FULL BIO
Andrea Carafa is an Italian entrepreneur, design thinker and educator. He founded two ventures, and researched, prototyped, and lectured about entrepreneurship and human-centered design at Stanford and the University of Milan Bicocca, among others. He was named a World Economic Forum Global Shaper, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, an MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 Ambassador and Judge, a member of the Partnership on AI to Benefit People and Society, and a delegate to the United Nations Science, Technology & Innovation Forum.
Andrea is currently an Entrepreneur in Residence (Director role) with Blackstone's Launchpad powered by Techstars and a Lecturer at UCSC and for the National Science Foundation's Innovation Corps. His focus areas are digital, AI and science-based innovations tackling social, health, finance, and environmental issues.
Previously, he founded ArtsUp, was a Resident Entrepreneur at Stanford, and co-created an EU-funded program aimed at spurring entrepreneurship and innovation in European universities. As part of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit hosted by President Obama at Stanford, Andrea chaired the Impact Entrepreneurship Initiative.
Prior to that, he was an EU Marie Curie Fellow in emerging technology for social and economic impact at the European Commission's Joint Research Centre and at Grenoble School of Management. He was also a European Science Foundation Visiting Fellow at Bocconi University, and a HEPTech Visiting Researcher at GSI and CERN. His work inspired CERN to launch CollSpotting, a data analytics platform aimed at accelerating the technology transfer from physics labs to society.
Andrea was a Civil Society Representative at the United Nations on behalf of AEGEE. He created a multi-stakeholder initiative within the UN Rio+20 process and, together with other members of the Major Groups, advocated the establishment of the Sustainable Development Goals. He was also the Founder and Executive Director of GYE and contributed to shape Future Earth, a global research and innovation initiative announced at Rio+20, the largest summit in UN history.
Born and raised in Italy, Andrea earned a Master's Degree in Management from ESADE Business School in Barcelona, a Master's Degree in EU Business & Law from Aarhus University in Denmark, and a Bachelor's Degree in Economics & Business Administration from LUISS University in Rome.
He has been a public speaker, contributor and moderator at international organizations and summits such as the World Economic Forum, United Nations, European Institutions, Expo, International Cultural Forum, as well as academic and industry conferences.
