Mark van der Heijden (1986) originates from the south of Holland, a quaint country known for tulips, cheese, clogs, and coffee shops. After being submerged in the Amsterdam ad scene for seven years, Mark waved goodbye to his job as a copywriter, tossed his home into a backpack, and hit the world as ‘The Backpacker Intern’, helping out agencies, brands and charities in exchange for room and board. The journey has brought him to 27 countries on 7 continents where he worked at 32 companies. Mark shared his story at TEDxTeen in NYC, SXSW Festival, Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, was invited by The White House, featured by Mashable as Inspiring Travel Instagrammer to follow and is one of the Top 100 Most Influential Travel Bloggers in the World. In February 2016 Mark co-founded Wanderbrief, a global community that connects companies with international talent trading their creative skills for experience abroad. Wanderbrief helps to solve business challenges through collaborative creativity while fostering global citizenship and cultural exchange. Within 8 months Wanderbrief has grown into a community of 6000+ creatives from 77 countries and established partnerships with agencies, brands and NGOs like Adobe, Vodafone, RICOH and Amnesty International. In June 2016 Wanderbrief was selected for the prestigious R/GA Lions Innovation Start-Up Academy and the company recently became runner-up for ‘Best Work Experience Provider’ at the World Youth Travel Awards 2016.