Over the past few months, Enviu Group has been preparing for a new phase aimed at accelerating its impact. After running Enviu Foundation for six years, Ankie van Wersch-Lenders and Michiel Elich have handed over the management to an eager new team: Paul van der Linden and Dieuwertje Nelissen. In addition to the change in management, Enviu is happy to announce a new as-a-service spin-off, Powered By Enviu.
Meet the new management
Dieuwertje Nelissen is part of the Enviu global management as Chief Program Officer. She has more than ten years of experience building circular business models, early-stage validation and value proposition development, and partnership, and program management. She started her journey with Enviu in 2017 as a venture builder and program manager in circular textiles. Dieuwertje was instrumental in setting up the Enviu Chile office, where, as its Country Director, she managed the agriculture venture-building program. Moreover, she has been leading Enviu’s plastics programs in Southeast Asia (Zero Waste Living Lab) and the Netherlands (Mission Reuse).
With a Master’s in International Relations (Conflict Resolution) from the University of Groningen, she started her career in the corporate world, leading innovation, strategy, operations, and building companies in renewable energy as an intrapreneur. Besides being an entrepreneurial idealist, Dieuwertje is a field hockey player and nature-lover.
Over the past 15 years, Paul van der Linden has been passionately building teams and businesses, setting strategies, and modeling financial investments. He joined Enviu in 2017. Besides setting up the Enviu East Africa office, Paul played a crucial role in building the FoodFlow program and the SokoFresh venture, as Venture Builder, Program Lead and Regional Director. He joined the Management Team of the Enviu Group in January 2022, taking on the CEO role in January 2023.
Paul holds an MSc in Strategic Management from RSM, Erasmus University. He has also helped in the build-out of a solar energy start-up to an established player, and has managed teams and projects across five continents.
A generalist, Paul juggles a little bit of everything. Outside Enviu, he continues to support the development of impactful solar energy projects, as a board member of Sopowerful Foundation.
In their new roles, Paul and Dieuwertje will focus on taking the organization’s venture-building activities and impact to the next level, further establishing Enviu as an undisputed leader in building world-changing companies.
Enviu’s impact innovation agency, Powered By Enviu
Continuing their decades of experience in business modeling and value chain innovation, Ankie and Michiel will spearhead Powered by Enviu. This is Enviu Group’s as-a-service spin-off for organizations to transition to fundamentally new business models with a positive impact on society. As an impact innovation agency, Powered By Enviu designs, validates and builds future-ready business models and scalable ventures for established organizations. It builds on Enviu’s 19+ years of experience and proven methodology in building ventures and ecosystems for social impact.
Read why Powered By Enviu was created, here.
While Enviu Foundation will continue to build and run its own programs and ventures to drive systemic change, Powered By Enviu will draw on Enviu’s expertise and experience to support other organizations in building circular and inclusive business models, and thus transition to (net) positive impact. To learn more about Powered By Enviu, visit www.poweredbyenviu.org/.