Page 269 - Design meets Business:An Ethnographic Study of the Changing Work and Occupations of Creatives

About the author 257
About the author
Natalja Ruth Laurey was born in Leiderdorp (1988), Zuid-Holland, the Netherlands. She received a bachelor degree in Anthropology and Non-Western Sociology (cum laude) at the University of Amsterdam. This introduced her into the world of social sciences which she further explored during her Master Social Research (cum laude) at the Vrije Universiteit Am- sterdam, a selective two year educational program that prepares students for their doctoral research. During her Masters, she also followed two courses at the University of Oslo, Norway. Intrigued by identity processes in organizations, she wrote her final dissertation at the department of Or- ganization Studies.
After her graduate studies, Natalja joined the National Think Tank in the Netherlands. For about half a year, she worked together with about twenty selected graduates on developing innovative solutions for societal challenges, with a focus on the Dutch health care system. After that she worked simultaneously as a lecturer at the department of Organization Studies and as a program manager at creative leadership school THNK.
These experiences triggered her interest in the creative industry and (digital) innovation, which made her pursue a doctoral research at the KIN Center of Digital Innovation. Her doctoral research was fully funded by NWO. She completed her PhD at the School of Business and Econo- mics, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. During her doctoral research, she conducted two large field studies in the Netherlands and Spain about the changing work and occupations of creatives in today’s digital society. Also, she was involved in teaching on Bachelors, Masters and Executive level. As a recipient of multiple awards and fundings, among others of the prestigious Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, she spent part of the Spring semester at New York University (NYU). During her PhD, she founded and organized multiple sessions of KIN talks, a networking event where academics and professionals unite around themes related to digital inno- vation. Highlights of her PhD included living in Spain when conducting fieldwork; her visiting scholarship at NYU and attending international conferences as an expert speaker.
In short, Natalja is passionate about diverse themes related to the crea- tive industry, digital innovation and design. She aspires to help business and society grow though better understanding societal issues and developing innovative solutions. She enjoys stimulating collaborations between acade- mics and practitioners, thinkers and makers, and creatives and business professionals.