Previously the Founding Dean of the Dubai Institute of Design and Innovation, Sass Brown is the course leader for Kingston University London’s newest MA – Sustainable Fashion: Business and Practices. Brown completed her PhD in 2021 on Global Artisanship and Models of Sustainable Development. Prior to joining DIDI, Sass was the Interim Dean for the Fashion Institute of Technology’s School of Art and Design in New York. As a researcher, writer and educator, Brown’s area of expertise is ethical fashion, and her publications include the books Eco Fashion and ReFashioned for British publishers Laurence King.

Mechanical engineer and international consultant with 17+ years of experience in circular economy, regenerative business models, and green entrepreneurship. Founder of Ecologing and creator of the Ecocanvas methodology. Has led projects across Europe, MENA and Latin America with organizations such as UNIDO, UNEP, and GIZ, supporting SMEs, public agencies, and ecosystems in transitioning toward sustainable and circular practices.

Professor and Senior Fellow at ReTech Centre École des Ponts Business School, and adjunct professor the École de Management et Innovation at Sciences Po, fashion industry expert, and former UN officer, built his career across four continents with a rare, inside view of how systems operate. His focus: corporate governance and sustainability in luxury fashion. A global ethical challenge that demands more than intuition. It requires structure, rigor, and accountability.

Orsola de Castro is a leading voice in sustainable fashion, working as an author, curator, and mentor. Her book Loved Clothes Last (Penguin Life, 2021) has been translated into Italian, French, and German.
She is the co-founder and former Creative Director of Fashion Revolution, the global fashion activism movement launched in 2013, and the founder of Estethica, the pioneering sustainable fashion showcase at London Fashion Week. Her award-winning label From Somewhere (1997–2014) was a trailblazer in upcycling and collaborated with brands including Topshop and Speedo.

Eduardo Escobedo is a senior advisor with over 20 years of international experience in sustainability, responsible sourcing, and global value chains. He has worked with governments, international organisations, and industry to design and deliver initiatives linking business strategy with environmental and social impact. He currently advises organisations on supply chain transformation and teaches at master level, bringing a practical, globally informed perspective to leadership and sustainability.

Before obtaining his doctoral degree Miguel Angel Gardetti holds two Master’s Degrees: one in Business Administration from the IAE Business School (Universidad Austral, Argentina), and the other one in Environmental Studies and Sustainable Development from the Universidad de Ciencias Empresariales y Sociales (Argentina).
In the field of sustainable textiles and fashion, he founded the Centre for Sustainable Textile and he also founded the Centre for Study of Sustainable Luxury first initiative of its kind in the world with an academic/research profile. He has published several books in these areas.

Mumit Hasan is a Textile Engineer with an MBA and professional project management experience, specializing in circular economy and sustainability. He has global, on-site experience across Asia, Africa, and the Americas, training factories and establishing circular value chains. His work spans textiles and hard goods, focusing on traceability, responsible sourcing, and data-driven transparency. He bridges global frameworks with practical implementation to build scalable, inclusive, and traceable supply chains.

Dr. Karan Khurana is the program leader for business and management courses at Webster University in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. He is an Associate Professor and has teaching experience of 15 years in India, Ethiopia, Belgium, Uzbekistan, and the USA. He did his PhD in Management (consumer behavior regarding brand failures in India) and master’s in Fashion Marketing from Italy. Karan researches sustainability in the textile and apparel value chain, and business development strategies for SMEs.

Dr Lisa Lake is a pioneer in the Australian sustainable fashion movement having authored Sustainability with Style in 2012 and co-founded Clean Cut in 2014. Lisa currently leads the Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Fashion + Textiles at UTS and TAFE NSW in Sydney. She sits on the New South Wales Sustainable Fashion Reference Group and has been a judge for the Australian Fashion Laureate, the Good Design Awards, and the eBay Circular Fashion Fund.

Veronica Manlow teaches in the Koppelman School of Business and the Macaulay Honors College at Brooklyn College. Her courses are cross-listed with Women’s and Gender Studies and Puerto Rican and Latinx Studies and she has taught the First Year Seminar in Classics. She is a co-author of Crafting Luxury: Craftsmanship, Manufacture, Technology and the Retail Environment (2022) and co-editor of the Routledge Companion to Fashion Studies (2021). She’s was a founding editor of the Luxury Studies journal which launched in 2022. She is the academic director of Brooklyn College’s I+E Lab.

Sauro Mezzetti has a background as an expert in SME globalisation, technology Transfer and project of international organisation with a special focus on Asian Markets and India. He has obtained a degree on History and Geography of South East Asia at Bologna University and a post degree on International Cooperation with Developing Country (1998).His consultancy career span along more than 40 years. He is resident in India and he is the Chairman of the Indo-Italian Chamber of Commerce of Chennai and honorary consular correspondent of Italy for Tamil Nadu.

Gabrielle Miller is an experienced researcher and educator focused on design, policy and systems change in fashion. At London College of Fashion, she has spent over a decade lecturing, working in research centres and leading fashion and sustainability for the School of Design. She co-developed an award-winning edtech MOOC, and published and delivered major government-funded research. She advises and designs educational programming for local governments in California, and has guest lectured at UC Berkeley. Formerly a designer at Alexander McQueen and Givenchy, she bridges industry and academia.

Her research interests include fashion studies, and sustainable forms of production and consumption in cultural industries.
She coordinates the English BA curriculum Communication Management for Fashion and Food (COMMA) at Università Cattolica.
In 2014, with Agnés Rocamora and Paolo Volonté, she founded the International Journal of Fashion Studies (Intellect Books Publisher), which she co-edited until 2020. The Journal was pivotal in fostering the participation of scholars from all the Continents to the Fashion Studies’ field, encouraging the peer-review process in more than 20 languages.

Pacy is a fashion designer and entrepreneur in Abidjan.
In 2005, she founded Yalerri, a responsible ready-to-wear brand that honors African identity.
In 2020, she launched a textile coworking for fashion designers wih led to a fashion studio, in 2024, with the support of the Ethical Fashion Initiative  (EFI) of the International Trade Centre (ITC).
Studio 4 is a creative hub for designers and textile professionals that offers consulting, CAD prototyping, ethical production, and customized training.
Pacy is deeply committed to building a resilient and sustainable textile ecosystem in West Africa.

Alex Musembi is Co-founder and General Manager of Africa Collect Textiles Ltd (ACT) and Board Member of Africa Collect Textiles Foundation. He also co-founded Tujikuze Ethical Fashion Initiative, supporting artisans through global ethical markets. With experience in textile recycling, Alex champions circular fashion, fair trade, and sustainable sourcing. He holds an MBA from the University of Nairobi and has spoken at COP16 and global entrepreneurship forums.

Prof. Dr. Yasir Nawab is Vice Chancellor of the University of Kamalia and Professor at National Textile University and Adjunct Professor at NC State University, USA. A PhD and HDR in fiber reinforced composite materials from France, he is among Elsevier’s top 2% highly cited scientists, with 200+ journal articles, 11 books, patents, technology transfers, and major projects linking textiles, sustainability, circular materials, innovation, and higher education.

Michelle Francine Ngonmo is a cultural entrepreneur and the founder of Afro Fashion Association, an international platform promoting diversity, inclusion, and equitable access within the creative industries. Born in Cameroon and raised in Italy, she develops initiatives connecting creativity, culture, community, education, and social impact across Africa, Asia, South America and Europe. Through projects such as Afro Fashion Week Milano, Black Carpet Awards, theunseenprofiles and Communities at Work, she advocates for a more representative and globally conscious creative ecosystem.

Dr. Christina Raab is a pioneering leader at the intersection of sustainability, circular economy and innovation across major industries and global value chains. She served as the Chief Executive Officer of the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute, and held senior executive roles at the ZDHC and at forefront international advisory firms.
She has a strong record of embedding sustainability into core business practices and value creation strategies, and has successfully built and scaled multi-stakeholder initiatives for sustainable innovation and market transformation.

Dr Timo Rissanen is Associate Professor, Fashion and Textiles at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), with research focus on sustainability and social justice in fashion and textile systems. He is the research lead at the Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Fashion & Textiles. Rissanen has co-authored two books on fashion and sustainability: Zero Waste Fashion Design (2016) with Holly McQuillan and Shaping Sustainable Fashion (2011) with Alison Gwilt. With Kate Fletcher, Mathilda Tham and Lynda Grose, he is a founding member of the Union of Concerned Researchers in Fashion.

Dr. Katharina Sand focuses on the impact of technology on creative process, society, and the environment. She teaches at Parsons Paris (The New School) and has held professorships in Europe and North America. She was the CEO of a Swiss fashion platform for two decades, and has covered fashion, textiles and art as a curator, journalist and magazine and book editor. Katharina has presented her research internationally, from Ars Electronica and the EU Commission to TEDx Transmedia. Her work has been featured in publications ranging from Vogue, Elle to The New York Times and Newsweek.