Hicham is the co-founder and president of ShelterTech, a San Francisco-based, volunteer-led organisation that builds digital tools for the homeless and underserved communities of San Francisco. ShelterTech is now 50 people strong and distributes WiFi and internet in homeless shelters, organises events to bridge the gap between the tech and homeless communities in the city and has built askdarcel.org, an online repository of social services that is now contracted by the City of San Francisco.
Prior to this role, he joined the research and innovation group of Philips in The Netherlands, working on energy efficiency. There, he focused on Access to Energy in Africa and how venturing could help better position multinationals in new emerging business areas: Off-grid lighting, solar power, minigrids and data enabled services.
Hicham is a strong believer in the future of the European Union and vocal advocate for more integration and outreach to populations that have not benefited fairly from globalisation. He grew up in Morocco and France and graduated from Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden) and Art & Metiers (France) with MSc in Applied Physics and Industrial Engineering.
