Jonathan Ortmans

Enabler in Washington, DC

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Jonathan Ortmans serves as president of the Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN), a platform of programs and initiatives that help people unleash their ideas and turn them into promising new ventures—creating jobs, unearthing innovations for society and strengthening economic stability around the world.

Born from Global Entrepreneurship Week, GEN reaches millions of people in more than 150 countries with additional programs such as:

  • Global Entrepreneurship Congress – a gathering of thousands of delegates looking to build and strengthen entrepreneurial ecosystems.
  • Startup Nations – a collection of startup savvy policymakers and startup community supporters exploring different regulatory changes and other policy ideas to help accelerate new firm formation.
  • Global Entrepreneurship Research Network – a working coalition of institutions dedicated to advancing research in the field.
  • Global Entrepreneurship Index -- annual index that measures the health of entrepreneurship ecosystems in 130 countries and provides a compass for identifying initiatives that positively impact whole societies and a roadmap for interventions that target a country’s most critical areas for economic growth.

Ortmans also serves as chair of the Global Entrepreneurship Congress and senior fellow at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

In addition to the national boards for GEN around the world, Ortmans also serves on the boards of several non-profits including the Center for Entrepreneurship in Moscow.

Trained as an economist, with two startups and exits under his belt, Ortmans blogs weekly on high-growth entrepreneurship at kauffman.org and has emerged as a chief global strategist in building startup ecosystems around the world. Ortmans lives in Washington, DC, with his wife and three young children.

  • Work
    • President, Global Entrepreneurship Network