New NCH Managing Partners
We are happy to announce that this September the Nordic Circular Hotspot is getting not only one but two new Managing Partners. The growing team is welcoming the Danish Design Center and Ethica Oy, from Finland, to join our group of Nordic circularity experts and innovators.
Ethica
Co-founded by Paula Fontell and Anne Raudaskoski, Ethica is a team of experts whose mission is to build a regenerative future. They specialise in creating top-class circular solutions across industries. Together with their clients, Ethica uses circular business design thinking to build roadmaps with the concrete processes and steps needed to build new kinds of products and services that empower companies and entire industries to succeed in real regenerative growth.
They see the collaborative principles of the Nordic Circular Hotspot as a great opportunity for future development:
“Being a NHC Managing Partner brings with it a multitude of benefits! It provides a fantastic opportunity to accelerate and actively develop Nordic collaboration and services for Nordic companies. At Ethica, we truly see that the Nordic region is well positioned to become the leading light for global circular and regenerative innovations. With the other Managing Partners, we can guide and support this journey.”
Ethica is joining as the second Finnish Managing Partner, in addition to Business Finland, who are welcoming this addition to the team: ”We see that the Nordic circular know-how and offering can significantly help to solve the challenges on a global level. Ethica, as a Finnish company possessing high-level expertise on circularity and circular design strategies, is supporting the development of Nordic added value in an inspiring way.” –Outi Suomi, Head of Bio and Circular Finland Program, Business Finland
Anne Raudaskoski
On behalf of Ethica, we are welcoming the Head of Consulting and Co-Founder Anne Raudaskoski.
Anne is one of the circular economy and circular design pioneers in Finland. She is the Head of Consulting and Co-Founder at Ethica, an internationally awarded circular economy consultancy (The Circulars 2016) with a vision of a regenerative world. In her work, she develops circular business strategies and solutions for client companies and public organisations. She’s created and facilitated Eco-Design Sprints in various European countries and is the leading author in ‘Designing Plastics Circulation’ and ‘Boosting Circular Design for a Circular Economy’ reports. Currently, she’s leading the Finnish Circular Design Programme aimed at Finnish companies across different sectors. She is an international keynote speaker and a visiting lecturer at Laurea University of Applied Sciences.
Danish Design Center
The second new Managing Partner is the Danish Design Center. As Denmark’s national center for design, they have worked with thousands of companies and organisations, empowering them to innovate with more significant impact and design knowledge. For over 40 years, the DDC has promoted Danish design both in Denmark and globally.
Having been part of building and promoting Danish design across many social shifts and trends, they see circularity as an important opportunity for the Nordic region:
“We know that the circular transition requires collaboration and knowledge sharing across public and private sectors—and borders. Our ambition is to create a circular and regenerative region in the Nordics that acts as a role model for other countries.”
One of our long-term Managing Partners is the Danish Lifestyle & Design Cluster. They see the addition of the DDC to the Managing Partners as a great opportunity due to their strong position as a driving force in circular economy in Denmark: ”With Danish Design Center (DDC) we now have a third Danish Managing Partner on board our Nordic mission. DDC is very much welcomed by LDC as a longstanding collaboration partner within circular economy and business innovation. DDC is an important driving force and knowledge hub for circular and green transition in Denmark. Their design-based approach and vision of ‘The Irresistible Circular Society’ bridges all industrial segments, eco systems and sectors.” –Kim Hjerrild, Head of Circular Economy, Lifestyle & Design Cluster
Photo: Oliver Herlitschek
Julie Hjort
On behalf of the DDC, we are joined by the Managing Partner Julie Hjort, DDC’s Programme Director of Sustainable and Circular Transition.
Julie drives DDC's work on sustainable transformation and is dedicated to accelerating the transition to a circular economy. She's passionate about mobilising cross-cutting and interdisciplinary collaborations to drive collective sustainable action. One of her latest projects is building DDC's mission to design an irresistible circular society in 2030. With 30 partners from the public and private sectors, academia, media, and funds, they defined 10 actions that we all have to take to realise the mission. Julie also continues to work and implement the overall mission in the other Green Transition projects at DDC.
We look forward to working with our new Managing Partners and seeing what their expertise will bring to our growing partner network of companies and organisations.
