04/23/2026
Joachim Verheijen quit his corporate job in Antwerp, joined our fellowship, and two months later found himself facing to***co industry lawyers in a Moldovan parliamentary hearing. Armed with a bingo card of every argument they’d use from his fellowship training, he sat there ticking them off one by one, then he got the mic.
“I saw the to***co industry people looking in my eyes, shaking no, like I was talking nonsense. But deep down you just know that we are on the right side.”
The result? The amendments were passed and stricter to***co laws were adopted by the Moldovan parliament. “That is a huge win for the country,” Joachim says. “I’m not claiming my contributions made the difference, but I hope I played a small part in that success.”
Now he and fellow Alex Nedeltchev have founded Impact Unfiltered and set their sights on Brussels, where e-cigarettes and ni****ne pouches are still governed by rules from 2014. The opportunity is enormous: accelerating stricter regulation by just one year could save over one million healthy life years.
FOUR DAYS LEFT TO APPLY. What are you waiting for? 🔗Link in bio!
Not ready to quit your job? We have a separate track for Associate Fellows, where you stay with your current employer and join the program one day per week. We’re also recruiting for our fellowships in US Food Systems Reform, Global Tax Fairness, and EU Food Systems.