Thorgeir Einarsson
CEO & Founder
Thorgeir has worked the last 20 years within the IT, consulting shipping, logistics and education business. As a serial
entrepreneur he has started companies in the UK, US, across Europe, Asia and Australia. After living in London for the last 18 years he
is now based in the small town of Alingsås outside Göteborg in Sweden with his wife and three children. Thorgeir is still active as advisor
and consultant to a number of start ups across the world and enjoys coaching and helping entrepreneurs become more successful in building their
dream companies. Thorgeir has an BSc from the University of Göteborg.
Natasha Avidan
Head of Partnerships, Sponsors & Communications - Founding Fellow
Natasha spent her early years in London, UK and then moved to Switzerland with her family at the age of 6. She attended the International School of Geneva,
where she learned French and Italian and earned an international baccalaureate degree. She returned to the UK for college and obtained her BA at the British
American College of London with a major in Media Communications. After graduation, Natasha explored the fashion industry through buying and design
experience and then entered the IT industry where she has been working for the past 4 years.
Her international upbringing is reflected in her openness interest, and positive attitude towards cultural differences. This enthusiasm to learn
more and make a difference has driven her involvement with organisations such as Amnesty International from a young age. Afriversity will be an
opportunity to perform the work that touches her heart the most - giving individuals the key to a brighter future through education and human unity.
Patrik Fredriksson
Head of Information Services & Technology - Fellow
Patrik has nearly ten years of experience with online marketing, web design, and web code. He also holds a Barmeister degree and has worked in Greece,
Sweden and South Africa among other places.
Patrik is also an amateur photographer, specializing in still life and nature.
Patrik currently works full time with Afriveristy as well as other web projects, communities and social networking sites.
Katarina Brud
Fellow
Katarina has a strong passion for other countries and South Africa in particular. When studying International Economics and Political Science at Jönköping
International Business School she spent one semester studying development economics at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
Besides studies she got the opportunity to volunteer in a township educating young people. She has also spent some years in the U.S. both as a trainee in the
trade and economic affair department at the Embassy of Sweden in Washington D.C. and as an office manager at the Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce. Returning
home to Sweden her work has continued to be focused on business development; helping entrepreneurs on an early stage - today working for the largest business plan
competition in the world.
She also has the ambition to make a global effort to bring peace and international understanding to the world which shows through her work in Rotaract Göteborg,
where she serves as President.
"The most wonderful thing about Afriversity is that it allows you to be part of something so much larger than yourself", she says.
Lars Green
President & Treasurer - Founding Fellow"My background includes a semi-professional football (soccer) career where I learned the value of idealism, solidarity and team work. This
has followed me in my international working life and formed the basic values that I treasure.
I am also led by a burning desire of helping those who have not been as fortunate as I have been, being born and raised in one of the wealthiest countries on
earth. I have therefore, regularly in the past, been seeking opportunities to translate my experience and knowledge into something sustainable for my fellow
citizens in need. Having visited Africa with my family in 2004 and being further inspired by Thorgeir's enthusiastic spirit, I quickly volunteered for the
Afriversity project." - Lars Green.
Lars holds an E-MBA exam from Stockholm School of Economics.
Brian Adams
Head of Operations for South Africa
Brian Adams' involvement in the Enterprise Development field covers nearly twenty years – first as trainer of business owners and later as manager of business
development programmes and as consultant on many Enterprise Development projects. Most recently at the Cape Regional Chamber he was responsible for amongst
others the Integrated Small Business Development Program. He has served in senior management positions of various enterprise development organisations (notably
Triple Trust Organisation). In addition he has consulted with a range of national companies and organizations in the field of SMME Research, Program Development,
Organisational Development and various SMME interventions. Clients he has worked with includes: City of Cape Town, Social Housing Foundation, GTZ, DFID, USAID,
Department of Health, Disabled People South Africa, Table Mountain National Park, Ukuvuka Operation Firestop, CapeMac, Cape Craft Design Institute, Eskom, UWC
and UCT.
Paul Bradnum
Chief Financial Officer
Paul is a chartered accountant and development practitioner with qualifications and experience in accounting, financial
management and theology. After 12 years of working for Coopers and Lybrand, Paul studied theology and then worked for
3 years as a chaplain to students at the University of Cape Town. He then spent 14 years as the financial director and
then executive director of the Triple Trust Organisation, a South African non-for-profit organisation specialising in
poverty alleviation through enterprise development. Paul is currently serving as chaplain within The Warehouse, an
organisation dedicated to equipping and supporting local churches in their response to poverty and injustice.
Karen Williams Middleton
Program Advisor & Fellow
Karen Williams Middleton is a doctoral candidate at the Division of Management of Organizational Renewal and Entrepreneurship (MORE) at Chalmers University
of Technology, in Gothenburg Sweden. Karen holds a bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering from Tufts University and a Masters in Business Administration (with honors)
from Babson College. While at Babson, Karen worked on projects focused on social and environmental entrepreneurship, while also having strong engagement with the Center
for Women's Leadership, including acting as president for the school's chapter in the Graduate Women in Business (GWIB) association -- now renamed NAWMBA. Since 2004,
Karen has been working with the Chalmers School of Entrepreneurship (and sister program GIBBS, 2005) in areas including leadership and entrepreneurial development.
She has also been engaged in entrepreneurial development projects, from the regional to the EU level, including a 4-year long project focused on entrepreneurial
attraction and competence development at the regional level, and a 1½ year long EU project focused on university research commercialization and mobility.
Karen is currently engaged in project proposals regarding interregional innovation development, regional entrepreneurial culture development and societal entrepreneurship from
a Swedish perspective, among others. Karen's doctoral studies focus upon the transformational process of technology transfer and how this is effected by entrepreneurial
identity development through positioning with core stakeholders. Empirical data builds upon experiences from the Chalmers School of Entrepreneurship and GIBBS.
