garagErasmus Foundation launches the Advisory Council

With an average unemployment rate of 23.7% , across the Euro area and with even darker shadows over the future projections, garagErasmus idea is a breakthrough revolution and it is currently taking-off. Take the Erasmus generation: more than 3 millions today (7 millions by 2020); put them in a skills-profiled online network so that to obtain the largest professional network ever; and finally put at their disposal a tailor-made and dedicated crowd-funding system to finance a project idea. 

This is GaragErasmus and its mission is to empower the Erasmus Generation to start-up new businesses; pursue the best job placement at the European level and to leverage on the network itself to create real internationalization. 

“Young people have been hit particularly hard by the crisis. At present, nearly 6 million people in Europe under the age of 25 are unemployed. We cannot afford to allow this generation to be excluded from our economy without implications on all Europeans in the future. garagErasmus is a great initiative that can help address this issue by stimulating entrepreneurship” said Jan Muehlfeit, Chairman of Microsoft Europe. Also Richard Hudson, CEO of Science Business stressed that “the Erasmus programme is Europe’s No. 1 success story – and GaragErasmus is a vital new initiative to build on that success by helping create jobs and spur entrepreneurship across the EU”. 

Jan Muehlfeit is Chairman of Microsoft Europe and he is responsible for representing Microsoft Corporation and engaging with gov-ernments, large corporations, key partners and academic elites both cross Europe and on a global level. Over the past almost two decades, he has received numerous public awards as recognition of his industry and social contributions. 

Richard L. Hudson has been a leading science and technology journalist in Europe for nearly 30 years. Since 2005 he has been CEO and Editor of London and Brussels-based Science Business Publishing Ltd. Previously, he was with the Wall Street Journal for 25 years, as reporter, technology editor and, from 1997 to 2003, managing editor of the European edition. 

Alf Rehn is a management professor, an internationally recognized business thinker (or something), an author and a speaker. He is currently holding the Chair of Management and Organization at Åbo Akademi University in Finland, and has in addition taught at universities all over the globe. The 2009 Thinkers 50, the listing of the world’s top 50 business thinkers, included him on their “Guru Radar”, ranking him #13 among the “Up and Coming Business Thinkers.”

Hywel Cery Jones, in 1973, he joined the European Commission as Head of Department for Education and Youth Policies where he was responsible for launching a range of flagship programs, including ERASMUS, COMETT, TEMPUS, LINGUA, PETRA, FORCE and YOUTH FOR EUROPE. Since retiring from the European Commission, Hywel has served both as senior social policy adviser and European adviser to the Secretary of State for Wales, chaired the Governing Board of the European Policy Centre (Brus-sels), and served as director of the Network of European Foundations (NEF).