the group is a fair buyer and to have responsible purchases practices. David has held a number of positions – including Regional Production Manager for Europe and Africa, Bangladesh and Pakistan, and Head of Production based in Hong Kong– since he joined the company in 2003. David holds a degree in Textile Science and Engineering.

Ellen MacArthur, Founder & Chair of Trustees, Ellen MacArthur Foundation

Dame Ellen MacArthur made yachting history in 2005, when she became the fastest solo sailor to circumnavigate the globe and she remains the UK’s most successful offshore racer ever.

Having become acutely aware of the finite nature of the resources on which our linear economy relies, she retired from professional sailing to launch the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in 2010. 

The Foundation works to accelerate the transition to a circular economy, establishing the concept on the agenda of decision makers around the world. Dame Ellen is a World Economic Forum Global Agenda Trustee for Environment and Natural Resource Security and a Board Member of its Platform for Accelerating the Circular Economy and she sat on the European Commission’s Resource Efficiency Platform between 2012 and 2014.

Paul Bodnar, Global Head of Sustainable Investing, BlackRock

Paul’s team drives BlackRock’s leadership in sustainable investing through the development of cutting-edge climate and sustainability research and integration of these insights throughout BlackRock's suite of investment solutions and Aladdin. 

Paul previously served as Chief Strategy Officer at RMI, a global non-profit working to accelerate the clean energy transition. While at RMI, he founded the Center for Climate-Aligned Finance to help large financial institutions transition to net-zero emissions portfolios. He also helped establish the Mission Possible Partnership to orchestrate net-zero sector transformation platforms for seven global industries. Prior to this, Paul served in the White House as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Energy and Climate Change at the National Security Council. He was a key architect of the Obama Administration's international climate policies culminating in the Paris Agreement, and led U.S. climate finance policy at the State Department. 

Paul holds degrees in international relations from Stanford and Harvard.

Susanne Waidzunas, Global Supply Chain Operations Manager, Inter IKEA

As the Head of Global Supply Chain Operations, Susanne is leading the development of IKEA’s transport and logistic services capacities and operations and holds responsibility for the physical flows of the IKEA products from suppliers to stores. 

Susanne has a long and in-depth experience within the supply chain field, having worked with IKEA’s business development on regional and global levels. Originally from Gothenburg, Sweden, Susanne has a Master of Science Degree in International business from the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg. 

A passionate leader, Susanne’s experience is particularly beneficial in her work developing more sustainable supply chains, exploring questions tackling climate change and advocating for a circular and equal society.

Wolfgang Blau, Trustee, Ellen MacArthur Foundation & Visiting Research Fellow, Oxford University

Wolfgang Blau is an international media manager and journalist. Currently, he is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University where he studies the intersection of journalism and the climate crisis. 

In his last role, he was global Chief Operating Officer & President, International at Condé Nast, overseeing the Condé Nast companies and licensing partners in Asia, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America, as well as the following global functions for all markets, including the United States: Product & Technology, Global Content Operations, Data & Insight, Licensing, Vogue Business, New Business Innovation as well as the Delivery & Business Transformation. 

Prior to Condé Nast, Blau served as Executive Director of Digital Strategy at The Guardian and as Editor-in-chief of Zeit Online, a position that won him Germany’s Chief Editor of the Year award. 

He started his career as a national radio news anchor and worked for seven years in California as a Silicon Valley reporter and a columnist for German national newspapers and broadcasters.

Jarkko Havas (Host), Lead, Insights & Analysis, Ellen MacArthur Foundation

Jarkko leads the Foundation's Insights & Analysis work. I&A consists of the Data & Metrics Initiative with a focus on measuring company level circular economy performance (Circulytics), and teams working on upcoming focus topics for the Foundation, as well as the case study programme.

Prior to joining the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Jarkko was an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company, based first in Tokyo and then in Brussels. His consulting work focused on agriculture and chemicals industries in both private and public sectors. Jarkko's academic background is in environmental engineering and sustainability science.

Judith Evans (Host), Consumer Industries Correspondent, Financial Times

Judith Evans is the consumer industries correspondent for the Financial Times, covering food, drink, and home and personal care products, and companies such as Nestlé, Unilever and AB InBev, along with the UK farming sector. She previously wrote about property and investment for the FT and worked for newswires in the UK and Asia.

Juliet Lennon (Host), Programe Manager, Make Fashion Circular, Ellen MacArthur Foundation

Juliet is the Programme Manager for the Make Fashion Circular Initiative at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Previously Juliet worked as a Project Manager in the New Plastics Economy Team at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, supporting the development of national and regional initiatives in the Foundation’s global Plastics Pact Network. Working with Plastics Pacts across Africa, Europe, North America, South America and the Pacific, Juliet facilitated cross value chain collaboration between business, government and NGO’s within a country to implement local solutions to build a plastics system without waste or pollution. She also supported the exchange of vital knowledge and best practices between Plastics Pacts in the Network to accelerate the transition to a circular economy for plastics. 

Before joining the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Juliet worked as a science and technology consultant in Cambridge.