100+ MAKERS AND MAVERICKS — 2017.
Each year we compile a list of the one hundred+ people that got us to utter those words ‘I wish I had done that, made that, invented that, thought like that, changed that’. These are the people who have shone the brightest for us in 2017.
Maverick Of The Year
Satoshi Nakamoto
Founder
Bitcoin
Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? No one quite knows. But itis the name used by the unknown person or people who designed bitcoin and devised the first blockchain database. When they wrote the code, they changed the future of money.
They wrote some of the smartest code ever written, 100,000 lines of code that will change every aspect of money. How we raise it. How we think of it as a store of value. How a borderless currency will work.
Maker Of The Year
Vitalik Buterin
Coder/Programmer/Publisher/Co-founder
Ethereum/Bitcoin Magazine
It used to be that currency was defined by geography. Now it is defined by what problem it is trying to solve. Bitcoin was first. But Ethereum came along and allowed you to attach a smart contract to the blockchain.
Vitalik Buterin, a Russian-Canadian programmer, has been instrumental in building it. The genius artists of yesterday painted, built bridges. Today they write code. The most brilliant code ever written. Until tomorrow.
Tech
Kendra Kuhl/Nicholas Flanders/Etosha Cave
Co-founders
Opus 12
Three scientists are turning waste CO2 into useful products. They’ve created a small reactor that can recycle carbon dioxide into other carbon-based compounds that could be used to replace petroleum-based plastics or converted to gasoline.
Anwar Al-Haddad
Founder
PV Solar
With no coding experience, Anwar built an app (PV Solar) that’s bringing solar power to Yemen. As people started to turn to solar power, the app helped people learn how to install solar that was a more dependable source of power.
Bjarke Ingels
Architect/Founder
Bjarke Ingels Group
Bjarke Ingels is a pioneering Danish architect that believes ‘architecture is at its best when it is pure fiction,’ He continued to push the boundaries. In 2017 his company designed the Lego House. And yeah, made from Lego bricks, what else?
Daniel Caven/Chris Hurst/Miguel Alvarez/Brent Watanab
Co-Founders
Urban Architecture Studio
They entered a competition. They won it. And along the way, they created the world’s first freeform 3D printed house. This 800-square-foot single-family home will be built in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Yasushi Horibe
Architect
Guntu
Is it a premium hotel? Is it a luxury cruise ship? Or is it a brand new category altogether? Designed by pioneering architect Yasushi Horibe. Time may fly. But luxury is taking an alternative route.
Fujiko Nakaya
Artist
Fog Sculptor
Fujiko Nakaya is the world’s leading fog sculptor. At 83, the Japanese artist has been making artworks out of thin air for almost half a century, and in 2017, she unveiled her first London fog work, on the terrace of Tate Modern.
Wellbeing
Bill Burnett/Dave Evans
Professors/Authors
Designing Your Life
Standford’s most popular class isn’t computer science, but rather one that seeks to get you to design your life. Their class shows you how design thinking can help you to create a life that is both meaningful and fulfilling.
Kevin Holesh
Developer/Entrepreneur
Moment App
You won’t like the results this app will give you. You may even end up deleting it. But it will tell you the truth. It will tell you how long you have been on your phone each day. It will reveal this awful truth: How addicted you are to your phone?
Massimo Bottura
Chef/Co-Founder
Food for Soul
Ok, so you’re Italy’s most renowned chef. And you have won world’s best chef. For most that would be enough. But Massimo founded the Food for Soul project to establish refectory-style dining halls all over the world to feed those most in need.
Claus Meyer
Co-founder/Author/Food Activist
Noma
It was Meyer’s idea that a restaurant might be inspired, rather than restricted by the limited produce in Nordic countries. He recruited the maverick Rene Redzepi. What they created together changed how Denmark is now viewed globally.
Platforms of Influence
Linda Sarsour/Tamika Mallory/Carmen Perez/Bob Bland/Janaye Ingram/Breanne Butler/Mrinalini Chakraborty/Emma Collum/Mariam Ehrari, Cassady Fendlay, Alyssa Klein, Sophie Ellman-Golan, Jackson Hyland-Lipski.
Board/National Team
Women’s March
An estimated 3.3 million women marched in 500 different locations in the USA. One out of every 100 Americans participated. The march took place on seven continents. And not a single arrest.
Harry Hitchens
Documentary Film Maker/Founder
Everyday Studio
Harry is a multi award-winning documentary director. He founded a studio called Everyday to make films that matter. In 2017 they raised enough money via Kickstarter for Breakthrough: A documentary for the creatively curious.
Michael Karnjanaprakorn/Malcolm Ong
Co-Founders
Skillshare
Skillshare is an online learning community for creators. It aims to close the professional skills gap and provide universal access to high-quality learning. It teaches you the skills needed in tomorrow’s world, to help you pursue your love.
Matthew Pike
Creator
Bucket & Spades Blog
Founded in 2008 as a way to store images, Matthew Pike, author of Buckets and Spades never imagined that blogging would become a full-time job. Some eight years later Buckets and Spades is one of UK’s top-ranking men’s fashion bloggers.
Purpose Driven
Omar Yaghi
Chemist
University of California, Berkeley.
There are an estimated 13 trillion litres of water floating in the atmosphere at any one time, equivalent to 10% of all of the freshwater in our planet’s lakes and rivers. His solar-powered device can pull water straight from the desert air.
Creativity
Steve Powers
ESPO
Artist/Author/Graphic Designer
He has recreated an era when storefront large-scale signs were works of art. They don’t advertise anything but itself. He has been a central figure in turning graffiti into street art. He first became world-renowned under the name of ESPO.
Christoph Niemann
Illustrator/Visual storyteller/Author
He sees the world differently. And he then he draws it as he sees it. His abstract viewpoint has led many to consider him one of the most innovative artists working today. Watch his profile on Netflix’s Abstract: The art of design.
Kamal Ravikant
Author
Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It
Kamal had reached rock bottom. But then one day, he couldn’t take it anymore and crawled to his journal, where he made a sacred vow with himself. That vow would transform his life, and became the ethos of his runaway success of a book.
Naval Ravikant
Co-founder/Investor/Partner
AngelList/MetaStable Capital/Coin List
Naval Ravikant is the CEO and a co-founder of AngelList. He is an active Angel investor, but in 2017 turned his attention to how the cryptocurrency world will change how startups will get funded in the future.
Mehrdad Mehrain
Founder
7 Minute Workout Challenge App- (MWC)
This app has been downloaded over a million times. It is Apple’s top ten apps for the year. It is designed for people who are time poor but want to work out. It takes just 7 minutes of HIT. But is designed to equate to 1 hour of exercise.
Gary Cantrell AKA Lazarus Lake
Founder
Barkley Marathon
The Barkley is considered one of the toughest 100-mile races in the world. It has 67,000 feet of climb (and 67,000 feet of descent). Since the race began in 1986, only 15 runners out of about 1000 have finished within the 60-hour cutoff.
Paul Sinton-Hewitt CBE
Founder
parkrun
From 13 amateur runners and one park to a community of over 4,000,000 people and 1,300 parks worldwide, all in the space of 13 years. Paul has built a global movement that gathers to run, jog, walk and volunteer in their local park every weekend.
Neil Currie/Sue Currie
Co-Founders
Netherton Foundry
Netherton Foundry is a family run foundry on a mission to build products with provenance. They design and build quality products made from materials sourced in Shropshire. Currently, 75% of their products value achieve this objective.
Nick Hand
Founder/Graphic Designer/Printer
Letterpress Collective
If you know our YearBook, you will know Nick’s work as a designer. But he is also a reluctant businessman. His quest is to save the art of letterpress printing with workshops teaching both type composition and printing skills.
Adam Buxton
Comedian/Writer/Actor
The Adam Buxton Podcast
Comedian, actor and director Adam Buxton won the award for British Podcast Champion 2017. He forms one half of the duo Adam and Joe, with filmmaker Joe Cornish. He co-hosts Bug which looks at music videos through the comedic lens.
Earlonne Woods/Nigel Poor /Antwan Williams
Co-Creators /Co-Producers/Co-Hosts
Ear Hustle Podcast
Bringing you real stories of life in San Quentin prison. Recorded in prison, by prisoners. This is a partnership between Earlonne Woods and Antwan Williams, currently incarcerated at San Quentin Prison, and Nigel Poor, a Bay Area artist.
Indre Viskontas/Kishore Hari
Co-Hosts
Inquiring Minds
They go where science, politics, and society collide. Because they are committed to the idea that making an effort to understand the world around you though science and critical thinking can benefit everyone — and lead to better decisions.
Laura Shin
Writer/Podcaster/Senior Editor
Forbes/Unchained
Laura Shin’s podcast covers how the blockchain is about to transform every trust-based interaction of our lives, from financial services to identity, from health care to our Internet of Things devices. She talks to the industry pioneers.
Brave New Wales
Angelo Somers
Founder/CEO
To hand your headmaster a 22-page report on why you should be homeschooled tells you something about this 15-year-old. In 2018 he is launching his first company using blockchain to change an industry. As you do at 15.
Instagram + Website
Tom Rack, Ali Williams, Dave Id, Peter Gregory & Richie Turner
Founders
No Fit State Circus
Canada has Cirque Du Soleil. Wales has its own equally unique contemporary circus company. Founded in 1986 by five friends. They travel together, live together, put their life on the line together. They will take your breath away.
Lee John Phillips
Artist
Grandfather’s Tool Shed
Lee is currently cataloguing the entire contents of his late Grandfather’s tool shed. It will take around five years and will involve him illustrating more than 100,000 items. His Grandfather would be very proud.
Phew.
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