CYRILL GUTSCH

CEO & FOUNDER, PARLEY FOR THE OCEANS

Cyrill is an award-winning designer and brand/product developer. In 1998 he created a method called Cross Intelligence, which brings a culture of collaboration to major organizations. In 2012 he decided to focus on a new client vital to us all: the oceans. He founded Parley for the Oceans as a collaboration network for creators, thinkers and leaders to raise awareness for the beauty and fragility of the oceans and to develop and implement strategies that can end their destruction. Parley and their partners won the Grand Prix for Product Design at Cannes Lions, two D&AD Pencils and an ADCN Grand Prix in 2014. Gutsch was named 2017 Environmentalist of the Year by the Surf Industry Manufacturers Association for his tireless work for the oceans. In 2018, Parley was named Environmental Organisation of the Year at EARTHx and Gutsch was honored with a Special Recognition Award for Innovation by the British Fashion Council. In 2019, Gutsch was inducted into the UBS Global Visionary community – a select group of leading entrepreneurs and individuals working towards one or more of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.

STUART LANDESBERG

CO-FOUNDER & CEO, GROVE COLLABORATIVE

Stuart Landesberg is the co-founder and CEO of Grove Collaborative, a leading sustainable consumer products company transforming the industry into a force for human and environmental good. Grove creates and curates high-performing, planet-first products across household cleaning, personal care, laundry, clean beauty, and pet. Stu has long been passionate about sustainability. He began building the company that became Grove in 2012 (first under the ePantry name) when he became frustrated that he had to choose between his values and products for his home. He wanted to create a platform that would allow families easy access to healthy, sustainable products. Grove was established in 2016 as a certified B Corp and is now also a public benefit corporation. Grove serves millions of households in the U.S. every year and has raised more than $450 million in total funding to-date. In 2021 alone, Grove’s product innovations are expected to save over 2.3 million pounds of plastic. By 2025, Grove will be 100% plastic-free. Stu was previously with TPG Growth, where he was involved in more than $400 million in consumer and technology investments. Stu and his wife, Caitlin, live in San Francisco with their two children and dog, and spend as much time outside as possible.

LAUREN SINGER

FOUNDER & CEO, Package Free & TRASH IS FOR TOSSERS

Lauren Singer is the Founder & CEO of the world’s first and largest zero-waste lifestyle shop, Package Free, as well as the founder of the internationally-celebrated media platform Trash is for Tossers. She first went viral for fitting all the waste she’s generated (over 8 years now!) into a single Mason jar. Now, through her latest endeavors with Package Free, Lauren is set to bring this movement to the masses. Package Free first launched in 2017 and has already diverted over 100 million units from entering landfill.

At just 30 years old, her cross-category sustainability experience (government, CPG, media) has redefined what it means to be a successful CEO; proving it’s possible to build businesses based off of your values. She teaches others that minimizing their environmental footprints is simple, cost-effective, timely, fun, & entirely possible for everyone and anyone.

She was featured in Forbes 30 under 30. Her mission has been covered in Harper’s BAZAAR, the NY Times, ABC News, DORÉ,  Teen Vogue, and TED.

BRIAN COLLINS

CCO & FOUNDER, COLLINS

Brian is Chief Creative Officer of COLLINS. Over his career, Brian and his team have won every major creative award. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Forbes, Creativity, Fortune, NBC News, ABC News and Fast Company, which named him an American Master of Design. Business Week named his flagship store for Hershey as a design “Wonder of the World.” His team’s design of Helios House in Los Angeles, the first gas station using environmentally sustainable principles, is included in The Cooper Hewitt National Museum of Design.

Brian’s clients have included Airbnb, Chobani, Coca-Cola, Equinox, Facebook, The Ford Motor Company, Giorgio Armani, IBM, Instagram, Jaguar Cars, Levi Strauss & Co., Mailchimp, Mattel, Microsoft, Netflix, Nike, Spotify, Target, Unilever, The Walt Disney Co., Warner Music and The Guggenheim Museum.

Brian was made a Distinguished Alumnus of the Massachusetts College of Art in 2004 and received an Honorary Doctorate from the Art Center College of Design in 2008. He was the first graphic designer invited to participate in the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and was a charter member of the Forum’s Global Agenda Council. In 2018 he was honored with the Bell Labs Luminary Award.

Brian has been a professor in the Graduate Program of the School of Visual Arts since 2001, and is a Director and Officer of The One Club for Creativity, the world’s leading organization promoting creative excellence in design and advertising.

MARIA WESTERBOS

Founder & Director, Plastic Soup Foundation

Maria Westerbos is an expert in mass communication, focusing on both traditional and new media. She combines a taste for inspiring social change projects with strategic insight and near flawless intuition covering a wide range of target groups. In 2011 she did set up - grass roots - the Plastic Soup Foundation. With their first campaign, Beat the Microbead, the Foundation established change in the use of micro plastics by international businesses, local and national governments, consumers and NGOs.

Maria is a flamboyant woman with a zest for life who is able to motivate groups with inspiring stories about taking a positive approach to complex problems for permanent change. She worked for more than 25 years for broadcasting companies and production companies. Initially as editor/researcher, but then as producer, production coordinator, editor-in-chief, executive producer, business-unit manager, delegated producer and creative producer. In February 2011 she founded the Dutch Plastic Soup Foundation and started creating awareness all over Holland, Europe & the world for this severe environmental problem. Because of that Maria ranked in 2018 number 18 in De Dikke Blauwe: a list of the 100 most influentials in 'The Land of Do Well'.

BEN PARKER

Creative Director & Founding Partner, MadeThought

After graduating alongside Made Thought co-founder Paul Austin, Ben went on to take a Master’s degree in Visual Communication Design at Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design. Three years later, Ben and Paul established Made Thought in 2000. Ben believes pivotal to Made Thought’s growth is its willingness to immerse itself in every aspect of a brand, making considerations for creativity and commerce. He feels that the studio’s incessant focus on deep-thinking to inspire change has fuelled its burgeoning reputation as one of London’s leading forces for progressive design. Their work explores design as a tool to cultivate desire and humanise brands — to go deep in an increasingly shallow world. 

Most recently the agency has turned its attention to the most pressing of issues — that packaging equals waste. Working on projects such as A Plastic Planet, driving campaigns including the supermarket plastic free aisle and plastic free day, the agency fundamentally lives by the belief in using design for good, committing to working on an agenda focused on sustainability and circular design. Made Thought have applied their ability to create desirable brands and products within the luxury landscape to build a new model for “eco” design - change is not to fear or guilt us; it’s to make people ‘want it’, to make conscientious consumption desirable.

JULIA MARSH

CO-FOUNDER, SWAY

Julia Marsh is the CEO and co-founder of Sway, a packaging company forging the material and cultural dimensions of a plastic-free future with the regenerative power of seaweed. Julia is an interdisciplinary designer by trade, with over a decade spent building brand and packaging systems for consumer goods companies, technology startups, and design studios. Sway was born from a lifetime affection for the ocean, and the belief that designers breathe life into solutions for the planet’s greatest challenges.

JOSHUA BREIDENBACH

Co-Founder, Executive Creative Director, Rice

Joshua is a founding partner and Executive Creative Director at Rice, a Vietnam-based strategic branding and design studio. A desire to discover the world and a passion for creating a dialogue through design-led Joshua to settle in Vietnam, in 2006. There, he was challenged and motivated by the new environment. Deep culture and a rapidly changing country inspired his eventual co-founding of Rice.

Today, with a diverse team, passion for unearthing true stories, and belief in design as a powerful agent of change, Rice creates work for commercial and cultural clients in Vietnam—and internationally—with concept-driven and accessible design. Rice is on a mission to amplify extraordinary stories from Vietnam, and beyond, to make a positive impact.

Rice creates work for Vietnam-based brands, such as Marou Chocolate, as well as for international organizations, such as Unicef, Uber, and Uniqlo, as they seek to create relevant connections in new global markets. Joshua is a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI). His work with Rice has received accolades from Red Dot, Graphis, Type Directors Club, as well as IDA for Graphic Design of the Year for UNICEF Vietnam. Joshua has spoken on creativity and design trends around the world, connecting his practice to wider topics, such as inspiration, sustainability, nature, and humanity.

Joshua is a board member of PLASTICpeople, a company that employs a circular economy model to transform plastic waste into useful, affordable, and valuable products for building and other uses. PLASTICPeople is focused on improving the environment and society.

SIAN SUTHERLAND

CO-FOUNDER, A PLASTIC PLANET

Sian Sutherland is Co-founder of A Plastic Planet, one of the most recognised and respected organisations tackling the plastic crisis. Igniting social change, creating brands, campaigns and businesses with soul is Sian’s passion. Multi-award winner, including Female Marketer of the Year, CEW Achiever Award, Entrepreneur of the Year and British Inventor of the Year; Sian is a serial entrepreneur with a varied background in advertising, skincare, Michelin Star restaurants, film production and brand creation design agencies. In 2017, Sian co-founded A Plastic Planet, using a pro-business, pro-solutions and pro-active approach to build a different kind of organisation with a single goal - to ignite and inspire the world to turn off the plastic tap.

ANDREW GIBBS

FOUNDER, DIELINE

Andrew Gibbs has been called an “innovator in the world of design” as the founder, CEO, and Editor-in-Chief of Dieline, founded in 2007. Andrew started Dieline Awards in 2009 to formally recognize the world’s best consumer product packaging design. The awards competition was recognized as a “global phenomenon” in its first year. In 2010, he founded Dieline Conference, an annual conference for creative professionals in the packaging design and branding industry.

Andrew serves as Creative Director and Programming Partner for HOW Design Live, one of the largest annual gatherings of creatives in the world. Andrew was previously named the Editor-in-Chief of HOW Design Magazine in 2015, making him the youngest editor of a design magazine ever. In 2018, Andrew became a Climate Reality Leader after training under Al Gore at the 2018 Climate Reality Corps. He joined A Plastic Planet, a global advocacy group that is dedicated to dramatically reducing the amount of single use plastic used in the packaging industry. Andrew co-founded PlasticFree.com with A Plastic Planet, and he teaches sustainable, single use plastic free package design at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena. Andrew speaks and consults worldwide on the topics of packaging design and sustainable packaging.

SANDRO KVERNMO

Creative Director, Co-founder of Goods

Sandro is the Creative Director and co-founder of Goods, a brand and packaging design studio working internationally from Oslo, Norway. Goods design customer experiences for people and planet that balance ethics and aesthetics. Prior to founding Goods, Kvernmo was educated at Hyper Island in Sweden and has led global branding processes for brands like Shiseido, Mitsubishi Motors, Ørsted, Carlsberg in Copenhagen and Tokyo working for both Kontrapunkt and Nippon Design Center.

MARISA SANCHEZ-DUNNING

MANAGING PARTNER, GUACAMOLE AIRPLANE

Marisa is the Managing Partner at Guacamole Airplane, a design agency focused on sustainable packaging where she oversees operations, new business and strategy. Previously Marisa worked with Thompson Brand Partners and The Engine Room, all highly-respected studios in the United Kingdom. A Berkeley, California native, Marisa received her BA in Marketing from the University of Huddersfield in the United Kingdom.

IAN MONTGOMERY

FOUNDER & CREATIVE DIRECTOR, GUACAMOLE AIRPLANE

Ian Montgomery is the Founder and Creative Director of Guacamole Airplane, a design agency focused on sustainable packaging. At GA Ian has led projects for Whole Foods, Allbirds, and Lumi. Ian did his undergraduate coursework in Environmental Science at Stanford and masters work in Packaging Design at Pratt, where he received funding from the National Science Foundation to build a series of experimental recycling machines. Before starting GA, Ian worked with the in-house design teams at Areaware, Chubbies, and Mollusk.