Willem Van Lancker is an American entrepreneur and product designer, who is best known for being the co-founder and Chief Product Officer of ebooks company Oyster.[1][2][3] He is currently the Head of Incubations at Thrive Capital, a technology investment firm based in New York City.[4]
Willem Van Lancker | |
|---|---|
| Born | |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Moses Brown School, Rhode Island School of Design |
| Occupation(s) | Head of Incubations at Thrive Capital, Former Co-founder & Chief Product Officer of Oyster |
| Website | www |
Biography
editWillem Van Lancker was born in Providence, Rhode Island. He attended the private high school Moses Brown School, where he was named the 2016 Outstanding Young Alumnus.[5][6] Van Lancker received a BFA degree in Graphic Design in 2011 from Rhode Island School of Design.[7] He briefly attended Harvard Business School for graduate courses but did not complete his degree.[8] It was at Harvard Business School where he met Eric Stromberg, one of the future co-founders of Oyster.[8]
He began his career at Adidas in 2008 as an intern.[1] Van Lancker later interned at Apple in 2009 where he helped create Apple's emoji.[9] From 2010 until 2012, Van Lancker was a user experience designer for Google Maps where he worked on Google Maps for iOS and "The New Google Maps."[10][8][11] Oyster was founded in 2012 by Van Lancker, Eric Stromberg and Andrew Brown.[2] After Oyster was acquired by Google in 2015, Van Lancker and the rest of the staff moved to Google.[12]
Van Lancker was named one of Forbes Magazine's 30 Under 30 in 2015.[1][13]
On April 6, 2022, Rhode Island Governor Daniel McKee announced that Rhode Island's new license plate was designed by Van Lancker after the state held an open call for entries for a new design. The design features 5 waves.[14]
References
edit- ^ a b c "Willem Van Lancker, 27". Forbes. 2015. Retrieved 2021-01-27.
- ^ a b Hamburger, Ellis (2014-11-05). "The future of books is on your phone, not your tablet". The Verge. Retrieved 2021-01-27.
- ^ "Oyster Raises $3M From Founders Fund To Finally Create An Unlimited Subscription Service For Books". TechCrunch. 10 October 2012. Retrieved 2021-01-27.
- ^ "Thrive Capital". thrivecap.com. Retrieved 2022-11-14.
- ^ "MB Cupola fall 2014 / winter 2015: Design Thinking". Issuu. Moses Brown School. Fall 2014. p. 19. Retrieved 2021-01-27.
- ^ "MB Cupola: People (Fall 2016) by Moses Brown School - Issuu". issuu.com. Retrieved 2022-11-14.
- ^ "Modi Among Top Tech Designers". Our RISD, Rhode Island School of Design. Retrieved 2021-01-27.
- ^ a b c D'Onfro, Jillian. "How e-book startup Oyster plans to be the 'Amazon lolol of the next 10 years'". Business Insider. Retrieved 2021-01-27.
Oyster is the brainchild of Van Lancker, formerly a Google user experience designer and now chief product officer
- ^ Coscarelli, Joe (2012-12-09). "The Proliferation of Emoji". New York Magazine. Archived from the original on 2012-12-12. Retrieved 2021-01-27.
- ^ Parfeni, Lucian (30 September 2011). "The Google Maps Pin Gets Modernized, Maps Sports a Fresh New Look (Screenshots)". softpedia. Retrieved 2021-01-27.
- ^ Rosen, Rebecca J. (2012-01-11). "How Do You Build an Interactive, Clear, and Detailed Map of the Whole World?". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2021-01-27.
explains Willem Van Lancker and Jonah Jones, two user experience and visual designers on the Google Maps team
- ^ "E-book service Oyster closes down as much of its staff heads to Google". GeekWire. 2015-09-22. Retrieved 2021-01-27.
- ^ "Profile: Willem Van Lancker, Cofounder". Forbes. 2015.
- ^ Farzan, Antonia (6 April 2022). "Here's what will replace the wave on Rhode Island's license plates". The Providence Journal. Retrieved 7 April 2022.
External links
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