Bio

Dr. HELEN TOXOPEUS is a postdoctoral researcher at the Utrecht University School of Economics in the Netherlands, and staff member of the Sustainable Finance Lab. She researches finance and business models for sustainability, ranging from circular economy to urban nature-based solutions (NBS), with a particular interest in crowdfunding as a financing source for sustainable activities. Within the NATURVATION project (Horizon2020) she leads the work on finance and business models for urban NBS. She is a founding member of the European Centre for Alternative Finance (ECAF). She obtained her PhD at Erasmus University Rotterdam (‘Financing Sustainable Innovation: from a principal-agent to a collective action perspective’) and her master degree in International Economics and Business from the University of Groningen (cum laude). Previously she worked as an investment analyst and innovation manager at a large Dutch bank and wrote two books about sustainable innovations in the financial system, in particular on alternative money systems. She co-authored several publications on sustainable finance and business models, including the management book “Circular Route: a roadmap for a circular business model” which was longlisted for Management Book of the Year 2017 in the Netherlands. Her work for the NATURVATION project on business models for urban NBS can be found at www.naturvation.eu/businessmodels.