Gunter Pauli is an entrepreneur, economist, and author born in 1956 in Antwerp (Belgium). He is best known for his main work, The Blue Economy. He has lived on 4 continents, is fluent in 7 languages, has been a resident of Japan since 1994, and spends most of his time in South Africa. Gunter Pauli holds a degree in economics from Loyola University (today University of Antwerp) in 1979 in Belgium and an MBA from INSEAD at Fontainebleau (France) in 1982.

Pauli’s entrepreneurial activities span culture, science, politics, business, and the environment. He is also a member of The Club of Rome and has served three years since 2017 as an elected member of the Executive Committee. Gunter Pauli has served as an advisor for governments in Spain, Argentina, and Italy.

He has also worked as an author, notably of The Blue Economy. He assisted Aurelio Peccei, founder of the Club of Rome from 1979 to 1984, and later wrote a biography about him.

In 1989 he was elected as an independent substitute to the European Parliament but never took up the seat. Former chairman of Ecover, an ecological detergent company, before realizing in 1990 that its components - palm oil in particular - destroy primary forests, he is nicknamed the "Steve Jobs of sustainable development", or even the "Che Guevara of biodiversity ”, or “the apostle of sustainable growth

Gunter Pauli is committed to designing and implementing a competitive business model which responds to people’s needs using what is locally available. He introduced “The Blue Economy” philosophy in 1994 when asked by the United Nations to reflect on the business models of the future in preparation for COP 3 in Japan where the Kyoto Protocol was decide.