Cecilia Tham (CEO at Makers of Barcelona)

An entrepreneur by heart, a designer and biologist by training, and a maker for life, Cecilia is known internationally as an innovation activist in empowering individuals and organizations by building exponential communities to innovate for impact with design and technologies.

She is a serial entrepreneur, founder of multiple companies such as MOB, Makers of Barcelona, a collaborative co-working community, FabCafe, a new concept that brings digital fabrication tools to the everyday environment of a coffee shop. Her latest venture FutureFunded.co is a community funding platform focus on training the next generation of women in technology. Cecilia is also the founder of MEAT, an agency that enables companies for corporate transformation to innovate with technology.

Cecilia was a fellow at the prestigious and highly selective Global Solution Programs at Singularity University 2017 focused on applying exponential technologies in finding impactful and meaningful solutions for global challenges at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View California.

Cecilia received her master as an architect at Harvard University and a degree in biology at Emory University. She is the recipient of the prestigious Wheelwright Travelling Fellowship as well as the Faculty Design Award by Harvard University. Currently, Cecilia is a senior adjunct faculty at Parsons New School Global Executive Master for Strategic Design and Management and visiting faculty for the Social Innovation Program at Toulouse Business School.

Cecilia was a product strategy expert at Google Developers Group and a certified Google Sprint Master. She has mentored at Google Launchpad, Startupbootcamp IoT & Data, Numa and Harvard Innovation Lab. She is currently on the executive board of advisors for Barcelona Global, SWAN (Womens Angels Network) as well as for the City Government of Barcelona. Cecilia was the Design Ambassador at Hotel W.

Cecilia is a 4-times TEDx speaker, and has given talks at World Mobile Congress, Smart City Expo, IAM Fest, Challengers, SHIFT, Open FAD and 4YFN. Cecilia was a regular contributor to the newspaper L’Econòmic. Cecilia has been awarded the Creative Entrepreneur of the Year 2017 by the Creative Net. Her publication “Hackable Cities” written together with her students at Parsons New School has won the Design for Well Being Award 2015. Cecilia has been mentioned in media such as CNBC, El Periodico, Skyword, Monocle, La Vanguardia, The Australian, and Expansion.