As we gear up for the upcoming resident representative election, which will take place during our annual meeting on 29 April 2024, the spotlight shines on four candidates for the position.
From left to right:
- Frederik van Deurs, CEO of Green Innovation Group A/S
- Marie Leth, Founder of Enestående Kommunikation & PR
- Anders Bengtsson, Head of Innovation Hub North at EIT Urban Mobility
- Robert Joseph Martin, Ph.D., Partner at Beta Mobility
Charged with presenting the resident’s perspective and steering the direction of BLOXHUB for the next two years, each candidate brings a unique blend of experience, expertise, and vision to the table. As the election approaches, it’s time to explore candidates’ backgrounds, platforms, and aspirations to make an informed decision about who best represents your interests.
The following introductions serve as the self-nominated application texts provided by the candidates themselves:
Marie Leth, Founder of Enestående Kommunikation & PR
It is all about the people.
BLOXHUB is brimming with creative, visionary, and purpose-driven individuals. How do we unite the community and make our working lives more inspiring, sustainable, fun, and transformative?
As a member of the board, I will be committed to strengthening our BLOXHUB community. We are a diverse group of companies, ranging from small enterprises like my own to large organizations that represent some of the biggest players in the Danish construction industry. Our ecosystem needs to embrace this diversity and evolve to meet the needs of all tenants.
BLOXHUB is an exceptional organization where great and exciting opportunities are created. It offers global networks, hackathons, urban partnerships, and community breakfasts. Many of these initiatives focus on what connects us across companies, fostering the development of sustainable urbanization. However, there is still room for improvement, especially on the commercial side of our businesses.
If elected, I will work to create an environment that accelerates the development of the tenants’ commercial capabilities, driving our businesses forward. The ability to advance a business requires a multitude of skills, which BLOXHUB could help us develop. By facilitating networks and events that concentrate on commercial aspects—such as pricing, contracts, taxation, customer relations, creativity, and artificial intelligence—BLOXHUB could greatly benefit our ecosystem.
I will propel this process forward by providing access to my network, enabling BLOXHUB to host exciting, commercially focused events. Furthermore, I will use my experience to identify areas where I see an opportunity for BLOXHUB to drive the commercial focus and capabilities within the ecosystem.
Frederik van Deurs, CEO Green Innovation Group A/S, member and resident BLOXHUB
My name is Frederik. I’m the CEO of Green Innovation Group. My work is dedicated to decarbonizing healthcare. I have been a resident at BLOXHUB since its inception and understand the strategic leverage provided by the hub, as I’ve harvested those fruits in my own business.
As an anthropologist by training, active listening and stakeholder management are important tools in my toolbox. When working in the boardroom, my focus is on pulling strategic levers to enable decarbonization and strategically addressing the agenda for maximum potential impact.
As a representative of the residents on the board of Bloxhub, I will focus on fostering systematic access to business opportunities for sustainable collaboration and internationalization amongst the members.
I’m curious to hear your thoughts on how BLOXHUB can create value for your business and best provide you with strategic opportunities to speed up the green transition by making a more sustainable business.
Robert Joseph Martin Ph.D and partner at Beta Mobility
Why I Would Like to Represent You
The member representative on the BLOXHUB board is an important position as it gives a voice to the future direction of BLOXHUB. We value our membership because it benefits our organizations. My aim for being on the board is simple: to work towards making BLOXHUB even more beneficial for its members. As a member representative, I want to help shape strategies that give greater value to the members.
I believe that sustainable urbanization is foremost a coordination problem requiring collaboration from companies working across behavior change, technology, operations, regulation, capital, construction, and consultancy. Within BLOXHUB, our community possesses these competencies, ranging from startups to large organizations. However, based on my three years of experience with BLOXHUB, I’ve observed that this wealth of resources has not been fully leveraged.
Our member organizations vary from individual innovators to some of the world’s largest companies. As a candidate for the BLOXHUB board, I bring experience in working with young and established companies, both private and public. If elected, I would focus on exploring how these diverse organizations can collaborate more effectively to unlock collective success.
The key questions I plan to address include:
- How can organizations across sectors and scales work more effectively together?
- How can they contribute value to one another?
- How can they collaborate to foster entrepreneurship and business innovation within the realm of sustainable urbanisation for the benefit of everyone?
About Me
I was born and raised in Australia and moved to Copenhagen over ten years ago. I am (almost) a Danish citizen, and I expect it to become official in the autumn of 2024. I have worked in Sydney and Copenhagen, in small and large organizations, and internationally. Since completing my Ph.D., I have shifted my focus solely towards mobility and sustainable urbanization. I joined the partnership at Beta Mobility and opened their Copenhagen office, located in BLOXHUB.
At BLOXHUB, I am involved in numerous activities, including the EMERGE programme, which aims to enter the US market. I also give presentations and tours to visiting delegations and co-lead the BLOXHUB Mobility Networking Group as part of the steering committee. If you’d like to discuss anything with me, please feel free to get in touch.
Anders Bengtsson, Head of Innovation Hub North, EIT Urban Mobility
I hereby submit my candidacy to become a member of the BLOXHUB Board. I confirm that I meet the requirements outlined in Appendix 2 Common Rules. If appointed, I will use my knowledge and resources to serve the interests of BLOXHUB.”
Since December 2022, I have held the role and responsibility of Head of Innovation Hub North with EIT Urban Mobility (IHN EITUM), an EU–co-funded initiative to speed up change towards sustainable mobility and create liveable urban spaces.
IHN EITUM has been a tenant of BLOXHUB for many years, and I enjoy leading a team of nine ambitious and experienced advocates of an environmentally and socially sustainable habitat.
The BLOXHUB environment and its always-moving and co-creating community have greatly contributed to IHN EITUM’s success and inspired us to take an active role in the continuous development of joint achievements within our joint “creative fabric.”
Over the past decade, I have primarily worked on topics related to mobility and transportation, both as challenges and opportunities.
While working for the Department of Sustainable Growth in the City of Lund and the Region of Skåne, I was involved in numerous development and innovation projects, including deep tech solutions and citizen nudging approaches.
We are also developing similar projects within IHN EITUM, but with a broader geographical, and not least European, perspective.
While operating from Copenhagen, our commitment covers the whole of the Nordics and the Baltics – and among our partners, and strategic stakeholders are to find representatives from cities, authorities, private industry, NGOs, and academies.
Interaction with this active, cross-country community of IHN EITUM, its range of stakeholders, and tangible project results, along with my full-hearted engagement, is a major value I could add to the efforts to achieve BLOXHUB’s objectives.
If elected as the tenant representative of the BLOXHUB board, I would eagerly do my utmost to add value and give back to the BLOXHUB community through inspiration and hands-on results.
