TEDx Brussels Foundation

TEDxBrussels is organized by a non-profit foundation based in Brussels supported by corporate sponsors from different industries. The main goal of the foundation is to organize TEDxBrussels every year and to promote the 'big' TED events (TEDGlobal, TED, TEDActive, TEDIndia).

TEDxBrussels was conceived by three Belgians who met at TEDGlobal and who had never met before: Walter De Brouwer, Jose Zurstrassen and Patrick Coulier.

Board:

• Jose Zurstrassen, President and Chairman
• Walter De Brouwer, CEO and Curator
• Philip Weiss, Director

OLPC Europe Foundation is the European branch of The One Laptop Per Child Association, Inc. (OLPC) is a U.S. non-profit organization set up to oversee the creation of an affordable educational device for use in the developing world. Its mission is "To create educational opportunities for the world's poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and software designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning." Its current focus is on the development, construction and deployment of the XO-1 laptop.

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Walter De Brouwer is the CEO of Nicholas Negroponte’s One Laptop per Child. He is a conference member of TEDGlobal 2009, TEDActive and the curator of TEDxBrussels. He stood at the cradle of household names in the internet such as CM (now Personal Computer Magazine), Jobscape (now Stepstone) and Ping-Eunet (now Qwest Communications).

wdb@laptop.org | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_de_Brouwer

Sam's vast experience ranges from studying the convergence of Bits, Atoms, Neurons and Genes at Starlab, a fundamental research laboratory to designing courses for micro-entrepreneurs for the European Social Fund to working on rehabilitation techniques for children with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and Cerebral Palsy using the conductive pedagogy method of Professor András Pető. In January 2009 she joined the OLPC Europe Team as the Advocacy Director for Europe.

samia@laptop.org

Richa's conviction of the need to universally educate the young, especially in the developing world is essential to elevate our societal hope for a better tomorrow. In India, she helped the largest nationwide educational NGO to improve their donor management via enhanced financial rigour. OLPC's goal of providing all children in the world with an educational tool many consider as basic as the blackboard, to enhance their lifetime opportunites, enables her to expand her horizons while staying true to her belief in universal education as a force for good.

richa@tedxbrussels.eu

Nathalie has worked on a CSR project for a company in Belgium where she developed a social compliance audit which has been further implemented in China. She believes that OLPC action struggles inequalities and developing countries’ problematic at the origin and she believes this is a critical step to get to a fair world.

nathalie@laptop.org

David based in Paris is the director of the Nelsy&Sally Engineering company and is the master of any artistic projects including music. Composition, sound-design, production, singing and musician himself, he has designed top events in the world including DAVOS, General Motors, L'Oréal, Sanofi, Cafpi,...David is also making the music for major TV shows in France. The "show" has no secret for David, that's his secret.

Jose Zurstrassen is a well-renowned Belgian internet entrepreneur and investor. Jose started coding and selling management software at age 11. Founded Skynet in 1994, Belgium's leading Internet Service Provider, sold to Belgacom in 1998. Founded Keytrade in 1998, IPO'd in 1999, became Keytrade Bank in 2002 and was sold to Credit Agricole in 2007.

Since 2000, Jose invests in various startups and promotes entrepreneurship in Europe by ways of teachings and conferences in various universities and associations, mentoring young and older people into creating their own adventure into entrepreneurship, with a strong bias into social entrepreneurship.

Jose studied Civil Engineer in Computer Science at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Commercial Engineer at the Université Libre de Bruxelles.

Patrick Coulier is a Belgian entrepreneur with a seemingly insatiable appetite for starting new businesses. He is the co-founder/owner of ACTVTY, an innovative audiovisual company. His experience as an entrepreneur is splashed across everything from the audiovisual and events business to the founding of television stations in Belgium and abroad. He is continuously seeking new business opportunities and loves a good challenge, especially when he enters a market that is dominated by a few major players.

Patrick Coulier was born on August 28, 1958. His entrepreneurial ways began early with the founding of new concepts in regional television stations in Flanders (Belgium). This was to be a first major success. Later his company was responsible for the facilities at the national business channel Kanaal Z/Canal Z. His company is also an important player in the organisation of business-to-business events (Vlerick School of Management, VUB, Vaillant, Unice, ...). He obtained a degree in Psychology at the VUB (Vrije Universiteit Brussels) in 1981. He is a conference member of TEDGlobal 2009.

Tomas Carruthers grew up in Morpeth, Northumberland and was educated at RGS Newcastle and Jesus College, Cambridge.  Through the start-up of Electronic Share Information Limited (now E*TRADE UK) in 1994 he obtained the first Stock Exchange licence to distribute prices over the internet and became a pioneer of the online broking sector in Great Britain.  He is currently Chairman and CEO of interactive investor, Moneywise Publishing and iBall TV.

Tomas is also an Ambassador for Mines Advisory Group, the leading British charity working to clear remnants of conflict around the world, and a supporter of Help for Heroes.  He is a member of the University of Cambridge 800 Campaign Committee.

Philip Weiss, Founder and Managing Director of ZN, studied at the University of Oxford, where he read Philosophy, Politics and Economics. In his last year he founded and ran Oxford Student Radio, making him the youngest MD of commercial Independent Local Radio in the UK. For this he was awarded the Young Achievers Award from HM the Queen. He came to Brussels in 1998 and set up ZN, looking at how to adapt business and communication strategies to the Internet age. Since then he has worked with leading companies and communication agencies, exploring the challenges and opportunities they and their clients face on the internet and how best to take advantage of the possibilities it creates. He developed the concept of 'Hyperthinking' as a tool to help his team and clients adapt their thinking to the web.

phil@zn.be | http://www.linkedin.com/in/pcweiss

Erik Meijer is currently working with the Arab Thought Foundation in Beirut on their annual global FIKR conference; aiming on the very essential dialogue and cooperation of the EC with the GCC; especially in the light of the new green investment and cooperation opportunities at the business side combined with the Corporate Social Responsibility dialogue and rich cultural exchange opportunities at the educational side.

Before, he was a Partner of the Brussels office of Odgers Berndtson specializing in Business & Professional Services, Financial Services, and Technology/Telecoms. Focusing to the crossroads between corporate and not for profit/ governmental executive search. Amongst his most prominent achievements was the recruitment of the leadership team of the European Investment Fund and multiple positions at the European Investment Bank. Coming from a private-family-business background, Erik’s international career has taken him from high growth situations coupled with fixed price & time delivery at Cambridge Technology Partners, to mergers (between Strategic Consulting and IT, first at Cap Gemini/Ernst & Young and later Unisys/KPMG Consulting). In addition to several Advisory Board memberships, Erik is a Steering Group member of the European Business Summit (www.ebsummit.org), supporter of The Lisbon Council and past president of the IMD Alumni in Belgium.

Erik has obtained a European MSc in Resource Management along with extensive executive education at IMD, Harvard, Wharton and MIT. He is married with two children, an active Aikido practitioner and speaks four languages.

Nicholas Brooke is a graduate of Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), where he read Economics. As General Manager at ZN, Nicholas provides e-strategy consultancy for all major corporate clients, including BT, Yamaha, Electrolux, Sony, 3M, UCB and Toyota. He is founder and Managing Director of a pan-European recruitment portal for jobs in English, www.JobsinHubs.com, which includes 16 city sites. Having personally been through the entire eBusiness creation and management process, Nicholas has a deep understanding of the theory of eBusiness and the execution required to make it a success.

nicholas@zn.be | http://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholasbrooke | http://skype:Nicholas.Brooke?userinfo

The Wall Street Journal is an English-language international daily newspaper published by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, in New York City, with Asian and European editions. As of 2007, it has a worldwide daily circulation of more than 2 million, with approximately 931,000 paying online subscribers. It was the largest-circulation newspaper in the United States until November 2003, when it was surpassed by USA Today. Its main rival is the London-based Financial Times, which also publishes several international editions.

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The Bulletin is Brussels’ essential English-language weekly magazine. Published in the capital of Europe since 1962, it is continental Europe’s most successful English-language publication.

The Bulletin is part of Ackroyd Publications, the biggest English-language publisher on continental Europe. Covering arts, news and lifestyle every week throughout Brussels and beyond. It has over 40,000 readers of dozens of nationalities.

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A new generation of communicators
ZN is the eCommunications agency for global organisations, helping motivated individuals adapt their communications to the Internet age to ensure optimal reach and impact. Our expertise lies in building effective pan-European online strategies, eCampaigns and communication projects with our clients. Whether for outreach, engagement, sales or branding purposes, we can provide you with everything that is necessary to achieve the best results online.

View a 5-minute introductory presentation about ZN | Visit the website

JobsinHubs.com is a network of online job boards for English speaking professionals looking for employment in Europe. Hubs are located in Copenhagen, Brussels, Stockholm, Amsterdam, London,Rome, Milan, Geneva, Zurich, Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich.

JobsinHubs.com launched JobsinCopenhagen.com in 2006 and quickly followed with JobsinBrussels.com and JobsinStockholm.com. Success bred more hubs and now the JobsinHubs.com network spans nine countries and includes 15 major cities serving a diverse community of Expatriates and multilingual job hunters.

On top of the job board, the Career Booster community connect, job seekers and employees to enhance their employability. Engage the tribe, create your profile and build your career here.

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