Jan Willems - Business Designer, Venture Builder, Wild Oaks

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Network Power<100 people

Roles

👍66%

Sales & BizDev

🗿33%

🧨33%

Consulting

Geos

🇨🇾33%

Cyprus

🇮🇪33%

Ireland

Work Background

Wild OaksFounder

Jan. 2019Barcelona, Catalonia, SpainAfter working on startup and innovation projects across very different industries, this is the place where I unite my skills, knowledge and powerful network to help build a better future. Together, we create and transform companies and organizations to generate a positive impact for our planet and society. Depending on the challenge, we take on different roles, from advisor or mentor to project manager or co-founder. Instead of aiming to build ‘unicorns’, we are convinced of the compound impact of many ‘small giants’ that set a much more meaningful example.

LeverCo-Founder

Jan. 2019In co-creation with local communities, we design and develop places where people and nature thrive. With a transparent urban business plan, we share profits with landowners, municipalities and other partners. In our projects, real estate is just a means for shared value, never an end in itself.

Wonderland.networkLead Venturing

May. 2016 - Mar. 2019As an independent advisor in innovation and entrepreneurship, I have joined interdisciplinary design teams to tackle specific challenges in business incubation, corporate venturing and business transformation. Wonderland Innovation & Venture Studio (now part of Leap Forward) has worked with European companies on the following type of projects: - setting up incubators, accelerators or startup investment funds - designing new business ventures - building innovative products with emerging technologies (IoT, data science, blockchain) - launching new products onto the market - developing innovation processes and capabilities within large companies

Jan M. WillemsBusiness Designer

Jan. 2013 - Jan. 2018Business design is a relatively new discipline at the intersection of business and design. Essentially, it tackles business and innovation challenges with a combination of design methodologies (like Design Thinking, Customer Journey, or Systems Thinking) and business strategy tools (like Porter's Five Forces, the Business Model Canvas, Lean Startup or financial modelling). As a freelance business designer I have helped to research, prototype, kickstart, and pivot products and business models for both entrepreneurial startups and corporate ventures across a variety of industries, including: - real estate investing - urban project development - electrical car sharing - digital healthcare - cooperative banking - digital media - 3D printing - material manufacturing - smart locks - smart city

ResourcedesignCo-Founder, Researcher

Mar. 2012 - Jan. 2015Resourcedesign was a research collective focused on the 21st century society's complex challenges regarding sustainability and urban development. Our main projects included research on future energy landscapes, reaching energy neutrality and opportunities of multi-utility such as electricity, heat, cold, communication and e-mobility. During this journey, we felt the powerful potential of not just adding but also integrating different expertise (e.g., engineering, spatial planning and economics). It is clear that today's complex challenges can't simply be solved by multidisciplinary teams but require an interdisciplinary approach.

Ghent UniversityResearcher

Mar. 2011 - Feb. 2012At the Faculty of Engineering of Ghent University, I was part of the research group Environmental and Spatial Management where I completed a research project in the field of sustainability with a focus on industrial organisation (in particular industrial symbiosis). The project was in close cooperation with VITO (Flemish Institute for Technological Research) where I was embedded in the research group Transition Energy and Environment.