Gunter Pauli

Gunter Pauli was born in Antwerp, Belgium, in March 1956. In 1979, he earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Loyola University (now the University of Antwerp) in Belgium and obtained his master's degree in business administration from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France, in 1982, thanks to a Rotary International Foundation scholarship. During his studies, he held a variety of jobs to support his family, his education, and to save money, which allowed him to travel extensively during the summer holidays. In 1978, he was elected national president of the AIESEC student union.

He was founder and chairman of PPA Holding and more than 10 other companies, founder and CEO of the European Service Industries Forum (ESIF), secretary general of the European Business Press Federation (UPEFE), founder and chairman of the “Mozarteum Belgicum” Foundation, founder and chairman of Ecover, and advisor to the rector of the United Nations University in Tokyo (Japan).

His entrepreneurial activities span business, culture, science, politics, and the environment. Under his leadership, Ecover pioneered an eco-friendly factory in 1992, which was featured on CNN Prime Time News. He founded the Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives (ZERI) at the United Nations University in Tokyo, and later established the global ZERI network as a foundation, redefining production and consumption through clusters of industries inspired by natural systems.

He dedicated himself to designing and implementing a society and industries that meet people's needs by utilizing locally available resources. His visionary approach, supported by dozens of field projects, led to an invitation to present his work at the 2000 World Expo in Germany. There, he built the largest bamboo pavilion of modern times, showcasing seven revolutionary initiatives. It became the most popular pavilion, attracting 6.4 million visitors. Unfortunately, the pavilion was destroyed after the Expo. However, the original, built in Manizales, Colombia, remains a symbol of the coffee region.

His latest initiatives include designing a solution for the plastic soup floating in the oceans and creating a protected area with islands to mitigate rising sea levels. He is actively involved in freeing the world's largest rhino herd (2,400 in Kaziranga National Park, India) from poachers through an intensive economic and community development program coordinated with organic tea plantations.

He has been a lecturer and visiting professor at universities on every continent and a board member of NGOs and private companies in Asia, the United States, and Latin America. He has advised governments, entrepreneurs, and business leaders on how to implement groundbreaking innovations that enable society to better meet everyone's basic needs, starting with water, food, housing, health, and energy. He works with locally available resources and focuses on creating value.

He is a member of the World Academy of Arts and Sciences (San Francisco, USA), a founding member of the Club of Budapest (Hungary), a member of the Club of Rome, moderated the Nobel Prize in Science roundtable organized by His Majesty the King of Jordan, and holds a doctorate from the Italian government in systems design. The University of Pécs, Hungary, awarded him an honorary doctorate.

Gunter has published 20 books (16 written – 4 edited), which have been printed in over 30 languages, and 365 fables that bring science and emotion to children. More than 17 million copies have been distributed worldwide. One of his fables, "The Strongest Tree," is available in over 100 languages. One of his latest books, published in April 2015, "The Blue Economy 2.0: 200 Projects Implemented, $4 Billion Invested, and 3 Million Jobs Created," is the new reality inspired by the vision in his report to the Club of Rome, presented on November 2, 2009.

He is the father of five sons and one adopted daughter. Fluent in seven languages ​​and having lived on four continents, he is a citizen of the world.