Nellie Cohen

Nellie holds over 20 years of sustainability experience and is widely recognized as a leading figure within the circular economy movement. Prior to founding BALEEN, a specialized agency that focuses on circularity design and implementation, Nellie spent nearly a decade at Patagonia as the architect of the brand’s precedent-setting and award-winning circularity program, Worn Wear.

Over her career, she has developed and implemented circular business models for organizations ranging in size from $50M to $100B+ in annual revenue across industries from apparel and footwear to home appliances, life sciences, baby gear, furniture, and retail — working with some of the world’s best known brands including Levi’s, Target, lululemon, DÔEN, Ergobaby, Fisher-Price, Whirlpool, Merck Life Science, and Canada Goose.

Nellie focuses on helping brands generate revenue and acquire customers through designing scalable circular business models that are authentic, engaging, and purposeful — and fun.

A former lecturer in Industrial Ecology at UC Santa Barbara, she holds a BA in Environmental Systems from UC San Diego and a MS in Biological Oceanography from Scripps Institution of Oceanography.