Who are we

Nancy Bocken is Professor in Sustainable Business at Maastricht Sustainability Institute, Maastricht University. She is also visiting professor at Lund University, Sweden and LUT University Finland, and Fellow at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. She is co-founder of HOMIE, a ‘pay-per-use’ business pursuing the circular economy. Nancy's research evolves around the broad field of Sustainable Business, including topics like sustainable business models, business experiments, Circular Economy, sufficiency, and closing the 'idea-action' gap in sustainability through novel tools and approaches. She is the Principal Investigator of Circular X which focuses on ‘experimenting with circular service business models’.

Ankita’s research interests are on designing tools that can foster circular business experiments, balancing the environmental and social costs of circularity, and scaling circular business models to developing countries. She is originally from Odisha, India. and has a BSc. (Hons.) in Zoology & Biochemistry. She moved to Europe in 2017 to pursue an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s in Environmental Sciences, Policy & Management at three European Universities. Since then, she has worked in various roles; as a consultant for universities, research agencies, and UNIDO, and co-founded a circular water reuse start-up in Sweden. Under Circular X, her current research focuses on exploring how companies can forecast the environmental impact of their circular business model ideas, during the experimentation phase.

Marc’s main research interests are innovation and innovation policy, sustainability assessment and societal transformation. Currently he also works in an action- research project on Urban Living Labs experiments focused on learning and upscaling. He has published on innovation in electric mobility, urban mobility, solar energy and resource efficiency. He teaches an integrative approach to sustainability assessment & innovation. It combines the understanding of stakeholders (perspectives, practices, etc.) with systems analysis (Qualitative Systems Analysis, Life Cycle Analysis, etc.). In Circular X, Marc supervises PhD-students and is excited to contribute to circular services innovation.

Deanna is a PhD student in circular business models under the ERC funded Circular X project at the Maastricht Sustainability Institute. Prior to her PhD studies, she completed a BSc in Chemistry at York University in Canada. In 2018, Deanna obtained an MSc in Carbon Management from the University of Edinburgh, finishing with distinction. Her dissertation was on exploring the role of stakeholders in circular entrepreneurship in Denmark. Since graduation, she co-founded a consultancy start-up that helps organizations mitigate their emissions through negative emissions technologies.

Jan's mission is to help people and organizations thrive within planetary boundaries. He is an expert on circular economy and sustainable innovation management. A card deck based game that he developed during his PhD, the Circularity Deck, has been used by more than 5000 professionals and translated to several languages. Within Circular X, Jan continues his quest to research how businesses can transition to environmental sustainability. He is also a Sustainability Advisor at Cognizant, where he works with the C-Suite of major companies to develop sustainable and circular business models.

Laura is a PhD student in businesses driving sufficient consumption under the ERC funded Circular X project at the Maastricht Sustainability Institute. Her background is interdisciplinary with a BA in European Studies and an MSc in Environmental Studies and Sustainability Sciences. Previously, Laura worked on circular economy research and policy in Ireland, providing support for research and circular economy business development. Her PhD research investigates how businesses can drive sustainable consumption through sufficiency-based approaches.

Roger Nyffenegger is a PhD researcher on Circular Business Models in the solar industry. He is an external PhD, based at both Maastricht Sustainability Institute and the University of Applied Science in Bern, Switzerland. Previously, Roger was part of the EU-Horizon 2020 CIRCUSOL project. He completed his Bachelor in Business Administration at the University of St. Gallen and worked in an industrial company and a bank before finishing a Master in Business Innovation and CEMS International Management at the University of St. Gallen and the École des hautes études commerciales Paris. After his studies, Roger worked for the circular start-up Grover in Berlin as business development and sales manager.

Julia Smid joined for a PhD on circular business models and value chains for renewable energy wind turbines. She is part of the LICHEN Blade project, a collaboration between TU Delft and Maastricht University. Previously, she did a Bachelor on Business Administration at Groningen University. On top of her bachelor's degree, she completed an extracurricular propaedeutic exam in Dutch law. Julia has a Master's in International Business and Management and worked as a teaching assistant for four years. Next to her studies, she interned in business development and export for the African market at Royal Smilde in Heerenveen.

Marco van Hees is a PhD researcher on upcycling strategies and circular business models in the furniture and interior design industry, working on the "Urban Upcycling" RAAK-PRO research project. He has been working in academia as a lecturer in Business Engineering at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences and as business model researcher at the AUAS Centre of Expertise City Net Zero. In his spare time, he runs a beekeeping academy in the Amsterdam metropole region and works as a volunteer for the Dutch NGO PUM supporting SME-sustainable entrepreneurship in emerging countries.

Björn works with Circular X PhD Ankita Das on the research themes of mitigating environmental rebound effects of circular business models, and of documenting regenerative business models. Currently, he is pursuing a Master's in Environmental Management and Policy (EMP) at Lund University's International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics (IIIEE). Before joining our team, Björn worked at the Institute for Housing and Environment (IWU) and was involved in the research project KOSMA, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Within this project, the formation components and stability of direct rebound effects within the building heat sector were analyzed. Björn previously studied Political Science and Philosophy at Goethe University Frankfurt