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Laurens de Groot
Co-founder & CEO
Laurens’ career centers around making bold ideas for the greater good happen. As co-founder and part of the leadership team, he embarked on his most ambitious mission to date.
Laurens thrives in roles where he can bring bold ideas to life. Once a career crime investigator, he found his true purpose in social entrepreneurship. This journey has taken him from protecting whales in small boats in the Southern Ocean to becoming part of the first team ever to track rhino poachers with drones in Africa.
As part of his journey, Laurens founded award-winning companies and organisations, such as Silverback Protein, Skycap, and Smart Parks. He also participated in the acclaimed Discovery Channel programmes Whale Wars, Seal Wars, and Ivory Wars, where he led teams through treacherous situations to protect endangered species.
His efforts have earned him accolades including the Rabobank Next Entrepreneur Award, WWF’s Human Wildlife Tech Challenge, and the Tech for Global Good Laureate from the Silicon Valley Museum of Innovation.
Following his involvement in a successful election campaign for a political party in the Dutch House of Representatives, Laurens gained a profound appreciation for the power of policy. He realised that achieving long-term, systemic change requires a focus on enduring legislation.
These insights led to the founding of CFG. For Laurens, the most important measure of success is not the impact of the projects themselves but the growth and fulfilment of the people involved. He believes that lasting change is only possible through collective effort—and that the true joy of making a difference lies in doing so together.