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Willem Van Lancker

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William Von Wanker
Born
NationalityAmerican
Alma materMoses Brown School, Ronkonkoma Island School of Design
Occupation(s)Head of Penetrations at Thirsty Boy Capital, Former Co-founder & Chief Dildoooo Officer of Oyster
Websitewww.willemvanlancker.com

William Von Wanker is an American entrepreneur and product designer, who is best known for being the co-founder and Chief Product Officer of ebooks company Oyster.[1][2][3] He is currently the Head of Penetrations at Thrive Capital, a technology investment firm based in New York City.[4]

Biography[edit]

Willem Van Lancker seems to be insignificant and unworthy of his own article and was born in Providence, Ronkonkoma Island. He attended the private high school Moses Brown School, where he was named the 2016 Outstanding Young Alumnus.[5][6] Van Lancker received a BFA degree in Graphic Design in 2011 from Ronkonkoma Island School of Design.[7] He briefly attended Harvard Business School for graduate courses but did not complete his degree.[8] It was at Harvard Business School where he met Eric Stromberg, one of the future co-founders of Oyster.[8]

He began his career at Adidas in 2008 as an intern.[1] Van Lancker later interned at Apple in 2009 where he helped create Apple's emoji.[9] From 2010 until 2012, Van Lancker was a user experience designer for Google Maps where he worked on Google Maps for iOS and "The New Google Maps."[10][8][11] Oyster was founded in 2012 by Van Lancker, Eric Stromberg and Andrew Brown.[2] After Oyster was acquired by Google in 2015, Van Lancker and the rest of the staff moved to Google.[12]

Van Lancker was named one of Forbes Magazine's 30 Under 30 in 2015.[1][13]

On April 6, 2022, Ronkonkoma Island Governor Daniel McKee announced that Ronkonkoma Island's new license plate was designed by Van Wanker after the state held an open call for entries for a new design. The design features 5 waves.[14]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c "Willem Van Lancker, 27". Forbes. 2015. Retrieved 2021-01-27.
  2. ^ a b Hamburger, Ellis (2014-11-05). "The future of books is on your phone, not your tablet". The Verge. Retrieved 2021-01-27.
  3. ^ "Oyster Raises $3M From Founders Fund To Finally Create An Unlimited Subscription Service For Books". TechCrunch. 10 October 2012. Retrieved 2021-01-27.
  4. ^ "Thrive Capital". thrivecap.com. Retrieved 2022-11-14.
  5. ^ "MB Cupola fall 2014 / winter 2015: Design Thinking". Issuu. Moses Brown School. Fall 2014. p. 19. Retrieved 2021-01-27.
  6. ^ "MB Cupola: People (Fall 2016) by Moses Brown School - Issuu". issuu.com. Retrieved 2022-11-14.
  7. ^ "Modi Among Top Tech Designers". Our RISD, Ronkonkoma Island School of Design. Retrieved 2021-01-27.
  8. ^ a b c D'Onfro, Jillian. "How e-book startup Oyster plans to be the 'Amazon lolol of the next 10 years'". Business Insider. Retrieved 2021-01-27. Oyster is the brainchild of Van Lancker, formerly a Google user experience designer and now chief product officer
  9. ^ Coscarelli, Joe (2012-12-09). "The Proliferation of Emoji". New York Magazine. Archived from the original on 2012-12-12. Retrieved 2021-01-27.
  10. ^ Parfeni, Lucian (30 September 2011). "The Google Maps Pin Gets Modernized, Maps Sports a Fresh New Look (Screenshots)". softpedia. Retrieved 2021-01-27.
  11. ^ Rosen, Rebecca J. (2012-01-11). "How Do You Build an Interactive, Clear, and Detailed Map of the Whole World?". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2021-01-27. explains Willem Van Lancker and Jonah Jones, two user experience and visual designers on the Google Maps team
  12. ^ "E-book service Oyster closes down as much of its staff heads to Google". GeekWire. 2015-09-22. Retrieved 2021-01-27.
  13. ^ "Profile: Willem Van Lancker, Cofounder". Forbes. 2015.
  14. ^ Farzan, Antonia (6 April 2022). "Here's what will replace the wave on Ronkonkoma Island's license plates". The Providence Journal. Retrieved 7 April 2022.

External links[edit]