Jean Oelwang

Feature News

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Our current retail system is set up to sell new products, which are used and then disposed of – very much a linear (and inefficient) process. The Closed Loop system implies that once products are used they can be reconditioned and brought back into the sales loop
Europe`s future depends on cities resilient to climate change
Around three quarters of Europeans live in cities. Most of Europe's wealth is generated in cities, and urban areas are particularly at risk due to climate change.
Microsoft Taxes Itself - Will it be enough to drive change?
This week, Microsoft is announcing an unusual initiative that it hopes will change how the company operates. Microsoft is charging every division and data center for the carbon emissions they generate. Will it be enough to drive change?
Life Cycle Approaches Key to Canada's Competitivenes
The National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy today released a new report that identifies the need for Life Cycle Approaches in environmental and economic decision-making by companies and government.
Clean mining association launched
A new industry association has been launched aimed at supporting and advocating technological advancements to make the mining industry cleaner and more environmentally responsible.

Jean Oelwang

CEO, Virgin Unite, UK

Jean is the CEO of Virgin Unite, the entrepreneurial foundation of the worldwide Virgin Group. In her previous life, Jean lived and worked on five continents helping to lead successful mobile phone start-ups in South Africa, Colombia, Bulgaria, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and the US.

Jean has long explored the overlap of the business and social sectors and has been involved in both, having worked for the Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife in Australia, and in numerous volunteer roles, including a stint as a VISTA volunteer where she worked with - and learned from - homeless teens in Chicago.

In 2003 she was joint CEO of Virgin Mobile in Australia when she went to work with Richard Branson and the Virgin staff around the world to create Virgin Unite. The team works with Virgin's two hundred businesses worldwide and other entrepreneurs to help put driving positive change at their core. Virgin Unite also works with partners to create new approaches to social and environmental issues, such as a school of entrepreneurship for young people in Johannesburg and an entrepreneurial approach to rural health transport in Kenya.

Jean and Virgin Unite have also helped to incubate a number of global leadership initiatives such as the Elders, the Disease Control Hub in sub-Saharan Africa and the Carbon War Room. Jean sits on the Advisory Board of the Elders, the Board of the Carbon War Room and on the Board of the Bushbuckridge Health and Wellness Trust.