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Maya Byskov
Senior Strategic Projects Manager, Sustainability at Zalando SE
Professional Background
Maya Byskov is a highly accomplished professional with a diverse background spanning sustainability, art, and international relations. As the Senior Strategic Projects Manager for Sustainability at Zalando SE, Maya has made significant strides in leading projects that emphasize environmentally responsible practices within the fashion industry. Her role encapsulates her commitment to creating strategic initiatives that benefit both the organization and the planet, showcasing her leadership in a rapidly evolving sector.
Prior to her tenure at Zalando, Maya served as the Project Manager for Partnerships, Sustainability, and Inclusive Supply Chain Financing at Centrifuge, wherein she played a crucial role in developing relationships that foster sustainable economic growth in the communities served. Her experience also includes working as a Content Manager at Centrifuge, where she ensured that storytelling and content aligned with the organization’s values and mission. Adding to her rich portfolio, she co-founded KEMP GADEGÅRD, an ethical womenswear brand that now operates as IISLE (www.iisle.net), displaying her entrepreneurial spirit and dedication to ethical fashion.
Maya’s career also reaches into the art world, having been the Project Manager and Artistic Director at The Independent AIR - Art and Climate Research Lab during the European Capital of Culture. Here, she coordinated projects that intersected art and climate research, showcasing her ability to merge creativity with pressing global issues. Her early career included significant roles such as Deputy Director at Gallery Taik Persons at Aalto University, where she was integral in fostering artistic expression and collaboration.
Furthermore, her passion for art and culture is evident through her work in strategic partnerships at LOOP Barcelona, a platform for video art. Maya also has a background in foreign affairs, having served as a Liaison Officer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, where her responsibilities revolved around international cooperation and diplomacy. She began her career with a traineeship at the same ministry, gaining a foundational understanding of global relations.
Education and Achievements
Maya Byskov’s academic background is as varied as her professional career, with degrees from respected institutions that reflect her interest in social issues, economics, and artistic expression. She completed her Master's Degree in Economics and Development Studies (Cand. Merc. Int) at the prestigious Copenhagen Business School, where she focused on understanding the socio-economic structures that govern global markets and their impact on equality and sustainability. This education has served as a cornerstone of her career in sustainability and international relations.
In addition, Maya holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from the University of Southern Denmark, where she developed a thorough understanding of political systems and international cooperation. Her studies in Erasmus at the Universitat de Barcelona in Art History and Criticism allowed her to cultivate a deep appreciation for cultural contexts, critical analysis, and the role of art as a conduit for social change.
Moreover, she pursued her passion for design by studying Industrial and Product Design at the Istituto Europeo di Design, which equipped her with the creative skills necessary to approach sustainability within the fashion industry innovatively. This multi-dimensional educational background enhances her capacity to contribute meaningfully to projects at the intersection of sustainability, design, and culture.
Achievements
Maya's achievements reflect her unwavering commitment to sustainability and social responsibility. As a leader at Zalando SE, she has implemented transformative strategies that not only consider the financial health of the company but also prioritize environmental stewardship. Her recognition in the sustainability field has positioned her as a thought leader advocating for ethical practices in the fashion industry.
Her work as a co-founder of KEMP GADEGÅRD bears testament to her entrepreneurial prowess, combining fashion with sustainability to support women's empowerment and ethical production practices.
In her capacity as Project Manager for The Independent AIR, Maya played an essential role in integrating artistic inquiry into climate change discourse, contributing to cultural initiatives that raise awareness and inspire action.
Maya also possesses a rich network in both the art and business communities, cemented through collaborative projects and partnerships developed throughout her career. Her experience in establishing connections through LOOP Barcelona reflects her ability to bridge diverse sectors and foster creativity.
Conclusion
With a robust combination of education, professional experience, and notable achievements, Maya Byskov is a distinguished figure in the fields of sustainability, art, and international relations. Her knowledge, passion, and dedication continue to drive impactful initiatives aimed at promoting sustainable practices and fostering artistic expression. As she advances in her career, Maya is poised to inspire and influence positive change within her community and beyond.
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Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
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- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
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