On Sunday 13 to Thursday 17 March, Prince Daniel visited Silicon Valley and the Seattle area together with a delegation consisting of young entrepreneurs and business leaders linked to Prince Daniel's Fellowship.
The aim of the visit was to gain new perspectives on entrepreneurship, to build networks and to be inspired by one of the world's most vibrant business climates for innovative companies.
The trip began in Silicon Valley with a reception hosted by Sweden's Honorary Consul in San Francisco, Barbro Osher. The following day, a number of talks, panel discussions and visits to companies and educational institutions took place in the Silicon Valley area.
One of the visited companies was Sila Nanotechnologies, which presented its work and its research to develop the batteries of the future.
The delegation also visited UCSF, where Chancellor Sam Hawgood – together with researchers, colleagues and students at the university – spoke about the importance of cooperation between research and industry for the region's spirit of innovation.
At the Exploratorium science museum, Sean Randolph from the Bay Area Council Economic Institute spoke about Silicon Valley's business climate. He was followed by Anne Wojcicki, founder and CEO of 23andMe, in a discussion led by Marcus Wallenberg.
The programme at Exploratorium concluded with a panel discussion on the role played by research in society, with Nobel Laureates Elizabeth Blackburn, Saul Perlmutter and Paul Milgrom.
At Nasdaq San Francisco, a number of Nordic entrepreneurs discussed success factors and experiences from Silicon Valley, with Minna Holopainen as moderator. Stina Ehrensvärd from Yubico, Jan Söderström from Ericsson, and Jimmy Abrahamsson from Grepit and Zpark took part in the discussion.
The delegation then visited Salesforce, where they learnt about the company's cloud services, its vision and its operations – both globally and in Sweden.
At NVIDIA's new head office in Santa Clara, the delegation met the company's co-founder and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang who gave an inspirational talk about the company's culture, vision, management philosophy and goals for the future.
During the visit to Stanford University, the university's President Marc Tessier-Lavigne gave an address. This was followed by presentations on Stanford Technology Ventures Program, the work to promote world-class academic quality, and the university's new department for climate and sustainability research.
In Seattle, the delegation visited online retailer Amazon's logistics centre and head office.
This was followed by a visit to Microsoft's head office, where the delegation listened to talks on subjects such as the company's change work, global cyber security measures and sustainability strategies.
The final company visit in the Seattle area was to Boeing, where the delegation saw the company's manufacturing facility, its quality safety initiatives and its data-driven work to streamline the development of the next generation of aircraft.
Sweden's Ambassador to the United States, Karin Olofsdotter, hosted a reception at the National Nordic Museum in Seattle.
In the presence of Governor of Washington State Jay Inslee, Seattle's city council and invited guests, Prince Daniel – on behalf of The King – presented the Order of the Polar Star to Eric Nelson for his many years of meritorious contributions to the creation of a new museum building for the National Nordic Museum.
Eric Nelson was awarded Knight of the Royal Order of the Polar Star Class 1 by The King.
The aim of Prince Daniel's Fellowship is to inspire young people to become entrepreneurs, and to support a number of companies through mentoring. The project is a long-term partnership between Prince Daniel and the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences. The project was launched in January 2013.
Prince Daniel's Fellowship has brought together a group of successful entrepreneurs and managers to form a council of experts who visit upper secondary schools, universities and university colleges in Sweden to inspire young people and to talk about their experiences as entrepreneurs.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA) is an independent academy that promotes technical and economic sciences and the development of industry, for the benefit of society. IVA works in partnership with industry and universities to initiate and propose measures to strengthen Sweden's expertise and competitiveness.