Maayke-Aimée Damen Keynote Speaker

Maayke-Aimée Damen is a pioneer in sustainable development, innovation and circular economies. She has led global workshops and keynote speeches, including TEDx, exploring new ways to make sustainability more accessible and understandable for everyone. She believes that small changes can add up to make a significant impact. She is a popular speaker at conferences and events around the globe due to her hard work and engaging presentations that inspire and encourage others to make a difference.

Maayke is the Director of Circular Economy for the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). The WBCSD is a global organisation comprised of more than 200 top firms dedicated to accelerating the transition to a more sustainable world. As a trailblazer, she is a member of the Young Club of Rome, a platform for diverse thinkers working to find holistic answers to complicated global challenges and driving legislative proposals and actions to overcome planetary crises. She is also a member and ambassador of Sandbox, a society for technology users to discuss and build a new world. The association aims to create new rules based on ideals and ambition rather than nationality, region, or tradition.

In 2016, Maayke founded Excess Materials Exchange (EME), a safe, digital marketplace using blockchain and artificial intelligence that allows businesses to trade excess resources and products using the innovative power of a circular economy.

Previously she was the Chapter Ambassador for Singularity University in Amsterdam, a participant at Ashoka Circular Futures, Research & Development assistant on The Ex’tax Project funded by Ex’tent Green Venture Capital and a Project Manager at the National Institute of Information and Decision Systems. Before EME, Maayke founded Reciclata, an organisation that utilised engagement to give customers incentives to recycle, and RMMBR, an organisation that enabled businesses to optimise digital learning in their workplace training and development.

Maayke has received praise and recognition for her sustainability and innovation efforts, with MIT Technology Review naming her one of the Innovators Under 35. For her work towards sustainability, The Netherlands listed her among the 100 most innovative and inspirational youngsters multiple times, and Viva400 recognised her as one of the inspiration women fighting to improve the world. She won the Rachel Carson Environmental Thesis Award, the Dutch Innovation Contest, and is a Dutch Financial Times Top Talent winner.

She is a proud member of several groups, charities and organisations, including; the International Sustainable Development Research Society, Circular Economy Club, AI for Good, Climate Change Network, Environment for Development initiative and WWI Global Network.

Maayke received her Master’s (Cum Laude) in Sustainable Development from Universiteit Utrecht and is a Singularity University graduate. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Cultural Anthropology and Development from Leiden University. She then attended a course in International Program on Sustainability Management and Sustainable Development Diplomacy at Tufts University’s Fletcher School.

As a keynote speaker, Maayke has spoken at engagements worldwide and presented TEDx talks on the future of sustainability. She believes that we can create a better future for our planet by making small changes in our everyday lives and that sustainability is the key to our future.