Nadia El Imam

I am an engineer and designer born in Sweden to African parents, raised in Europe and Asia, now living and working in Brussels. I have a background in engineering and user experience design, and put it to use where it matters most – building bridges between large organisations at the center and and people at the edges experimenting with creative responses to systemic crises. A polyglot and global citizen, I have experience working with with different kinds of corporate, public sector and civil society organisations. My speciality is architecting collaboration between diverse individuals and organisations, and inspiring them to move forward in new ways.

I’m also a proud co-founder and CEO of Edgeryders LBG, a social enterprise that develops novel techniques and tools to induce and harness collective intelligence dynamics towards tackling complex challenges. After five years of bootstrapping and failing forward, it seems to be coming together for Edgeryders. Our projects are drawing a lot of engagement and our work has been featured in The New Yorker, The Nation, Wired, La Repubblica, Dazed and Confused etc.

As founding director, my role is to serve our global community of brilliant misfits and gently guide the company built to support their work. In practice this translates into laying out the vision, building business opportunities and driving flagship projects. Increasingly, I find myself engaging in policy and program design, public speaking and teaching.

Fun facts: I used to work as a cook, people have included me in a number of documentary films (including one about people who have shaped Nerd culture) and I was named Minister of Labour in a dream government for Sweden by a columnist in the country’s largest financial newspaper.