Gunter Pauli was born in 1956. He is a graduate Economics and obtained his MBA from INSEAD. He also has an honorary master in Systemic Design honorary doctorate in economics. He has been active as an entrepreneur, lecturer and commentator in culture, science, politics, sustainability innovation and the environment. He built the first ecological factory when Chairman and CEO of Ecover, that under his leadership became a worldwide acclaimed ecological building, being completed in 1992. His first book was the biography of Dr. Aurelio Peccei, founder of the Club of Rome, whose assistant he was from 1979 to 1984. Since then he has written 20 books printed in 34 languages, and 125 fables for children. Some estimate that 90 million copies of his fables have been distributed worldwide. In 1989 he was elected as an independent substitute to the European Parliament but never took up the seat. In 1994 Pauli initiated the Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives in Tokyo with the support of the Japanese Government and the United Nations University (UNU), redesigning production and consumption into clusters of industries inspired by natural systems. He later wrote the book The Blue Economy, which was originally a report to the Club of Rome that became a commercial book. He wrote this book with the twin aims of stimulating entrepreneurship while setting up new and higher standards towards sustainability. The book includes the principles that support the Blue Economy concept and also one hundred business cases that follow the principles. For more information about TEDxMaastricht go to: tedxmaastricht.nl/ And for pictures of the event, go to: www.flickr.com/photos/tedxmaastricht/sets/

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