Innovation is about making sure that something comes out of it, that there are real solutions.

Johnny Waterschoot

EY wavespace™ Antwerp Operations Leader, EY Advisory Services BV

Passionate for innovation and working with start-ups. Finding the right match for people to innovate, co-create, invest. Krav Maga instructor by night.

As the wavespace Antwerp Operations Leader, Johnny Waterschoot leads the team while supporting co-creation workshops with EY colleagues and clients. Johnny is also an innovation enabler at wavespace Antwerp and a Senior Manager in The Factory, EY Advisory Services BV. He applies his knowledge and know-how in the field of corporate innovation to clients.

He has over 25 years of experience in the corporate and start-up world, focusing on high tech, venture capital and start-up markets, innovation, marketing and projects management. His previous experience includes managing various accelerator projects for Flanders and Europe.

He also has experience working for both corporate players, and start-ups and scale-ups.

How Johnny is building a better working world

Johnny works with corporate clients on their open innovation projects, facilitating cooperation between start-ups and corporate customers through Launchpad meet-ups, hackathons and co-creation trajectories.

For EYnovation, Johnny supports start-ups and scale-ups in their search for solution-market fit and helps them find the next stage of their funding by means of pitch training, go-global trips to introduce them to new markets and facilitating introductions to potential investors. 

Johnny's latest thinking