TOP 10 Most-Read Thought Leaders in Circularity

Discover also our 2026 Rankings of the Most Read Thought Leaders in Business Impact, Carbon, Climate Change, Energy, Energy Transition, Environmental Sustainability, ESG, Green Tech, Nature, Renewables, Social Responsibility, Sustainable AI, Sustainable Business, Sustainable Finance, and Sustainable Lifestyle. Explore how this year's leaders compare to the most influential voices of last year!

illuminem is proud to present the most-read Thought Leaders in Circularity globally, as recognised by illuminem's ever growing community of 700,000+ readers.

Circularity in the past year moved from principle to obligation. The EU's Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) replaced a decades-old directive with binding, directly applicable rules on recyclability and reuse across every member state. A new extended-producer-responsibility regime for textiles followed, making brands financially responsible for the collection, sorting, and recycling of what they put on the market. The era of voluntary circularity pledges was giving way to one of hard compliance.

At the same time, circularity collided with the geopolitics of materials. As export controls exposed the fragility of rare-earth and critical-mineral supply chains, recycling and resource recovery were reframed not as waste management but as a matter of strategic security. From composite recycling to rare-earth recovery, from regenerative fashion to ASEAN's circular economy, the voices on this list approached circularity as both an environmental and an economic imperative.

Gregg Meyer topped the list this year as the convening voice that rose above all others. As Chief Sustainability Officer at Steve Madden, he chairs illuminem's Sustainability Leaders Cohort, a closed monthly forum where CSOs work through the problems they don't discuss publicly: how to make the financial case for sustainability spend, how to keep a circularity programme alive when the board calls it cannibalisation, how to take on a nature mandate with no budget to execute it. His most-read piece distilled the highlights of that cohort in 2026, turning candid, behind-closed-doors conversation into shared, practical insight for the wider field.

Joining him on the list, Smaranda Jaun makes boating circular through composite recycling, Ahmad Ghahreman argues that 2025 is a tipping point for rare-earth circularity, and Chad Frischmann, architect of Project Drawdown, finds the times changing for once for the better.

Drawn from over 2,500 thought leaders publishing on illuminem Voices, the ranking below reflects the voices that shaped how the circularity conversation evolved in 2025. Please join us in congratulating the Thought Leaders of the Year in Circularity, and every voice contributing to this vital global debate on illuminem.

1️⃣ Gregg Meyer - Chief Sustainability Officer at Steve Madden
Country: United States 🇺🇸
Most-Read Thought Piece: The highlights of the illuminem Leaders Cohort in 2026
Profile: Gregg Meyer serves as Steve Madden's Chief Sustainability Officer and Head of CSR and ESG. He brings extensive legal and advocacy expertise across private, corporate, and non-profit sectors. In his role, he spearheads initiatives to enhance Steve Madden's and the fashion industry's environmental footprint while mitigating negative impacts. He also contributes his expertise to the development of illuminem's Data Hub™, helping shape its insights on sustainability, and he is a member of the illuminem Leaders Cohort.

2️⃣ Smaranda Jaun - CEO at Composite Recycling
Country: Switzerland 🇨🇭
Most-Read Thought Piece: Composite recycling and the industrial alliance finally making boating circular
Profile: Smaranda Jaun is the CEO at Composite Recycling, the leading Swiss start-up in composite waste recycling. She brings extensive capital markets and strategic leadership experience from senior roles at UBS, Pictet, Carnegie, and Siemens' Corporate Venture arm. She drives the company's international expansion by implementing a focused commercial strategy and positioning its technology as a scalable recycling solution for global composite waste.

3️⃣ Neirin Jones - Founder & Managing Director of Rainbow Ventures
Country: Germany 🇩🇪
Most-Read Thought Piece: PPWR: what's the deal?
Profile: Neirin Jones is Founder & Managing Director of Rainbow Ventures. He specialises in corporate responsibility, impact entrepreneurship, and circular and regenerative economy strategies. Neirin's work spans Asia, Africa, and Europe, supporting the global shift toward a more sustainable and equitable future and helping to redesign business models that cycle resources and restore ecosystems across 20+ countries.

4️⃣ Nic Gorini - Managing Partner of Spin Ventures
Country: United Kingdom 🇬🇧
Most-Read Thought Piece: In conversation with impact investors part 2: why lead with impact
Profile: Nic Gorini is the Managing Partner of Spin Ventures, a London‑based firm investing in pre‑seed to Series A climate‑tech startups. Spin Ventures currently focuses on transformative B2B solutions that drive decarbonization and circularity in the global consumer and retail industry, investing in areas such as bio‑based materials, recycling technologies, SaaS platforms, and recommerce. Leveraging Spin Ventures' proprietary House of Circularity platform, Nic Gorini facilitates early access to innovative technologies, corporate pilot validation, and strategic partnerships, ensuring both environmental impact and financial returns.

5️⃣ Joffrey Delfgaauw - Head of Tech, Innovation and Sustainability at O'Neill
Country: Netherlands 🇳🇱
Most-Read Thought Piece: The highlights of the illuminem Leaders Cohort in 2026
Profile: Joffrey Delfgaauw is the Head of Tech, Innovation and Sustainability at O'Neill. He leads product and supply chain initiatives across traceability, materials innovation and ESG, helping translate sustainability strategy into measurable actions and scalable ways of working. Joffrey combines a design background with a focus on sustainability for O'Neill apparel. He holds a Master in Fashion Design and a Bachelor in Fashion Design from the Amsterdam Fashion Institute. He is a member of the illuminem Leaders Cohort.

6️⃣ Samuele Tini - Director of 3E
Country: Kenya 🇰🇪
Most-Read Thought Piece: Africa's manufacturing renaissance: from consumer to producer
Profile: Samuele Tini is an Africa‑focused, Africa‑based sustainability practitioner and adviser. As Director of 3E (Environment, Entrepreneurship, Energy), he designs and delivers grassroots programmes that scale nature‑positive solutions, expand clean‑energy access, and grow inclusive entrepreneurship across the continent. He hosts The Samuele Tini Show, convening innovators, policymakers, and community leaders to share practical insights from the field. Samuele bridges strategy and execution across implementation, impact evaluation, and policy, with a strong track record in building resilient, regenerative value chains. His work centres on enabling entrepreneurs and communities to create measurable environmental and social outcomes. He also contributes to the B Corp community.

7️⃣ Jill Raval - Nature Lead at Milkywire
Country: Sweden 🇸🇪
Most-Read Thought Piece: From land to loom: fashion's climate problem starts before the factory
Profile: Jill Raval is a Nature Lead at Milkywire, where she works with companies to drive impactful nature and climate outcomes. She supports global fashion brands in embedding regenerative sourcing across natural materials. Her background spans ocean and freshwater sustainability, regenerative agriculture, and nature finance, informed by prior roles at United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and World Resources Institute (WRI), as well as a master's degree from the Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC). She brings a systems lens shaped by lived experience across India, the United States, Mexico, and Sweden.

8️⃣ Chad Frischmann - Co-Creator and Architect of Project Drawdown
Country: United States 🇺🇸
Most-Read Thought Piece: The times they are a-changing, for once for the better
Profile: Chad Frischmann is illuminem's Regenerative Economy Columnist. He is the Co-Creator and Architect of Project Drawdown, the famous "world's most comprehensive plan to reverse global warming". He is also the Founder of RegenIntel, a global advisory firm focused on regenerative transformation.

9️⃣ Ahmad Ghahreman - Co-Founder and CEO of Cyclic Materials
Country: Canada 🇨🇦
Most-Read Thought Piece: Rare earth: why 2025 will be a tipping point for circularity
Profile: Ahmad Ghahreman is the co-Founder and CEO of Cyclic Materials. With over 15 years of experience in clean tech and resource recycling, Ahmad holds a Ph.D. in Materials Engineering and numerous patents. As an early co-inventor of Jetti Resources Inc. technology and advisor to Li-Cycle Corp, he is committed to sustainable and ethical sourcing of rare earth elements.

🔟 Alex Hong - Chief Business Officer at Aegis Biologics
Country: Singapore 🇸🇬
Most-Read Thought Piece: A circular horizon: green fuels, resource recovery and the economic dividend for ASEAN
Profile: Alex Hong is Chief Business Officer at Aegis Biologics, Snr Advisory Board Member at Royal Funds, and LinkedIn Top Voice in Climate Change. He works at the intersection of biotechnology, sustainability, and capital advisory, with a focus on translating deep-tech developments into investment and partnership strategies. Alex is an expert for European Carbon Offset Tokenization Association and a former Ambassador of the Global Blockchain Business Council. Based in Singapore, he advises institutional investors and supports SMEs on governance and sustainability-related growth strategies.

Congratulations to our most-read thought leaders of the last year. In a time when the sustainability conversation was pulled in every direction at once, the voices on this list helped move it forward with clarity and intellect. We are proud to amplify their voices, and look forward to what comes next.

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