Danielle Statham is the co – owner of Sundown Pastoral Company alongside her husband David.

Together they own large-scale agricultural enterprises in Australia close to 175, 000 acres in total. Despite Danielle’s love for the fashion industry she is also acutely aware of the social, environmental, and ethical issues that the fashion industry is facing, leading to her passion for sustainable textiles, in particular climate friendly, regenerative and ethically produced cotton. Recognising that today’s environmentally and socially conscious consumers are demanding change, Danielle saw the opportunity to close the loop between her family’s agriculture enterprise and sustainable fashion growth. Her vision has led the charge of disrupting the global cotton supply chain with the FibreTrace supply chain traceability technology & integrated software platform. Danielle has also driven the global Good Earth Cotton carbon friendly brand for Sundown Pastoral Company.

Learn more about Danielle here.

Cannon Michael is the President/CEO of Bowles Farming Company. A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley. Environmental stewardship, ethical treatment of workers and sustainable production are core values for Cannon. He is engaged in California water and agriculture issues - he serves as the Chairman of the San Luis & Delta Mendota Water Authority, as a director on: the Water Education Foundation Board, the San Luis Canal Company Board, the Water Policy Center’s Advisory Council, the Henry Miller Reclamation District Board, the Family Farm Alliance, the American Farmland Trust Board, the Cotton Incorporated Board. He serves as the president of the San Luis Resource Conservation District Board, advisory board member for UC Davis Agricultural Sustainability Institute, as Treasurer for the Exchange Contractors PAC, and as director and past chairman of the California Cotton Growers Association. He also serves in an advisory capacity for three family-run farming/processing companies in the Central Valley.

Daniel has over 25 years of experience in corporate sustainability, institutional marketing, and public relations, working both for the public and private sectors. With a background in business management and communications, he began his career with the Swiss government, identifying new market opportunities for sustainable trade from developing countries, and overseeing the development of the first sustainable label in Switzerland for the textile industry.

He then worked for 8 years as Operational Director of CSR, Compliance and Integrity, Marketing and Communication for a famous textile company where he transformed a traditional clothing company into what is now a widely recognized sustainable brand that offers product traceability throughout the lifecycle. Before joining bluesign technologies ag he worked as Group Vice President, Corporate Communications and Sustainability at SGS for more than 10 years.

As CEO of bluesign he has developed a new service portfolio and extending the bluesign partnership and services to new market segments and geographies.

Aurangzeb is currently the Vice President of Strategy & Innovation at Crescent Bahuman Limited (CBL), the first vertical denim jeans facility of Pakistan.

CBL is a purpose built factory and residential campus spread over 600 acres of land that is a testament to the belief that man, nature, and industry can coexist. To date, CBL has planted over 850.000 trees on site and continues to compliment its ethical manufacturing practices with a sustainable ecosystem which includes rain water harvesting, solar farms, and non profit farming.

Aurangzeb, an Alumni of McGill University, began his early career in the hosiery industry. This was followed by a move to Istanbul where he gained valuable experience in denim, overseeing Crescent Group's manufacturing operations in Turkey.

Since moving back to Pakistan, Aurangzeb has helped CBL aspire towards becoming a leader in innovation through the pursuit of disruptive technologies such as Blue Infinity, the company’s unique indigo free dyeing process.

Tuncay Kılıçkan is the Head of Global Business Development in charge of the Denim sector at Lenzing Group

Alice Tonello is the R&D and Marketing Director of Tonello, a company specialized in garment finishing technologies that helps brands, laundries and dyeing plants to produce more responsible products. She contributed to the evolution of Tonello from machine producer to the international benchmark for the denim and garment processing industry. At present she manages the Tonello & Research Centre, with a team of experts and a new Creative Area to nurture research and experimentation, giving support to customers, designers, and brands. She is always on the frontline of fashion and technological research, especially in terms of new effects, treatments, and trends.

Learn more about Alice in our #MeetTheFounders series here.

Alberto Candiani is the personification of "blue blooded”. He is surrounded by the world of denim production, spending most of his childhood using his family's mill as his playground. Alberto was guided by his father Gianluigi and Grandfather Primo, who taught him the importance of denim heritage and respecting the environment that surrounds Candiani. 

At 37, Alberto has settled into his role as Candiani Denim's leader. He is the fourth generation Candiani and is committed to making Candiani the Greenest Mill in the Blue World, through the development of Candiani’s Re-Gen Denim, winner of the ITMA Sustainable Innovation Award, and the accomplishment of Candiani’s first denim specialty store in Milan.

Learn more about Alberto in our #MeetTheFounders series here.

Ali Abdullah is the founder and Managing Director of Diamond Denim, which is part of the Sapphire Group. Sapphire is a vertically integrated, family owned, textile manufacturing concern. Ali is responsible for the development, production, and marketing of denim fabrics and garments.

It has always been Ali’s ambition to surmount the challenges associated with creating an environment friendly business that was also commercially viable.  Diamond Denim has received certification from GOTS and GRS, both of which are geared towards enabling the use of organic and recycled products in production. In addition to this, the company is investing in several technologies and processes to reduce water and utility consumptions to decrease the environmental footprint of the textile manufacturing chain.

Learn more about Ali in our #MeetTheFounders series here.

Rizwan Shafi is the Executive Director of Crescent Bahüman Ltd. The first vertically integrated denim Jeans manufacturing facility in Pakistan. Crescent Bahüman’s 25 year long quest of creating the greenest ecosystem and products is something that makes it unique from the rest.

Mr Rizwan is a graduate of the Wharton school and an Alumni of Philadelphia University. He has been an integral part of Crescent Bahuman for almost two decades and has played a pivotal role as an insightful leader to the denim industry.

He is continuously striving to bring denim innovations to Pakistan. Along with that, Rizwan has sought to create a denim manufacturing facility with an entire ecosystem which is manifested in each product produced. Rizwan believes that sustainability is not just a slogan, it is an ethos.

Steve Stewart is the Chief Brand and Innovation Officer for The LYCRA Company. In his role, Stewart is responsible for the leadership of our integrated Technology and Strategic Marketing teams and tasked with accelerating the pace and impact of innovative products and platforms for Brands and Retailers. Stewart has over 25 years of experience in the textile fiber and apparel business, including positions in operations, technical, sales, and marketing. Before his career with INVISTA and The LYCRA Company, he worked for BOEING, DUPONT, and WL GORE & ASSOCIATES. Steve holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M University and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Tennessee.

Dr. Wolfgang Schumann is the Group MD of Rudolf Group and serves on its board of directors. Under his leadership the Group has further established its global footprint and now ensures flexibility in response to an increasingly demanding marketplace. Before joining the Rudolf Group in 2006, he perfected his professional skills at PricewaterhouseCoopers and Clariant. Prior to that - and as a child - he went through the school provided by his entrepreneurial family and learnt the trade first hand from his grandparents and on the factory floor.

Andrew Olah has been in the textile industry since 1976 and focused on the jeans industry since 1979.

In 2004 he created the Kingpins Show – the first-ever denim supply chain trade show. He is an industry thought leader having spoken at many events. He helped produce a jeans brand course at the Fashion Institute of Technology for fifteen years.

 Andrew believes in sharing ideas and creating community to implement the changes needed to move the denim industry into being more environmentally viable, 

With this in mind he started Kingpins Transformers in 2014.

Alberto De Conti holds a degree in biochemistry from the University of Milan and an international MBA from the Vlerick Management School. He began his career working on biotechnologies for textiles in labs of Milan, Vienna, and Berlin. He then joined Levi Strauss & Co. and moved from R&D, to product management, to eventually lead breakthrough initiatives as Global Director of Business Development & Innovation for the Levi’s® brand.

Alberto is Head of the Fashion Division of the Rudolf Group where he drives the alchemy behind fashion and leads company-wide efforts in response to evolving fashion market dynamics.

Learn more about Alberto in our #MeetTheFounders series here.

Miguel Sanchez is a Textile Engineer, with a degree in Textile Chemistry from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia.

Miguel has developed his career focusing in the field of Textile Dyes and Chemicals, working with leading Global Chemical manufacturing companies. His experience ranges from Technical Application expert to Global Manager Business Development, always related to Denim in all its aspects.

In 2018, Miguel was appointed by Kingpins as Technology Leader, supporting the organization in technical, academic, working practices and sustainability issues.

An absolute devotee of Denim, Miguel is happy to bring his grain of sand to make this fascinating industry better.

Emily Olah is the acting Executive Director of Transformers Foundation. She worked for more than six years in denim fabric and product development capacities for apparel brands in Los Angeles and New York prior to becoming the Managing Director of Olah, Inc. in 2007. 

She is the third generation of Olah's to enter into the family denim business. She is active in the textile, apparel, product development and sales divisions as well as devoting much of her efforts in sustainability and traceability, which she feels will be the new premium standard for apparel.

emily@transformersfoundation.org

Kim van der Weerd is the Intelligence Director at Transformers Foundation, the unified voice representing the denim industry and its ideas for positive change. She is also co-founder and host of Manufactured, a podcast featuring supplier perspectives on sustainable fashion and an outspoken advocate of equal partnership in fashion supply chains. She previously worked as General Manager of Pactics Phnom Penh, a garment factory producing for the luxury eyewear industry and as COO of Tonlé, a zero-waste manufacturing brand, both based in Cambodia. She holds a M.Sc. in human rights from the London School of Economics.

kim@transformersfoundation.org

Twenty years ago, Tricia joined Courtalds Fibers NY to develop the marketing plan for a new fiber called TENCEL. When Lenzing Fibers acquired Tencel Inc. in 2004, Tricia became the USA Merchandising Manager and later, the Global Business Development team for US apparel brands and retailers, with a specialization in advancing sustainable apparel development from fiber to consumer use. Today, Tricia is the COO of Renewcell.

Tricia served as the Vice Chair at Textile Exchange from 2014-2018, current member of the FIT Textile Department Advisory Board and Accelerating Circularity Project. She can be reached at tricia.carey@renewcell.com.

Learn more about Tricia in our #MeetTheFounders series here.

In 2005, Robin Cornelius founded Product DNA, productdna.com - strategic advisor’s company specializing in product traceability and supply chain management, as well as supporting brands in a transparent approach. Since its foundation, 20’000 supply chains representing over 200 million items have been traced. Its digital transparency platform, respect-code.org, backed by its in-house developed SaaS, allows companies to better manage their supply chains.

Awards: 2002: SAI 8000 Corporate Conscience Awards (N.Y.); 2004: SAM Sustainable Asset Management (ZH); 2005: E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year ( Switzerland).

Ani Wells is the Communications Lead at Transformers Foundation, as well as sustainable denim & communications consultant. 

Ani is passionate about telling the stories of the people behind the supply chain, championing sustainable innovations, helping brands use their businesses as a force for good, and helping consumers navigate the blurry world of sustainable fashion.

communications@transformersfoundation.org

Joanne Schouten

Ilishio Lovejoy

Mohsin Sajid

Sadia Rafique