5 countries, 3 continents: Meet the new #WSA Experts
Impact drivers, social entrepreneurs, sustainability and growth managers - the WSA Community has just been enriched with seven new National Experts from Belgium, Iraq, New Zealand, Estonia and Austria.
One major pillar of the WSA community are the WSA National Experts. Meet these excellent representatives of social entrepreneurship and digital innovation who have recently joined the WSA National Experts network.
WSA Iraq - Ali Hilli and WSA New Zealand - Mahsa Mohaghegh
Ali Hilli was recently named Techstar’s community leader of the year. He currently serves as the Youth & Entrepreneurship Consultant, Acting Head of CER Unit at Zain Iraq, and Chief Operations Officer at ChickMania Multimedia Agency, he is an active community member in Jordan and Iraq. His background varies from software development to business administration from both AAU and NYIT.
Dr Mahsa Mohaghegh is the founder and director of the women’s technology group She# – a platform aimed at promoting STEM to the next generation, and creating networking opportunities for tertiary students and industry professionals in the digital sector. Her passion for promoting careers in technology to young women has been widely recognised, and she has received several nominations and awards for her efforts, including the Emerging Leader Award at the NZ Women of Influence Awards.
WSA Belgium - Frederik Tibau and WSA Estonia - Liisi Org
Frederik Tibau helps Belgian startups & scale-ups grow by offering practical tools and expertise with a strong focus on internationalization. He is the project lead for Scaleup.vlaanderen, a guidance program for startups and scale-ups supported by the Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship Agency (VLAIO), and for the EFRO project Scaleup.international, that develops a format to assist startups and scale-ups with their global strategies.
Liisi Org is a natural people's person with experience in startup community development, project management, and working in the public sector. She has worked with startups in Estonia and in the United States taking on different roles - from speaker management to customer success. With over 9+ years of experience in project and events management and someone who's highly passionate about education innovation, startup mindset, and international collaborations, she values possibilities to grow and develop herself constantly. Liisi is currently the Startup Ecosystem Development Manager at Startup Estonia, a government initiative aimed to supercharge the Estonian startup ecosystem in order to be the birthplace of many more startup success stories to come.
WSA Austria Expert Commitee - Christian Rupp, Lisa Fassl and Mathias Haas
Christian Rupp is the Chief Innovation Officer for the European Joint Innovation Lab eGovernment. He was appointed as the Federal Executive Secretary for the eGovernment initiative of the Austrian Government in spring 2003 and was since autumn 2005 the Spokesperson of the Federal Platform „Digital Austria“ in the Austrian Federal Chancellery, which coordinates the ICT and eGovernment activities between local and national governments, municipalities as well as industries.
Lisa Marie-Fassl is co-founder and CEO of Female Founders, the largest pan-European ecosystem for female entrepreneurship, member of the Austrian start-up committee of the Federal Ministry for Digitalization and Business Location, deputy managing director of the Austrian Angel Investors Association and university lecturer at the University of Graz and FH Vorarlberg.
Mathias Haas is the managing director and founder of SuperSocial, a social media consulting, impact and event agency. Curating TEDx Events from Vienna to Brussels, Mathias is also the president of POPEDU, an association for non-formal education with a focus on digital literacy and diversity. He is a World Economic Forum Global Shaper Alumnus and holds lectures at the FH Vienna, FH Wieselburg, WU, EPFL & Uni Zürich. Being himself a multiple winner of the WSA, Mathias has a deep understanding about the social innovation system and is a passionate fender for the UN SDGs.