Amsterdam, December 20, 2019 – Today, Circle Economy announces the start of a CEO transition: as of February 1st 2020, Harald Friedl, Circle Economy’s current CEO, will step down, handing over his responsibilities to Martijn Lopes Cardozo, currently a board member of Circle Economy, who will take over as ad interim CEO. While the search for a new CEO is underway, Circle Economy wishes to thank Harald Friedl for his support to the organisation in his 3 years of service.
Robert-Jan van Ogtrop, Chairman of the Supervisory Board: “We want to thank Harald for his great work in the last 3 years. Under his leadership the organization has grown significantly and has developed many new initiatives and global alliances. Great examples are the global Circularity Gap Report, the collaboration with Kate Raworth around the work on circular economies in cities – and also scaling up our programmatic work on Textiles, Finance, Jobs & Skills, and Design and Brands. Internationally we have built successful partnerships, such as our work with the World Economic Forum through the Platform for the Acceleration of the Circular Economy. Harald leaves Circle Economy in a strong position – both from a strategic and operational perspective. Together with the management team he has taken Circle Economy from a start up to a scale up. We are grateful to him and welcome his ongoing support for the organization.”
Moving on from his role as CEO, Harald Friedl will continue to support and be engaged with Circle Economy as an ambassador for the organisation and as a member of its international advisory board.
Harald Friedl: “I came to Circle Economy to give the circular economy transition a global push and to voice key topics – such as the societal perspectives and the need for new financial and business models. I focused on building practical and scalable solutions on the ground and a movement based on multi-stakeholder models, collaboration, transparency and community. I would like to thank everyone who I had the pleasure to work with and who supported our mission. Together we have accomplished so much, driven by purpose, heart and a sense of urgency. I am proud to say that in the last 3 years, I have been able to achieve the set KPIs: internationalise, focus and grow this organization. A lot remains to be done - the circular economy transition is bigger than all of us, it is one of the greatest tasks of our time. We have no time to lose as we only have another decade to change the course we are on right now.
Therefore I am looking forward to embarking on the next journey to ignite a sustainable future by putting vision into action: building and supporting more impact organizations in the public and private sector, businesses and scale-ups such as Circle Economy to ensure action is happening. We have grown Circle Economy together and I am confident my successor will continue building its bright future together with our excellent team."
On 21st January 2020 Circle Economy will launch for the 3rd time with its partners the “Circularity Gap Report” during the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Press contact:
Please reach out to our press office at press@circle-economy if you are interested in featuring the press release and/or have an interview request.
About Circle Economy
We work to accelerate the transition to a circular economy. As an impact organisation, we work to identify opportunities to turn circular economy principles into practical reality.
With nature as our mentor, we combine practical insights with scalable responses to humanity’s greatest challenges. Our vision is economic, social and environmental prosperity without compromising the future of our planet. Our mission is to connect and empower a global community in business, cities and governments to create the conditions for systemic transformation.
More than 50 businesses are now part of our membership community (from large multinationals to active SMEs and innovative start-ups) with whom we co-create practical and scalable solutions, making the circular economy happen. In addition, we work with cities, governments, CSOs, NGO’s, advisory boards and intergovernmental bodies.
