May Al-Karooni is the Founder and CEO of Globechain –the world’s largest reuse marketplace that connects corporates to charities and smes to redistribute free unwanted items, creating social impact data to its members. Globechain focuses in retail (fixtures & fittings, obsolete stock), commercial (office, IT) and construction (demolition, materials and refurbishments). Globechain has over 10,000 members working with some of the world’s largest brands across multiple sectors including; retail, construction, hospitality and medical, as well as growing a large network of charities nationally and internationally. It operates in UK, Europe, UAE and US.
May previously worked within the investment banking and asset management industry, fundraising monies for venture capital, property and hedge funds for the last 10 years totalling over £120 million in funds raised. In 2015 May set up Globechain after seeing a demand for a new online circular economy within the waste management industry after her own employer expressed a need to reuse items in a more collaborative way. Last year 6,100,000 kilos were diverted from landfill items being re distributed within the UK as well as Sierra Leone, Guinea, Libya, Beirut and Ukraine providing savings of over £4,000,000 to charitable causes.
In 2019, Globechain launched in Spain, United Arab Emirates with the Royal family, hosted a panel at COP25 Madrid and won multiple awards including May being recognised as one of the Women Leading in Real Estate and Globechain Forbes Start Up to Watch 2019.
