Meet the team 2019
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HostAndrea Bury
Andrea Bury is an experienced marketing expert and social entrepreneur. In 1999, she was appointed to the management board of the Laureus World Sports Awards in London. In 2001, she founded the agency “Calliope-inspiring brand communication” in Munich. In 2007, Andrea went to Marrakesh to realize with a team the concept of AnaYela – “A place of Inspiration” in the Medina of Marrakesh. In 2011 Andrea started the social business “ABURY”, the first luxury artisanal brand with the mission "to make it fashionable to care". ABURY preserves and distributes exclusive, authentic handicrafts from all over the world. ABURY is a certified B corp and re-invests in education projects in the communities they are working with.
www.abury.org
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HostPer Sjödell
Per Sjödell is a senior executive from Sweden who is based in Morocco with a background in business development, change management, sales and marketing from the fashion and FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) sectors. Today he is a board professional and holds several positions of trust as Chairman of several board of directors including fashion chain Lindex, Beauty retailer Lyko, communications group Nordic Morning and design agency Identity Works. He is also a board member of fashion retailer Stockmann, founding partner of Marrakech based communications agency Red City PR and on the board of Project Soar. Per has previously served as global marketing director for fashion power brand H&M, CEO of Pocket Shop, Managing Director of Gant Sweden and Fiskars Sweden as well as communications manager of ICA.
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HostPatrick Benjaminsson
Patrick Benjaminsson is a Swedish senior PR & marketing expert who is based in Morocco with a background in film, theater and publishing. He is the founding partner and CEO of the Marrakech based communications agency Red City PR and is also on the board of the fair trade lifestyle brand ABURY as well as Project Soar Morocco that empowers Moroccan teenage girls. He has previoulsy served as Head of Communications (brand, marketing, PR & sales) at the Royal Dramatic Theater of Sweden, Business Area Manager and Marketing Manager for the Swedish publishing company, Norstedts, Marketing Manager for the Scandinavian film company, Sandrew Metronome, and Scandinavian Product Manager for the American publishing company, Reader’s Digest.
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Social Network CoordinatorLara Petersen
Lara grew up in Berlin/Germany but her passion for foreign cultures and people led her to moving places and travelling the world for more than six years. During her Communication Management studies in Amsterdam she explored her passion for digital marketing, cross-cultural management and writing. She gained professional experience in the field working for various international companies in the Netherlands, Singapore, Nepal and Germany, before moving back to her hometown Berlin and seeking new career opportunities. Since 2016 she is working with Andrea Bury at ABURY as content manager and editor of the blogzine One of a Mind.
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Speaker supportAlicia Bravo
Alicia grew up in Chile, Southamerica and had her first experience with social work volunteering for the youth-led organisation "Un Techo para Chile" and doing nightly Food Runs in High School. Looking for new challenges, she moved to Europe to work towards her academic career studiyng Advertising and Marketing at the Hochschule der Medien in Stuttgart. With her degree in her hand and some working experience in the Event, Fashion and Music business, she decided to follow her true passion: travelling. After a year of falling in love with people, places and cultures she came back to pursue a Masters in Creative Industries Management in the UK. There, she came across the topic that would give sense to it all: Social Entrepreneurship. Alicia started working for the ABURY Foundation in November 2015, supporting projects such as PortrAid, the ABURY Foundation School, "Pass on the flame - art for charity" and taking responsability over the organisation, communication and planning for the Foundation.
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Speaker supportRaja Felgata
Raja Felgata is a Dutch-Moroccan journalist from Amsterdam. After her journalism study she had dreams of working in broadcast media, because she didn’t see cultural rolemodels in mainstream media. Her career started at the big local news broadcaster in Amsterdam: AT5. She became one of the first Moroccan news anchor in Holland and therefore paved the way for - and inspired many upcoming Moroccan journalists to be. Her enthusiasm and professional attitude were the reasons for national TV to make her an offer she could not refuse. She made her way onto national TV for the breakfast show called Good Morning Netherlands where she covered the news and produced items.
The past years she has been busy producing The Diversity Top 100. A magazine/platform which is based on the many 'Most powerful/influential lists made in Holland. These lists never represent the cultural diversity the country has, so she decided to make her own which proved to be a huge success. Representation in the media is her main objective.
www.dekleurrijketop100.nlWorking on the 8th edition in 2018, the list is growing as a platform and as a movement with many partners from broadcast media, multinationals and government organizations. In 2011 she received a Democracy Ribbon for her work.
Her vision is to make hidden talents and influencers visible to the world and give them the platform they deserve to shine and to build a strong network that is as diverse as the diversity of the Dutch society. Raja has always fought for equality for women and is a strong outspoken personality. She also produces and hosts an online Q&A #LiveTalk – every Friday at 16hr, on Facebook which is a live video with quality discussions and interesting guests and topics.
www.rajalive.nlShe is the founder of Next Gen Women a new girls platform to connect leaders, and create an (inter)national platform for female leadership and inspiration.
www.nextgenwomen.nlShe is part of the speakersteam of TedxMarrakech 2019.
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Web ArchitectBart van Kersavond
Bart van Kersavond was born and raised in Belgium. He studied Arabic in Algeria from 1992-1993, has worked as a web developer since 1997, and lived in Berlin from 2000 to 2016, where he was inspired by the street art scene and started documenting it photographically and founded an art blog in 2013. Besides festivals and exhibitions in Europe, he documents the early phase and development of street art in Marrakech since 2007. In the same year he co-founded the digital communication agency AUGUSTFIRST. In 2018 he founded his own freelance company weCombine, which focuses on the cooperation with cultural institutions for creative projects, such as the Marrakech Biennale in 2014, and the further development of his art blog urbanpresents.net. In 2018 he was one of the photographers for the first Urban Art Week Berlin. Bart lives and works in Cologne and Berlin, Germany.
