New YAP Fellows for CSW Europe

We’re thrilled to introduce the five newest members of our Young Achievers Program (YAP) for Crowdsourcing Week Europe 2014. A diverse and talented group, they join the inagural fellows announced last week and form the core of an exciting new community of promising young leaders who are passionate about crowdsourcing and collaboration.

The Young Achievers Program was founded to forge a global network and support ecosystem for upcoming thought leadership in the crowd economy. The current class of YAP fellows will join us in Copenhagen for CSW Europe 2014, where they will learn from and network with the leading pioneers in this space. For each upcoming Crowdsourcing Week conference, we’ll open up a new call for applications for local young achievers to join YAP have their work recognized, attend the CSW conference, and be part of the growing YAP network.

Do you want to join this first class of YAP fellows at CSW Europe? Time is running out to apply and very few spots remain, so get your application in soon!

Munira Begmuratova

Malmö, Sweden

LinkedIn | Twitter

I have recently graduated with a Master’s degree in Entrepreneurship, New Venture creation program from Lund University. Since crowdsourcing is a relatively new concept I would love to learn more about possibilities around crowdsourcing.

Work focus:  I am currently working on an IT related project called Soulklik. As a young entrepreneur I face many challenges related to software development while working in a team that is spread around the world. I believe I could learn a lot from the international practices of crowdsourcing as a means of product development with a diverse group of people and also as a means of financial bootstrapping. I think it is important to make most of the different expertise and practices around the world by having different perspectives. This is also a great step forward for more equal and inclusive world.

Louis Emmerson

Rotterdam, Netherlands

LinkedIn | Twitter

My initial interest in the crowd economy was sparked by a dissatisfaction with the traditional banking sector in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, while specializing in the historical development of capitalism at University. I began to appreciate that this system which crashed so spectacularly in 2008 had remained incredibly resistant to the democratizing impact of the digital age. If the industrial revolution was about consumption, the digital age is all about creation. My awareness of the transformative and democratizing potential of crowdfunding motivates my work on a daily basis.

Work focus: I’m a 22 year-old Masters student and the Public Relations Coordinator at Symbid, one of the world’s first equity crowdfunding platforms. My primary concern is with equity crowdfunding and its transition from a novelty offshoot of donation or reward-based crowdfunding into a serious, profit-generating system of investment. My aim in my work – at Symbid and the academic dissertation on the global impact of crowdfunding which I’m currently writing in cooperation with a research program at UC Berkeley – is to change the general public’s perception of crowdfunding from being the reserve of Silicon Valley tech-geeks, independent films and niche video games to a credible and potentially profitable method of investment available to all.

Malou van Nieuwkoop

Netherlands, Amsterdam

LinkedIn | Twitter

For one year I have been working as a young professional at a non-profit crowdfunding & crowdsourcing platform. I have assisted campaigners from mainly non-western countries in setting up successful crowdfunding campaigns leading to more sustainable solutions for development aid. My work as a community manager is about sharing crowdfunding & crowdsourcing expertise: setting up and running successful campaigns. This includes community building, pitching, organising and storytelling.

Work focus: I would like to focus on the possibilities of local crowdfunding and crowdsourcing and in what way this effects active citizenship & local communities.

Eric van der Helm

Copenhagen, Denmark

LinkedIn | Twitter

Currently I’m enrolled at the DTU Systembiology Graduate School as a PhD student in my second year. I’m working at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability on inhibitors for viral diseases such as HIV.

Work focus:  Our technology encompasses the screening of a scoop of soil for potential anti viral drugs. We are currently focussing on the HIV virus. We can process up to 10 “scoops of soil” in a week with the current manpower, however the more diverse the soil, the higher the change of finding a hit. Therefore we intend to use crowdsourcing for the collection of soil samples and it would be great to learn more about the process as a whole at CSW Europe 2014.

Stefan Sinnegger

Lund, Sweden

LinkedIn | Twitter

I’m pursuing a Masters in Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation at Lund University and am eager to hear professionals speaking about crowdsourcing and business models related to that topic. As an Entrepreneur student and future Entrepreneur I’m constantly searching for new ways of doing business. New ways to disrupt certain markets. Novel ideas that can help to solve problems and benefit society.

Work focus:  I’m very much interested in the topic of co-creation. Furthermore I’m interested in crowdfunding and crowdinvesting. Just recently I came up with a campaign on Indiegogo where I raised 4300 USD to support the construction of a multi-purpose building in the Philippines.

Join us in congratulating our YAP Fellows on LinkedIn & Twitter. We all will surely be seeing more of them in the future!