Extremely excited to be kicking off this year’s Entrepreneurs For Good series with my conversation with Monique Maissan.

Monique has been a good friend for a number of years, and over the last 2 decades she has an amazing company, Waste2Wear, to upcycle plastics into new products.

Our conversation starts with a bit of her background, and the size and scale of the plastic problem we face, but quickly jumps into the process of building her company, the many lessons she has learned, and some of the innovations and collaborations she is working on to take her mission to the next level.
She is a true leader in the space, and you will learn a lot from this interview.

About The Entrepreneurs For Good Series:
Through this series, we speak with Asia based entrepreneurs whose mission it is to bring solutions to the environmental, social, and economic challenges that are faced within the region to learn more about their vision, the opportunities they see, and challenges that they have had to overcome.

It is a series that we hope will not only engage and inspire you, but catalyze you and your organizations into action.

To identify a challenge that is tangible, and build a business model (profit or non) that brings a solution to the market.

About Monique
Monique Maissan is a Dutch entrepreneur and textile engineer specialized in Circular Economic solutions for the textile industry.

As CEO and founder of Waste2Wear, she leads a committed team towards sustainable innovation using textile products made from recycled plastic to create a positive environmental impact. The innovations in her company, have been acknowledged through the Entrepreneur the Year award 2012, in the USA from Enterprising Women; the Sustainability Award from the European Economic and Sustainability Committee in 2014; the Women Economic Forum’s Outstanding Women for the Advance of Sustainability award in 2017; The #1 Business Women Of Middle East award in Egypt in 2018; and the She Rockers MyEO Women SDG Award 2019 from EO (Entrepreneur Organization). She is currently nominated for the EY (Ernst & Young) Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year 2019 award.

Monique has also founded various social programs, including Waste2Weave, designed to improve the livelihood of Indian women working on hand-looms, while taking plastic out of the environment. She continuously strives to create collaborations with a broad diversity of stakeholders to help to create awareness and to find solutions to protect the environment. This includes collaborations with the Jane Goodall Institute, National Geographic and many more.

Follow Monique:
Waste2Wear Website: https://www.waste2wear.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/monique-maissan-96b2b41/

About Rich:
Driven by the belief that change begins with a single step, Richard Brubaker has spent the last 15 years in Asia working to engage, inspire, and equip those around him to take their first step.

Acting as a catalyst to driving sustainability, Brubaker works with government, corporate, academic and non-profit stakeholders to bring together knowledge, teams, and tools that develop and execute their business case for sustainability.

Follow Rich
Website: http://www.richbrubaker.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rich.brubaker
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richbrubaker
Instagram: https://instagram.com/richbrubaker
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/richbrubaker

Contact Rich
[email protected]

#richbrubaker #entrepreneurs4good #SocialEntrepreneurship