Camila AMAYA-CASTRO (Colombia, 1971) lives in France since 2009. Born in Colombia, she grew up in Europe and has both a degree in mechanical engineering (TU Delft, Pays-Bas) and an executive MBA (HEC, Paris). At Heineken and Nestlé between 1998 and 2013, she works as an engineer and takes responsibility for large investment projects, as an internal consultant and as head of marketing in strategy and operations. Camila AMAYA-CASTRO has worked in 6 countries in Europe, including the Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark, the United Kingdom and France.
Always attracted to multi-disciplinary initiatives, she has a passion for the types of innovation that create economical, natural and societal value. Since 2013 she has been interested in how grassroot innovation and nature-centered innovation can create value to companies and other organisations in a more sustainable and less short-term minded approach. Initially inspired by the Blue Economy as proposed by Gunter Pauli, she developed her research towards the larger ecosystem of thought leaders such as Peter Senge, Fritjof Capra, Humberto Maturana, among others.
Today she is offering her Master Classes “Systemic Innovation” and “Regeneration and Organization” to private and public organisations and individuals that seek to develop sustainably in their work and organisations. Hers is a multidisciplinary approach actively inspired by science and philosophy. Central to her inspiration from the blue economy, is an inclusive approach accessible to everyone without pre-requisites (in education or age, etc.), without judgement or exclusion. Her engineering and project management background allows her to appreciate and embrace the focus on tangible and concrete action. For this reason, she is member of the strategic committee of ASFood International S.A.S.
Camila AMAYA-CASTRO is invested in a variety of organisations and enterprises. She is associate and member of the strategic council of la Fabrique du Futur. Here she also teaches her Master Classes in French. In Spanish they are offered to Latam, through her partnership with ABRA and “center for cultural transformation and leadership” in Chile.
Camila AMAYA-CASTRO is a founding member of Entreprendre l’Avenir, initiated by Dan Laudas in 2023. She teaches at ESI Business School in Paris, preparing the young generations of professionals for the new professions and challenges ahead. As expert, she is regularly invited to intervene in the GERME network. She is also an active alumnus of the Capracourse and a member of Eklore and Happymorphose in France, and the Global SoL (Global Association of SoL Communities) community of which she as member of the board from 2017 to 2021. In 2020 her response to the pandemic was to co-create the project Liveable Future.
In 2014 Camila AMAYA-CASTRO founds the association blu whose objective is to promote the blue economy in France. Blu is co-founder of the MLN – Mushroom Learning Network – an international network of entrepreneurs that grow mushroom on organic waste, mostly on coffee-grounds. Blu is also the editor of “Gunter’s Fables”, the first book in the French language printed on stone paper. This book evokes 5 fables: 5 blue economy innovations and is written in both English and French. To Camila AMAYA-CASTRO, true innovation cannot happen without a personal process of learning, discovery and the capacity to dream. And in that we – adults – have a lot to learn from younger ones…
In 2018 Camila AMAYA-CASTRO creates Innov’Blue S.A.S. and the brand “rocStar,– More Than Paper” through which she develops the market for Stone paper.
