Laurens de Groot

Laurens started his career in the police force where he specialized in combating environmental crime. After eight years, he quit his job and started campaigning against poaching of endangered species. He fought against illegal whaling in Antarctica and rhino poachers in Africa. To generate more impact, Laurens founded a number of innovative companies. He was one of the founders of Skycap, a drone service company specialized in environmental inspections (acquired by Terra Drones), Silverback Protein, a high-quality vegetable protein powder and Smart Parks with which he provides nature parks in Africa in particular with high-tech solutions for park management.

In addition, Laurens worked for some time as a press officer in the House of Representatives, made various programs for the Discovery Channel and is the author of the book Hunting the hunters. In 2018, he received the Tech for Global Good Laureate from the Silicon Valley Museum of Innovation for his work.