Léonie Weerakoon has spent more than 20 years working across the full lifecycle of innovation, from discovery and invention to company building, capital, commercialization, market creation, scale, exit and policy.

Beginning as a designer, she became an entrepreneur and early-stage operator, serving among the first employees behind Formula 1’s U.S. platform and Whole Foods Market’s early e-commerce ventures, where she helped turn first-of-their-kind ideas into global markets. She went on to found tech companies and a venture studio, lead venture and accelerator firms, and invest across venture capital and private equity, with 55+ investments, six exits, and $38B+ in economic value.

Today, Léonie brings that experience back to her foundation in human ecology, working across bioeconomy and biocultural research to identify the intelligence and discoveries that could shape the next generation of technologies, industries, and economic markets. She bridges financial institutions, governments, and communities to ethically de-risk investment in some of the planet’s most valuable and historically underpriced assets, while strengthening local agency, governance, and economic participation. Her work extends through policy and systems change, advising heads of state and global institutions, contributing to multibillion-euro policy, and convening first-of-their-kind global conversations on the bioeconomy and future of living systems.