4 December, 2018

Lili Wang appointed “Talent of the Year”

Yesterday the 2018 International SDCN Talent of the Year Award was awarded for the very first time. Winner became Lili Wang with the motivation:

Lili Wang from China has brought her dry sense of humor, her contagious energy, and her unconventional style to SDCN, where she has been “the soul of the Intelligence team”. Lili always comes up with new and creative thinking to further develop the network. She embraces new ideas, seemingly without fear, and can be relied on both to take initiatives and to see projects through. Her expertise in SAP technologies enabled her to find a job at Klarna as SAP Basis Manager. Lili is also a real head hunter within Klarna where she looks out for new talents to recruite from SDCN. When she started her job she actually negotiated with her employer the possibility to take time off when needed to remain an active member of the SDCN Management Team. We couldn’t be more grateful.

The prize was awarded in the Stockholm City Hall by Lars Strannegård, President of Stockholm School of Economics and Chairman of Stockholm Academic Forum and Maria Fogelström Kylberg, CEO at Stockholm Academic Forum.

Ann Wong, Anna Semenova and Eugen Azcoaga were also nominated for the prize, with the following motivations:

Ann Wong from Hong Kong and New Zealand, is truly a global citizen and we are honored that after Hong Kong, Taiwan, New Zealand, Australia, and California, she chose Stockholm. A neuroscientist with a PhD in Cellular Molecular Neuroscience, Ann conducted research on hearing loss and cochlear implants. At Staf and SDCN, we had the pleasure to see her grow into her position as SDCN Vice President. We were impressed by her communication skills, especially on social media, as well as her calm energy and her work ethic. Always willing to take on new projects, Ann is entrepreneurial so it makes sense that her new position is with the Stockholm School of Economics’s new House of Innovation where she is a Research and Outreach Manager.

Anna Semenova from Russia has been with SDCN from the very beginning. With her warm personality and her impeccable organizational skills, she has welcomed countless members to SDCN events and become the face of our Event Team before a brief tenure as SDCN Vice-President. Behind Anna’s effortless smile, however, you will find hard work, a PhD in Solid State Chemistry, as well as an openness to new opportunities. Anna has learnt perfect Swedish, and she actually started training to become a teacher here in Stockholm. But Swedish students will be disappointed to learn that she found a job that matches her impressive scientific background and started working as an analytical chemist at Northvolt last month.

Eugen Azcoaga who is Finnish-Basque, knew as soon as he arrived that he wanted to be part of the innovative start-up scene in Stockholm and combine his tech skills with his creative side. His efforts and strategy paid off – and not just once but twice. After working as Head of User Experience at one Stockholm-based tech startup Match2One, he has now switched to another innovative company, Valtech Stockholm, where he is a UX design consultant. We hope that Eugen will continue to be the active, open minded dynamic member of SDCN he has been over the last year.