As Challenge Lead at the Amsterdam Economic Board, Jeroen Maas is focused on developing the region’s AI health ecosystem into a world-class hub by connecting the most relevant local players in academia, industry and government. The challenges remain daunting, yet Maas maintains his enthusiasm and sense of humour. In this interview he discusses the sector – and what data science and AI innovators will need to break out of the pack in the coming years.

Salesforce has 35,000 employees worldwide and can serve the largest companies in the world to its customer base. Still, the region is important to the IT service provider, says Jeroen Heijmans, a member of the Network Council since May. 'We believe in ecosystems.'

According to the international real estate services provider Savills, Amsterdam is number four on the ranking list of best tech cities in the world. Wonderful news! The tech ecosystem has experienced enormous growth in the last four years, partly inspired by initiatives such as StartupDelta and StartupAmsterdam. However, the downside of the success is that, in addition to the economy, the inequality of opportunity has also grown. So let's not cheer too loud or celebrate ourselves too long. The last four years were the easy part (part I). The truly difficult issues are still ahead of us.

“Everyone is talking about diversity and equal opportunities,” says Corinne Vigreux, co-founder and board member of TomTom, “and yet there is often a lack of decisiveness in this area. The economy of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area is going strong. Unemployment has not been this low in years. Yet many young people are still left out, while the tech companies are struggling with a labor shortage. That hole must be closed. And TechConnect will help enormously with this.”

At the beginning of July, Jacqueline Cramer held 2 keynote speeches about the MRA resource transition programme of the Board in Paris during the first OECD Roundtable on circular economy in cities and regions.