Chief engineer and founder of Riversimple, Hugo Spowers is also a recognised thought leader on the Circular Economy, as architect for the business model, technology and governance of Riversimple. Hugo graduated from Oxford with an Engineering degree and has an MBA from Cranfield University. Hugo is responsible for all technical aspects of the cars and for the architecture of the business itself.

Hugo has been asked to speak on the Circular Economy numerous times–e.g. at the Cambridge Centre for Industrial Sustainability in 2015; the CE100 meeting in Milan in 2016; a UNIDO conference on the Circular Economy in the automotive industry on Bratislava 2017; he delivered a keynote speech at the EIB/ECB on creating a circular value network at their annual conference; and he was invited to speak at the launch of the Circular Cars Initiative at Davos 2020 by the World Economic Forum.

Hugo will be providing strategic support and thought leadership for the business outreach activities as well as strategic support and operational guidance for the Pilot Projects.

Fiona Spowers is Riversimple’s communications director and has over 30 years’ experience in the advertising business. Having worked for agencies in London and Paris, she went to become head of strategic planning across Europe for 9 years and globally for another 10 years for TBWA, one of the top global advertising agencies. Fiona is the Project’s Senior Responsible Officer.

Julia Chesney-Roberts graduated from University of the West of England, Bristol with an LLB(Hons) Law and Spanish and is currently studying an MBA at Warwick University. She is Commercial and Legal Manager at Riversimple with specific responsibility for strategic projects and Circular Economy activity. Julia has worked internationally with start-ups to corporations and across a number of industries in roles like Compliance & Regulations Manager, Operations Manager and Programme Manager. Julia is the Project Delivery Coordinator for the contractual agreements and open source Pilot Projects.

Charlotte Evans has a technical based background and has joined Riversimple to assist with Circular Revolution and to project manage the blockchain PlotProjects.She has extensive experience managing large projects covering many disciplines and different time scales in a compliance-based environment.

Bill Whyman manages procurement forRiversimple.Before he joined the company, he was a lecturer on motor vehicle technology for Coleg Powys and spent 23 years in HM Forces as Mechanical Engineer. Bill will be providing operational guidance for the supply chain Pilot Project.

Roland Whitehead has had a design-led career working on physical and digital products and services. He has been involved in environmental projects since college days and spent 7 years helping extend products’ lives as a director of one of the major auction houses. He was founder and CEO of the UK’s leading enterprise open source solutions business working on anything from micro-services to solutions for international clearing banks. Roland is the technical coordinator for the all of the Pilot Projects.

Professor Allen Alexander is a senior researcher in Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Exeter Business School in Cornwall, within their Centre for the Circular Economy. His research focuses on strategic knowledge management and the role that knowledge can play in developing enhanced commercial capability and as a source of innovation.His recent studies have explored open innovation, innovation Eco-systems and regional systems of innovation and currently he is working on exploring circular innovations, and the role that they can play in transitioning toward Circular Economy. He has also extensively explored the role that universities and academics play in shaping corporate innovation and entrepreneurship practices.

In any transition that has an economic dimension, business will play a huge role and it is the understanding of the practical tools and activities that businesses can use to move toward more circular products and service, that Allen willcontribute into Circular Revolution,particularly inthe business outreachactivitiesprovidingCircularEconomystrategic support & operational guidance.

Professor Fiona Charnley is Associate Professor of Circular Economy and Co-Director of the Exeter Centre for Circular Economy with in the University of Exeter Business School.Fiona works and has published extensively within the field of design, innovation and manufacture for a Circular Economy. She is Co-Director of the recently funded UKRINational Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Hub harnessing the UK’s leading research capabilities; creating new knowledge, tools, behaviours and relationships to capture economic, social and environmental value from a Circular Economy. Fiona leads a number of government and industry funded research projects covering topics such as the use of digital technology to inform decisions surrounding the implementation of Circular Economy strategies and the development and application of self-healing materials to enable product life extension.

Fiona has extensive experience of working with organisations from across sectors to identify new approaches to design,innovation, manufacture and business modelling to transform resource use and value creation. She has also led multiple education and executive training programmes to support future leaders in developing the skills and capabilities necessary to transform our industrial system.

Fiona is the academic lead for the business outreach activities providing specialist Circular Economy strategic support & operational guidance.

Dr Merryn Haines-Gadd is Research Fellow at the University of Exeter within the Exeter Centre for Circular Economy (ECCE)and responsible for business engagement activities for Circular Revolution. Adesigner by background, she is experienced in managing and delivering research related to circular design,environmental assessments, circular business modelling and self-healing materials. She has primarily has engaged in industry-led academic projects and enjoys the process helping companies understand how to make their products and services more sustainable and circular.

Dr Monica Vessio is a commercial lawyer with over 12 years of experience, having worked internationally with a diversity of clients in several industries. She has advised startups that were utilising blockchain technology in the supply chain and acted as commercial legal consultant for various corporate clients. She holds the role of researcher in Circular Revolution and is critically examining the regulatory ambit within which the circular supply chain will operate, including the smart contracts milieu, both in the B2B and B2C environments.

Dr Severine Saintier is Associate Professor in commercial law. Dr Saintier is a contract law specialist (loosely defined looking both at B2B and B2C relationships). She has published numerous journal articles as well as books (sole authored and co-authored).She is co-editing a textbook in this area (Poole’s contract law) with Professor Merkin. Dr Saintier is the legal strategic support & operational guidance academic lead for contractual agreement Pilot Project of the Operation looking at the legal questions surrounding smart contracts. She is helped in that task by DrVessio.

Professor Gavin Bunting is an Associate Professor and Deputy Director for Innovation and Engagement in the College of Engineering, Swansea University. Gavin teaches Circular Economy, life cycle analysis, environmental legislation and sustainability at masters and doctoral level, drawing on his experiences working with government on sustainability and climate change issues. Gavin chairs the pan Wales Circular Economy Research and Innovation Group (CERIG) which has membership from all universities in Wales, Welsh Government and WRAP. The group connects complementary expertise and experiences to facilitate Circular Economy innovation and research in Wales and provides evidence to help inform Government policy and programmes. Gavin is the academic lead for the business outreach activities providing specialist Circular Economy strategic support & operational guidance. He highlights that with businesses increasingly aware of the need to embed sustainability at the heart of organisations, Circular Revolution provides an excellent opportunity to connect Welsh industry to the expertise in our universities, creating new opportunities and enabling Wales to be at the forefront of Circular Economy.

Max Green is a Circular Economy Research and Innovation Fellow at Swansea University. Part of the Circular Revolution business outreach team, he works to engage with businesses in West Wales and the Valleys and assist them in practically embedding circularity within their own products/services, processes and business models. Originally a Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering graduate from Swansea University, Max read for a MSc in Process Business Management at Warwick University where he was subsequently awarded the Chancellor’s International Scholarship for doctoral research. During this time, he investigated the use of performance-contracting mechanisms to increase market uptake of stationary hydrogen fuel cells, published internationally on the topic of servitization, and worked with Innovate UK to develop a tool which allows companies to explore their potential for business model innovation.

Divine Mathew is a second-year Chemical Engineering Student at Swansea University, presently undertaking a year in industry as the Circular Economy Placement Student. Divine specialises in analytical thinking, complex problem solving and project management. Divine works with the Research and Engagement Team with businesses in West Wales and the Valleys to help raise awareness in Circular Economy and support Circular applications in their organisations.

Prof. Arnold Beckmann is co-leading Swansea University’s Computational Foundry flagship project, which aims at interdisciplinary research centred around core Swansea Computer Science expertise including Human-Computer-Interaction, DataScience, Cyber Security and Fundamentals of Computing, to create a beacon for computing in Wales and beyond. Arnold has been a recipient of Leopoldina and Marie-Curie academic fellowships, his research has been funded by EPSRC, the Royal Society, the German DFG and the Austrian FWF. He has made notable contributions in fundamentals of Computer Science. Arnold e is founding member of Swansea Blockchain Lab, and involved in several projects that explore the research foundations of blockchain technology. Arnold is the academic leadforthe blockchain spine design Pilot Project providing specialist blockchain strategic support & operational guidance.

Dr Matt Roach is a Senior Lecturer in Computer Science at Swansea University. Matt’srRole in the Circular Revolution project it’s to support the work packages 6-8 on Blockchain innovation, Governance, Design & Build and Integration. Matt has experience as an investigator on £1.5m Innovate UK funded projects, applying machine learning to the challenges of smart city traffic management and fraud detection. Matt has extensive experience in securing collaborative research and Innovation funding, and leading business engagement activities: on the £31MComputational Foundry and the £1.2M EPSRC Data Release: Trust, Identity, Privacy and Security projects. His research interests are multidisciplinary and focus on the intersection of people and data, themes include: Machine Learning; Algorithmic Bias,Fairness; Pervasive & Persuasive Computing; Human Computer/Data Interaction;Participatory Design; Socio-Technical Decision-Making Systems; Socio-Technical Behaviour Change Systems. Matt’s main work is in the domains of Health &Well being, Smart Cities, Digital Economy. He has leadership roles in doctoral training initiatives: convening the Wales ESRC Wales Doctoral Training Partnership Digital Economy Pathway and retaining management role on of the £11m EPSRC Centre forDoctoral Training in Enhancing Human interactions and Collaborations with Data and Intelligence Driven Systems. Matt is a Member of the ACM. Prior to becoming a full time academic, Matt completed a management role in a knowledge exchange project, up-skilling 350 software professionals and 2900 business owners in computing skills, resulting in £40m uplift in national GVA. He also worked for a decade in industry as a Founder, Director and CEO of software development companies.

Dr Stefano Barazza leads the Legal Innovation Lab Wales at Swansea University, a unique ERDF-funded initiative to promote applied research in legal technology, and is an experienced researcher focusing on the intersections of intellectual property,technology and competition. He has previously led postgraduate training for the UK Intellectual Property Office and is a co-editor of the Journal of Intellectual Property Law and Practice (OUP). He has published extensively in the areas of patent law,standard technology, secondary innovation and competition. His current research,funded by Horizon 2020, focuses on the use of smart contracts, in a blockchain context, to license IP assets. His contribution to the Circular Revolution project aimsto explore the use of smart contracts to support the open innovation model that is atthe core of the project. As Director of the LLM Legal Tech at the Hillary Rodham Clinton School of Law, Stefano is also keen to inspire younger generations to embrace the transformative potential of technology in the legal field–a potential that the Circular Revolution project fully embraces and realises.

Spyridonas Georgiou is a research assistant within the Hillary Rodham Clinton School of Law at Swansea University focusing on the applications of legal technology and especially on the use of smart contracts in a blockchain context. He has previously worked on a project where he conducted innovative research around the legal requirements surrounding the development and operation of a blockchain platform which uses smart contracts to conclude licensing transactions. He holds a postgraduate degree in Legal Tech where he specialised on how technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain impact legal services, explored the legal and regulatory challenges associated with emerging technologies and gained expertise on digital intellectual property, computational thinking, and legal tech entrepreneurship. He has both a mathematical and legal educational background, so he has researched around the legal status of blockchain-based smart contracts from both a theoretical and a practical perspective. His role at the Circular Revolution project is to research into open innovation models within a circular economy context and to contribute to on-going research into the use of smart contracts and blockchain technologies to enable collaboration between commercial partners to maximise the opportunities afforded by a circular economy relationship.

Robert is a qualified mechanical engineer with extensive management experience in automotive manufacturing, operations, supply chain and sales. He has worked with Riversimple as over a number of years in commercial relations and is delighted to be working on Circular Revolution’s circular supply chain pilot project.

Zak joined the Riversimple team as our media coordinator in August 2021. Zak rose to prominence through his own automotive social media projects, working with dealer groups and car manufacturers to produce content on his own channel and has a reach of over 5,000,000 people worldwide. Zak is coordinating all social media communications, events, photography and videography for Riversimple. He is also planning our communications strategy.

Zak is an applied criminology graduate specialising in crisis management. In his spare time he works as a special constable as part of a specialist rural crime task force and is a qualified advanced driver.

Ethan is a law graduate who has an untamed fascination with new technological developments and making the world a cleaner and greener place. From setting up, drafting, and judging the Smart Contract Writing Competition based on the year 2122, to writing papers and his university dissertation on cryptocurrency and its place in English Law, he is determined to be part of this revolution and make an impact in the world using this. He is no stranger to hard work, and thoroughly enjoys working with likeminded people.