Speakers
Gabe Tavas, Symmetry Wood – Gabe Tavas is a biodesigner, explorer, and social entrepreneur from Chicago whose mission in life is to empower and guide those in his profession (and other sustainability-minded makers) to protect their natural and cultural resources. He currently pursues this as the founder and CEO of Symmetry Wood, a biotech startup that makes wood from kombucha SCOBY waste as a stand-in for expensive tropical hardwood, which drives significant forest destruction in places like the Amazon Rainforest.
Rochelle Still, Uncycled Food Association – Rochelle is the Membership Manager of the Upcycled Food Association (UFA), a nonprofit trade association working to prevent food waste by accelerating the upcycled food economy. After working in brand marketing for major outdoor and recreation CPG brands, Rochelle decided to pursue her passion for sustainable food systems. She spent time living in Chile where she worked on various farms & sustainable projects across the country and developed a passion for reducing food waste and improving the food supply chain.
In her two years at UFA, Rochelle has paired her passions of product innovation and sustainable food systems through her role as Membership Manager where she supports a network of 220+ (and growing!) companies in the upcycled food industry. Rochelle loves working with the UFA community of change-makers and innovative companies to grow the upcycled food economy and create a more habitable ecosystem for upcycled food brands to succeed.
Shaun Moshasha, Kombucha Biomaterials – CEO. – Shaun thrives by creating innovations, relationships, and companies. His first love has been and always will be science, and as he’s progressed through his career he’s experienced the need to translate that science into real-world innovations to help solve so many of the problems that we humans are so good at creating. Shaun has spun out companies that are developing male contraceptives and that are addressing the excessive use of pesticides, but he is most excited about the material revolution that is happening. His latest company, Kombucha Biomaterials, aims to play a fundamental role in re-inventing the way we as a society interact with nature around us through closed-loop manufacturing processes that depend on generative rather than exploitative production practices.
