Manuela Zoninsein

When the core tenets of sustainability finally came into vogue, companies, marketers, and executives pivoted en masse, mashing together ‘generosity’, ‘gratitude’, and ‘green’, rebranding themselves in the zeitgeist of the day.

Doing good, thinking long-term, protecting the environment—in the light of current day, it’s easy to see who meant it and who was simply following the trade winds.

Manuela Zoninsein, on the other hand, wrote ‘please use other side’ on the bottom edge of the notebook paper she used to pass notes to classmates in the second grade.

Her dedication to ‘other’ makes sense in her family history—her father a leader of the Brazilian communist movement, part of Allende’s socialist movement in Chile before the CIA-backed Pinochet Coup, a Marxist at NYC’s New School; her mother a feminist anthropologist, a freedom rider, an activist to this day.

From Harvard, Oxford, and MIT, across a journey that’s included the commodities trading floor in Chicago, the ‘wilds’ of pre-social media China, to Kadeya where she’s removing single-use plastics from the work place, Manuela’s burning curiosity, dedication to serving others, and remarkable capability to blend observation, opportunity and pragmatism wholeheartedly are completely her own.

We sat down to talk about life, family, philosophy, purpose, dance, culture, navigating the start-up world, and which country ranks top of the list in Gross National Deliciousness. Truly a joy, thank you Manuela, and please give a listen—I promise she’s worth it.