Cities & Collaboration is a collective specialised in economic development. It combines a wide range of experiences and collaborations based on projects. Achievements:
• Consultancy for the InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB) to help capacity building in Latin America in all matters investment attraction, location promotion, and trade & investment. I was asked to train 70 delegates from over 30 different cities throughout the region.
• Upcoming author of book about economic development and how to look after foreign investors and activate them as catalysts of local growth. The book Aftercare Explained www.aftercareexplained.com is the first comprehensive research of the topic and brings examples from all over the world. It comes with the support of Columbia University. I have interviewed over 30 different local and national governments.
• Judge, mentor and member of the International Council at the highly prestigious www.hultprize.org , a social entrepreneurship competition that mobilises 100,000 students p.a. to create innovative companies that improve the life of 10m people. The prize is US$ 1m and is given in collaboration with the United Nations and what was formerly the Global Clinton Initiative. I also serve as a judge for www.socialchallenges.eu a similar open innovation competition funded by the European Union. It runs in parallel with the 27 countries and seeks to connect innovators with local problems, by activating municipalities, charities, NGOs and association to present a problem that could benefit from crowdsourcing solutions throughout Europe. So far, we have organised 50+ challenges, screened over 1,000 solutions and granted 81 awards totalling € 2.5m.
• Participant of the Roundtable of Sustainable investment led by the World Economic Forum, on how to embed the SDGs into Trade & Investment as drivers for sustainable growth. I am also involved in several European initiatives that respond to the call of Trade-not-Aid. We are in conversations with faith institutions and faith consistent investment houses to address the “need to start walking” that is the very core behind mass migration and the refugee crisis in Europe, Africa and Latin America.
• Set up www.thecollabhub.com a website to share expertise about collaboration. Speaker, Trainer, Sharer.
• Set up new initiative to ignite economic development among indigenous communities. The vision is to unearth science & technology held by indigenous populations in Latin America to help find solution to global challenges