topic:
What if the greatest barrier to circularity isn’t innovation, but isolation?
In this talk, Laili Ishaqzai explores how the tech sector can move beyond fragmented action toward shared, scalable infrastructure. She argues that Europe doesn’t have a technology gap — it has a collaboration gap. Governments, companies and consumers are all innovating, but too often in silos, reinventing the wheel on separate islands.
Circularity isn’t a product — it’s a system. And systems only work when the actors inside them connect. Drawing on her work at Molano, Laili shares how scaling reuse requires not just vision, but networked thinking: integrating existing tools, aligning across borders, and building on what’s already there.
This talk is a call for practical collaboration — to stop solving the same problems apart, and start building circular solutions together.
About the speaker
Laili Ishaqzai is the co-founder of Molano, a company redefining the role of refurbished electronics in the circular economy. With degrees in law and political science, and a master’s in legal philosophy and governance from leading Dutch universities, she brings a systems-level perspective to sustainability, grounded in both theory and practice.
A former youth debate trainer and international exchange organiser with YEU International, Laili has long been committed to civic dialogue and structural change. She later gained commercial leadership experience in retail, B2B technology and the circular electronics sector, where she served as Sales Director. At Molano, she brings these worlds together to lead strategy, compliance and partnerships, showing how circularity can be both commercially viable and operationally grounded.
Laili specializes in circular supply chain design, digital device lifecycle strategy, and regulatory alignment. She advises on how to translate circularity into commercially viable infrastructure with transparency, traceability, and long-term value at the core.
