Inty Grønneberg

PhD in innovation ecosystems. Transforming organisations and societies through innovation and entrepreneurship

Short Bio:

​Co-founder and CEO of Ichthion, an award-winning start-up created in 2017 in the United Kingdom. The aim of this company is the development of disruptive technologies to extract plastics and synthetic waste from rivers and oceans. Ichthion also develops effective strategies to increase circularity in cities based on data.

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​Inty is also President and co-founder of the Circular foundation in Ecuador, an NGO with the goal of improving the life of vulnerable social groups through technology and innovation, while contributing to the protection of the environment.

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He holds a PhD in innovation ecosystems from the Dyson School of Design Engineering at Imperial College London, and a Master’s degree in manufacturing processes at the University of Greenwich.

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He has more than a decade of experience in leadership roles across Latin America and Europe.

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​Inty writes his opinions about Ecuador, in a weekly column of “Diario el Telégrafo”.

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​As a result of his professional career, he has the honour of receiving several awards, for example:

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• MIT Technological Review, Inventor of the year in Latin America, 2018

• Ambassador for the environment and bio-economy, Ecuadorian Ministry of Environment

• National Order of Merit, grade Great Commander, Presidency of the Republic of Ecuador

• The Catalyst 2019, Lux Awards Ecuador

• Creativity Award 2019, Ecuadorian Chamber of Industry and Productivity

• Scientific merit award “Eugenio Espejo”, Chamber of Commerce of Quito

Experience

Disruptive Innovation

Inty is the CEO and Managing Director of Ichthion, a multi-awarded company that develops cutting-edge technology to restore oceans and rivers by removing plastics and synthetic waste. Ichthion is part of Innovate UK, Climate-KIC Accelerator, The EU's main climate innovation initiative, the Translation & Innovation Hub (I-HUB) at Imperial College London and Innovation RCA, one of the best hubs of innovation and entrepreneurship in the UK.

Ichthion, with offices in United Kingdom and Ecuador, has won several awards, such as: 

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• Innovate UK: Winners of the national Competition “Plastics Innovation: Towards zero waste”. Awarded £600,000.

• Climate KIC (The EU's main climate innovation initiative): Winners of the Funding Award “Stage 1”. Awarded € 10,000

• Climate KIC (The EU's main climate innovation initiative): Winners of the Funding Award “Stage 1”. Awarded € 20,000

• Kobashi Award, Tech Planter Japan “Pitch Competition”. Awarded ¥ 300,000

• Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, Project Sponsorship. Awarded £35,000

• Autodesk, Project Sponsorship. Awarded £20,000

• Imperial College London, “Scalable Business Award”. Awarded £20,000

• Innovation RCA, Funding Award, Awarded £10,000

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Inty has also been involved as a co-founder in other initiatives, such as EvoT, Fusehunt, PHD Network and SOSEcuador.

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Regarding innovation, Inty managed the acceleration programme at Central Research Laboratory, the UK’s first and biggest purpose-built hardware accelerator. He curated the programme for this organisation.

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Academic research

My research was conducted as part of the Dyson School of Design Engineering at Imperial College London. It was focused on the understanding and development of structural models and processes that are part of Innovation and Entrepreneurial Ecosystems (IEEs), with a particular focus on clusters of hardware and tangible technologies

Continuous Innovation

More than a decade of experience optimising processes in industrial companies, such as General Motors, Toyota, Dana, Bosch, among others.  

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Former Manufacturing Manager at Oxitane Global, Supplier Quality Engineer and Senior Engineer of process and projects at General motors. Erstwhile Service Management Promoter at Toyota. Formerly certified instructor of process improvement techniques for Toyota Motor Corp and General Motors.