AlterContacts - Female Executive of the Year
Company: AlterContacts, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Company Description: AlterContacts is a Global Think Tank for Sustainable Development. It was founded in 2019 by Massimo Mercuri and Julia Skupchenko. We operate as a network of volunteering experts and partners. Registered in the Netherlands, our expert network reaches four continents. We contribute to the UN SDGs via research, publications, initiatives and facilitating constructive dialogue on Development.
Nomination Category: Individual Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Female Executive of the Year – Government or Non-Profit –10 or Less Employees
Nomination Title: Julia Skupchenko
Julia Skupchenko is the Co-founder and Head of SDG Actions of the Think Tank AlterContacts and a Board Member for AlterContacts Foundation. She specializes in scaling audacious social impact initiatives. Under her leadership, the think tank deserved recognition from the United Nations. Presently, her focus is on academic innovation and enabling global youth to strive in the world of work.
She is an award-winning entrepreneur, business advisor, writer for Entrepreneur.com, with in-depth knowledge of business challenges. She is a registered Expert on Business Development, Marketing, and Sustainability for the European Commission.
The Stevie Awards for Women 2020 awarded Julia a Silver Award as the Female Innovator of the Year and the Mentor of the Year. And the Bronze as the Most Innovative Woman of the Year and the Woman of the Year.
Before cofounding the Think Tank, Julia was a strategic advisor on Digital Innovation at CEO-4 level for a Fortune 500 company. Previous to that, she was responsible for communications, stakeholder engagement, and third-party advocacy at a FTSE 50 company.
Originally, Julia comes from the Arctic region. She wrote and taught two university courses on Northern Development. She is one of the authors of the Barents Encyclopedia.
Half of the productive population of the Earth are self-employed or run a small business. The pandemic revealed that the majority did not have a support net: no subsidies, nobody to ask advice, no way to find out how others address these same challenges.
So in May 2020, I launched Lockdown Economy, a volunteer-driven socio-economic and educational initiative to help small businesses and self-employed professionals overcome the challenges of the pandemic and reactivate the economy. It is recognized as Accelerated Action towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and recovery effort during the COVID-19 crisis by the United Nations.
In remote video interviews, over 330 entrepreneurs shared their ideas and inventive ways on how they rescued and rediscovered their businesses from the damages of the lockdown and the COVID-19. It has become a global brainstorm of what we can do together to build a more equal economy and a better world. It has already helped over 8000 entrepreneurs to get ideas on how to save their businesses. Our team got awarded Gold as "Hero of the Year: Helping others during COVID".
It is fully nonprofit and grassroots with zero budget. All the activities are done by a global team of volunteers.
The case studies from the initiative are used in universities to prepare the youth for the new economy.
The initiative has been recognized by the UN as SDG Good Practice to follow.
In June 2021, I presented insights from the Lockdown Economy initiative at the United Nations.
It's been 12 months since the beginning of the initiative and we continue to be fully grassroots. That means we do not have budget, funding, or big-name support. What we have is our time, passion, enthusiasm, and an amazing team of volunteers.
The main innovation is in the scalability of the impact. In less than 5 months from launching, this initiative was scaled and replicated to 41 countries in Europe, Asia, Americas and Australia in 17 languages.
The initiative is fully remote and safe for people involved: not a single km travelled; it is done from home; zero physical contact. Every process of this practice is accurately documented in step-by-step guides. They are shared with partner organizations to assure consistency, fast implementation and active contribution to SDGs locally.
It changes people's lives in ways we could not expect. It turned out that our 70+ volunteers are truly building their future by helping others. During the project, they are evolving in many ways. The shy become outgoing. Those of humble origin learn that we are all equal, and they are now proud of their cultural and social heritage. Men who lost their job or mothers who had to quit it - are learning to be resourceful and gaining back their confidence. 20 found new jobs. Many of them are closing the digital divide and learning how to start a business from home during a time of crisis.
Reference any attachments of supporting materials
Wikipedia page Julia Skupchenko https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Skupchenko
TEDx Talk 2021 by Julia Skupchenko, Behind every small business, there is a story https://youtu.be/CVGd4V6TKjs
Think Tank AlterContacts site https://www.altercontacts.org/
Julia’s Bio on AlterContacts site https://www.altercontacts.org/julia
Personal Portfolio http://julia.altercontacts.org/
Lockdown Economy Initiative http://lockdowneconomy.org/
Social Impact of Lockdown Economy https://lockdowneconomy.org/social-impact/
United Nations Registration of Lockdown Economy https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/partnership/?p=36773
United Nations SDG Good Practices - page of Lockdown Economy https://sdgs.un.org/partnerships/lockdown-economy
United Nation MSMEs Day 2021 Program, mentioning presentation by Julia Skupchenko https://unctad.org/system/files/information-document/diaeed_2021_06_28_en_concept_note_0.pdf
Presentation of the Lockdown Economy initiative for the United Nations https://youtu.be/VdfP67PTBZ8
Book “Lockdown Economy Netherlands: The makers’ journey through the pandemic” https://www.amazon.com/dp/B094XPRYBS/
Article Don't be a Bystander: How to Save Small Businesses in Europe https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/354813
Article How Will Europe's Online Market of Small Businesses Recover? https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/366602
Article How to Scale A Sustainable Non-profit Initiative On Zero-Budget https://medium.com/the-helm/how-to-scale-a-sustainable-non-profit-initiative-on-zero-budget-c663abd2d7b7
Article Four Lessons from the Businesses that Survived the Lockdown https://medium.com/the-helm/four-lessons-from-the-businesses-that-survived-the-lockdown-980e53bd654f
Article Is Your Business Idea Ready to Get Funded? https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/346987
Interview for Hustle Amsterdam https://www.hustleamsterdam.com/blog/julia-skupchenko-altercontacts
Article by Inspirelle Magazine about Lockdown Economy https://inspirelle.com/lockdown-economy-an-award-winning-initiative-to-help-businesses-suffering-during-the-pandemic/