My role as an International Advancement Coordinator is to flourish the capabilities and the scope of Research & Degrowth by establishing new global ties and cooperation opportunities with other like-minded organisations and individuals. Personally, I am on a mission to help transition our society and economy towards a system that values equality between people and is environmentally sustainable. And I believe degrowth has many answers on how to accomplish this. Overall, the concept of degrowth for me is about lowering our material expectations; about doing things together and sharing outcomes fairly; and a deconstruction of values.
I have a BA in Political Science from University of Tartu and a MA in Political Ecology & Degrowth from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. In addition to my input at R&D, I am volunteering for TAPP Coalition – an organisation advocating for fairer pricing to animal protein products. I am based in Barcelona, where during my free time I enjoy playing beach volleyball and flirt with meditation. But I was not always like that. My strengths in communication, leadership, training, perseverance and proactivity were developed at the private sector. 3 long summers with Southwestern Company in US opened the world to me. 3 years in Microsoft taught me how corporations think and operate. 7 years of success and failure with startups in food, renewable energy and clothing industries not only gave me a wide comprehension on the business world, but revealed to me many intrinsic problems in the relationship between capital and labor.
After more than a decade in the private sector, I started questioning how my personal pursuit for success is affecting others and the planet. And since I had not experienced a convincing correlation between financial success and happiness, I returned to my studies which, as a logical step, have transmuted to my current role at R&D.
Email: maikomath@outlook.com