David Brown-Dawson from California is a book author and motivational speaker on topics including resilience and mindset. He is currently obtaining his MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and has served as a civil engineer officer and air advisor in the United States Air Force for five years. Being passionate about education, he recently finished his first book “Enduring Urgency: Thinking Like a Tortoise in a Time of Hares” and in this episode, he talks to Jennifer about lessons learned and insights. 

Tune in to learn more!

Kristine Vilnite from Latvia is a digital nomad and a global citizen. She is an advisor and mentor to startups and also a Head of Partnerships at the ThreeFold Foundation building a decentralized peer-to-peer internet envisioning an equal, free and fair future for all. She lived in Silicon Valley where she got a chance to get first-hand exposure to the world of tech and fell in love with all the possibilities it can provide for us. 

The change Kristine wants to see in the world is humanity led back in sync with nature. Kristine strives to put her best qualities and skills at work unlocking the power of diversity, simplicity and genuinity towards complex challenges, assuring consideration of a positive net impact for our planet is a norm.

“The world has nothing to give me other than the opportunity to express everything that is already in me”

In this episode, she shares with us how she became "COVID-19 Amsterdammer", what is a ThreeFold internet and why is it needed. She also talks to us about her career in tech, why she thinks sustainability & tech are a good match, and what are her plans as the countries start opening their borders again. 

Tune in to get inspired too! 

Sonja Lahtinen is a business sustainability strategist, doctoral researcher, and a big nature lover.  She is advising companies, cities, and other organizations in addressing sustainability so they spend less time reacting to the changes in their environment and more time creating a positive impact. Her PhD research evolves around the broad field of business sustainability. The findings offer business actors a road map to reframing their business strategies, management activities, and co-creation practices, and shows why doing so will make their businesses, and our planet, thrive.

“We’re now entering into an era of the unknown, the unclear, and the unfolding. Being in tune with what is emerging around, we can seize immense, but not instantly obvious, opportunities to better the world”

This episode features Hoessein Alkisaei, the founder and chairman of Nederland Maakt Impact, lecturer in Civil Engineering at the TU Delft and One Young World Ambassador.  

Hoessein has quit his job as a civil engineer to focus on Nederland Maakt Impact’s first conference in March 2020. Then came COVID-19. Learn how he managed to stay positive and optimistic despite this disruption. 

“In order to go from one mountain tip to a higher one, you will always have to go through a valley  - and this valley is a challenge but always rewarding”

David Zetland is a lecturer at Leiden University College The Hague, host of the Jive Talking podcast, published author and expert on water scarcity and political economy. His specialties are analyzing, discussing and improving the management of natural resources using the tools of political economy. David traveled in over 100 countries.

In this episode he discussed with us politics, challenges like water scarcity and food insecurity, the role of leadership and many more crucial topics in the times of COVID-19. How does COVID-19 affect food security? What happens when so many people in the world have no access to clean water in a health crisis like this? Should we be optimistic about the impact on climate change? Explore with us!

Karla Ticona is wearing three hats at the same time - being an engineer, coach and a triathlete. Her mission is to help people & organizations connect strategy and spirit to become the best they can be and serve the world with their talents. She believes that everything is possible with faith and joy, and her commitment is to pay it forward by supporting education, environmental protection, and women entrepreneurs.

As an Industrial Engineer Karla trained and worked in 10 countries in Latin America, North America, and Asia. Karla is also an Ontological Professional Coach with Professional Certified Coach (PCC) credential from the International Coaching Federation (ICF), Points of You ® Certified Trainer, Mind-Body Eating Coach from the Institute for the Psychology of Eating and Desire Map Facilitator.

In this episode she tells us how life is impacted in Peru and how she keeps on training for marathons and triathlete competitions while being in the lockdown. She shares with us 4 tips on how to deal with emotions based on Susan David's Emotional Agility book. And she also gives us her perspective on the role of copper mining in the southern part of Peru in regards to the current COVID-19 crisis. 

"Everything is possible with faith and joy" 

David Furlong is a co-founder of Deedmob and Coronahelpers.nl.  Together with his team he is working on disrupting the charity sector to increase its leverage on the world using technology. Deedmob.com is a social start-up that strengthens society by increasing the impact of volunteering through using the newest technology and strategic partnerships with the private and public sectors. They offer an online platform that makes it easy for people to find volunteering opportunities in their area, in addition to giving charities cutting-edge technological tools to manage their volunteers free of charge.

Online platforms play an important role in connecting volunteers to people who need help also during the current Corona crisis.  Coronahelpers platform is playing exactly this role - not only in The Netherlands but also in The UK, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland, with the goal to expand into even more countries soon. 3500 successful matches have been already made and more are being realized on a daily basis. With Coronahelpers the team got the attention of Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte and queen Maxima. The team is included in the latest Forbes Europe 2020 30 under 30 list. 

In this episode we had the pleasure of talking to David about his views on the power of volunteering, connecting people to their community and the role of tech in this.

"Volunteering is a very powerful tool for people to connect to their community. You can start doing it without knowing anyone, meet new friends and get to know your community better"

Sara is an award-winning social entrepreneur.  She is the founder of BUTA Art & Sweets which aims to increase the employment levels of women with special needs through the sale of homemade sweets. BUTA Art & Sweets is the first social business to represent Azerbaijan at the UN Level and gives women with special needs financial independence. The Social Business Youth Centre (SBYC) promotes social entrepreneurship amongst young people in Azerbaijan using non-formal education. This takes the form of free or low-priced masterclasses, training sessions, long term courses and meetings with experts. In just 8 months, with zero budget, SBYC has run 20+ programs and projects which have seen 2500+ applicants, 800+ participants and 30+ partners. Sara has been a One Young World ambassador since 2018. 

In this very first Co.Cast - Creating the Future Together episode Sara will share with us her story and views on how COVID-19 can enable a positive transformation for both, individuals and businesses