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The Founder Institute is proud to present the nominees for the Startup Ecosystem Builder Awards, with the winners scheduled to be announced during the 16th Founder Showcase festivities.

Our 300+ Founder Institute Directors are the backbone of the Founder Institute - providing the passion, dedication, and support that helped launch over 1500 businesses since the Institute was founded in 2009. These individuals sacrifice their time and energy in order to build their local startup ecosystem and help new entrepreneurs.

All of the Founder Institute Local Directors below have demonstrated exceptional leadership in their local startup ecosystems in 2014, laying the foundation for promising founders to build enduring technology companies.

To vote for your favorite Startup Ecosystem Builder, go to http://fi.co/ecosystem_builders

  • Alain Baritault & Pierre Beyssac (Paris)
  • Alan Colmenares (Colombia)
  • Ali Erhat Nalbant, Ertan Atay & Kutlu Kazanci (Istanbul)
  • Allan Tan, Dale David, David Elefant & Jorge Azurin (Manila)
  • Andi Zain, Novistiar Rustandi & Sanny Gaddafi (Jakarta)
  • Bartos Canete & Esteban Almirón (Andalucia)
  • Ben Larson & Peter Tatischev (Silicon Valley)
  • Benjamin Chong (Sydney)
  • Carla Tanas & Michalis Stangos (Athens)
  • Carlos DaSilva (Lisbon)
  • Cedric Delzenne, Leo Ku & Martin Kessler (Hong Kong)
  • Celeste North & Andres Bianciotto (Mexico City)
  • Claire Robertson & Estelle Oliveri (Perth)
  • Erik Cavalcante & Luis Novo (Sao Paolo)
  • Gabe Zichermann (New York)
  • Gary Gaessler, Adam Swiecki & Bradley Brown (Denver)
  • Heislyc Loh, Edwin Wang & Tzu Ming Chu (Kuala Lumpur)
  • Henri Duong & Aman Singha (Orange County)
  • Ignacio Castro, Randall Trejos & Vivian Arias (Costa Rica)
  • Jan Kennedy, Manfred Tropper, Markus Ortmann & Oliver Thum (Munich)
  • Jane Smorodnikova & Andrei Komarovski (Saint Petersburg)
  • Jason Jacobsohn (Chicago)
  • Jeanine Jacobson (San Diego & Los Angeles)
  • Jeffrey Paine & Alvin Yap (Singapore)
  • Kamal Hassan, Ilona Hassan & Sunil Sharma (Toronto)
  • Kenshin Fujiwara & Narimasa Makino (Kansai)
  • Krating Poonpol, Benjamin Ranck & Charle Charoenphan (Bangkok)
  • Marcos Polanco, Ramphis Castro, & Sofía Stolberg (Puerto Rico)
  • Mari Suviste & Lauri Antalainen (Tallinn)
  • Maria Dykstra & Ram Valliyappan (Seattle)
  • Matt Allen, Sebastian von Conrad & Sally Gatenby (Melbourne)
  • Naveen Lakkur & Srikanth Bhagavat (Bangalore)
  • Pablo Ambram & Gonzalo Illesca (Santiago)
  • Peter Tatischev & Maria Adamian (Moscow)
  • Pieter Dubois (Brussels)
  • Rocky Liu & Yingpiao Gu (Shenzhen)
  • Roia Shefayee & Omar Ansari (Kabul)
  • Sascha Karstaedt & Didier Vermeiren (Berlin)
  • Satoshi Okuda, Thibault Danjou & Toshio Furuta (Tokyo)
  • Sergio Escobar & LP Maurice (Montreal)
  • Srinivas Kollipara & Ramesh Loganathan (Hyderabad)
  • Tuan Pham, Cao Cong Minh & Cong Tran (Vietnam)
  • Urs Rothmayr, Oriol Bes & Juan Castilla (Barcelona)
  • Victor Chapela & Shai Rosen (Mexico City)
  • Vladimir De Franceschi, Marjeta Vehovec, Drazen Nikolic, & Vanja Andric (Croatia)


Click here to see the all of the categories and cast your vote for your favorite Startup Ecosystem Builder!

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