Manuel Maqueda

Special Programs Instructor
Harvard Extension School

Manuel Maqueda is an international teacher, speaker, and innovator committed to restoring the balance of living systems.

Manuel Maqueda is a Special Programs Instructor teaching Applied Circular Economics, and Regenerative Economics at the Sustainability Graduate Programs, and at the Global Development Practice Graduate Programs – Harvard Extension School, Harvard Division of Continuing Education.

Maqueda sits on the Strategic Foresight Board of the Circular Economy Alliance, and created the circular economy online course at the University of California, Berkeley Extension, where he was an instructor for 6 years with a focus on impact entrepreneurship and innovation. Maqueda also created UCLA’s Online Circular Economy Program.

Recognized as an expert in plastic pollution, Maqueda is co-founder of several notable organizations such as SUPER (Single-Use Plastics Elimination or Reduction), a nonprofit enabling businesses to eliminate single-use plastics through a tiered certification program. As a forward-thinker, Maqueda has consulted for notable futurist organizations such as the Jeff Bezos-funded Long Now Foundation, dedicated to fostering long-term thinking in the context of the next 10,000 years. Maqueda researches how artificial intelligence can support human ingenuity in enabling a regenerative economy. He co-founded Viento.ai, an organization pioneering the use of machine learning to design proactive responses to climate disasters.

As a speaker and lecturer on sustainability and circular economy, Maqueda’s clients include Google, Salesforce, Santander, LinkedIn, NASA, Uber, Acciona, the Institute for the Future, Dell, Foresight Institute, Green Festival, Circular City Week, New Plastics Economy Conference, Plastic-Free World, and the government of the state of Washington.