Our Team
Pierre-Emmanuel Saint-Esprit
Founder & Executive Director of the Global Circular Economy Chair
Passionate about the circular economy, Pierre-Emmanuel Saint-Esprit co-founded ZACK at the age of 22 while studying at ESSEC and the University of California Berkeley.
ZACK is the leading company in France in the second life of electronic products and the extension of their life (recycling, repair, resale, donation to associations). It has been acquired by the Manutan Group. In 2020, ZACK was one of the top 3 French circular companies according to the TECH FOR GOOD report of the Presidency of the French Republic, with Phénix and Castalie. That same year, Pierre-Emmanuel won the vote of all BCG employees for the social entrepreneur of the year award.
In 2021, he was among the top 50 CSR personalities established by the Giverny Circle, alongside Antoine Sire (BNP Paribas), Hélène Valade or Olivia Grégoire (Secretary of State for CSR). Finally, he is nominated in the 30 Under 30 ranking of Forbes France which devotes a list to the rising stars of the French entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Pierre-Emmanuel is also a Professor of Circular Economy, the President of the ESSEC Alumni Entrepreneurs Club, pioneer of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation for the Circular Economy, a mentor at Antropia ESSEC, and the Ambassador of the IMPACT FRANCE Movement.
Pierre-Emmanuel is regularly invited to discuss the challenges of the circular economy and its progress in France (UEED, BFM TV, Le Point, Le Parisien, Le Figaro, Produrable, LH Forum, Cercle de Giverny...).
Felix Papier
Co-holder of the Global Circular Economy Chair, Professor at ESSEC
Felix Papier is Professor of Supply Chain Management at ESSEC Business School since 2011. His research and teaching focuses on supply chain and operations strategy and sustainable and socially-responsible operations.
Felix has, among other, published his work about remanufacturing, humanitarian operations, and forced labor in supply chains in several leading academic and professional journals.
At ESSEC, he has been the Academic Director of the ESSEC & Mannheim Executive MBA (2015-2017) and the Dean of the Grande Ecole and Pre-Experience Programs (2017-2022).
In 2022/23, Felix was Visiting Scholar at the Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles. In 2001, he studied at the University of Illinois at Chicago. In 2006, he performed part of his PhD work at the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology (HKUST).
Before joining ESSEC, he worked for several years as strategy and operations management consultant for McKinsey & Company in Cologne, Germany.
Thierry Sibieude
Co-holder of the Global Circular Economy Chair, Professor at ESSEC
After a career in urban services (“Générale des Eaux”, former Veolia), Thierry Sibieude has been a professor at ESSEC Business School since 1996. He founded the Social Entrepreneurship Chair in 2003 and has been the Chair Professor.
His main research areas are Social Entrepreneurship, Social Impact Measurement, CSR and Management of Sustainability, and Management of Non-Profit Organization, with a focus in the field of disabled people and social public policies.
He created the first French MOOC on social entrepreneurship "L'entreprise qui change le monde", completed by "Changer le monde: passons à l'action", "Les partenariats qui changent le monde" and then a series of 3 MOOCs on "L'impact investing, la finance qui change le monde". They are all available on the Coursera platform, free of charge.
In 2002, he also created an innovative program, the PQPM program that proposes a solution to improve social diversity in university education.
Furthermore, Thierry Sibieude developed a local political involvement, being elected as “conseiller general” in the Val d’Oise Council from 2001 to 2015. He is an administrator of the PwC Foundation too.
From 2015 to 2019, he was the General Manager of the ESSEC campus in Rabat.
Justine Laurent
Pedagogical Officer of the Global Circular Economy Chair, Managing Director at Circulab
Justine Laurent is a change maker in circular design with 8 years of experience in circular economy and business design topics, especially applied to training, facilitation & mentoring and consulting.
She is the Managing Director of Circulab, a strategy and design studio dedicated to the circular and regenerative economy. Circulab is a Bcorp operating in 19 countries through its community of certified experts since 2012.
Justine co-created the Circulab Toolbox and Circulab Academy, a set of tools (available in 8 languages) and training programmes based on Circulab's circular design methodology, to accelerate the transition to the circular economy with systems thinking and collective intelligence.
As a consultant, she works for the City of Paris on the phasing out of single-use plastics, for food companies on the launch of new circular offers and on improving bulky waste management, among others. She also assists entrepreneurs and SMEs with European projects.
She trains and designs continuous training plans for UNESCO, GIZ Kosovo or private companies such as SALOMON and ORANGE.
In 2022, she was included in the top 50 CSR personalities established by the Cercle de Giverny.
