Announcing the EHF Inaugural Cohort
After an intense selection period, we are excited to announce our first cohort of Fellows accepted into the Edmund Hillary Fellowship.
The Edmund Hillary Fellowship (EHF) Selection Team was impressed by the calibre and diversity of applicants. Their commitment to their missions and creativity in building impactful ventures made selecting the inaugural cohort extremely difficult. Through a highly competitive process, the EHF Selection Panel chose 30 Fellows, a 9.6% acceptance rate.
Six of the selected Fellows are New Zealanders leading change in their fields. Twenty-four international Fellows hold passports from eight different countries, and have significant experience working in 47 countries across all continents. The New Zealand Government’s innovative visa policy, the Global Impact Visa, makes it possible for our international Fellows to build and scale their new ventures in New Zealand and develop long-term roots in the country.
With a combined 421 years of startup experience, the first cohort of EHF Fellows bring deep yet broad set of perspectives to the community they are soon to join. The experience our Fellows bring to the EHF community includes:
- Co-founding the most influential cryptocurrency company in the world valued at USD$500m
- Turning a $3,000 grant into a full-scale education centre where unemployed youth can become successful entrepreneurs in the arts
- Creating a fast-growing online resource centre to manage a health disorder that affects 10–15% of the world’s population
- Producing an Emmy Award winning film that innovated in how interactive content is created and distributed digitally
- Investing in and supporting technology companies that have transformed entire industries
Starting this week, we will be publishing each Fellow’s profile on our EHF Medium publication, and sharing the stories of their entrepreneurial journeys.
EHF is building a community that represents a microcosm of a successful innovation ecosystem, and each Fellow plays a unique role in helping the community thrive. 80% of our Fellows are entrepreneurs focused on developing and scaling new ventures, and growing an entrepreneurial ecosystem. 20% of Fellows are investors with deep experience backing successful entrepreneurs, and they represent funds with collective access to USD$3.7 billion of venture capital.
By building a community of Fellows who are tackling global challenges and incubating new solutions in New Zealand, EHF facilitates meaningful connections, cross-disciplinary learning, and peer-to-peer support to increase each Fellow’s impact. Fellows get access to global resources, expertise and talent as part of the community, as well as the EHF Mentor and Ambassador networks.
If you are interested in joining this community, apply to join our second cohort. Applications are now open and close on 1 October 2017!
Our Fellows are working in incredibly exciting areas of global change, with the potential to transform the industries they are working within, and help New Zealand lead at the edge of innovation. We are most excited by the collaborative opportunities, cross-pollination of ideas, and the ways in which Fellows can influence each other by bringing diverse lenses and capabilities to the EHF community.
The word cloud below illustrates at a high level the industries our Fellows have expertise in, and fields they are focused on. These fields have great applications for New Zealand, in a way that can give the country unique advantages to lead globally. With the talent base and existing communities already working in these areas in New Zealand, the EHF community can help catalyse more innovation and scale the collective impact on the world stage.
We are thrilled to share with you the names of our Fellows from New Zealand, who are the first to be officially welcomed into the EHF community. The six Kiwis who were successful share a common purpose of helping New Zealand lead in innovation and entrepreneurship that can make a positive impact on the world.
The six New Zealanders are: Alana Scott (A Little Bit Yummy), Kaye-Maree Dunn (Making Everything Achievable), Chris Simcock (Impact Ventures Limited), Samantha Jones (Little Yellow Bird), investor and business journalist Rod Oram, and Anne-Marie Brook (The Human Rights Measurement Initiative).
To read more on our Fellows’ journeys that led them to where they are today, subscribe to our publication. As our international Fellows get their Global Impact Visas processed by Immigration New Zealand, we will also be sharing their stories here.
The official beginning of the three-year Fellowship programme is October 15, 2017. Stay tuned.
Applications are now open for the second cohort!
Are you a visionary entrepreneur or investor building solutions to global challenges? You can bring your vision to reality from New Zealand by joining the Edmund Hillary Fellowship community. See www.ehf.org for details and express interest here.
Infographics
Designer: Tai Kenning
Icons: This project uses icons from The Noun Project. “People” by Gregor Cresnar, “Volunteers” by abeldb, “Globe” by Dinosoft Labs, “Startup” by Artem Kovyazin, and“Idea” by Edward Boatman.
