Jonathan Ortmans

Jonathan Ortmans serves as president of Global Entrepreneurship Week, an initiative to inspire young people everywhere to embrace innovation, imagination and creativity. From November 17-23, 2008, thousands of activities at a local, national and global level will connect young minds to generate new ideas and seek better ways of doing things.

In November 2007, Ortmans joined British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Carl Schramm, the president and CEO of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, to announce the plans for the first-ever Global Entrepreneurship Week, supported by NYSE Euronext, IBM and Ernst & Young. Under his leadership, the initiative has expanded quickly to include more than sixty countries, representing everything from entrepreneurial powerhouses to emerging economies.

Ortmans brings a wealth of experience to the project, having served as a senior fellow at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation where he has worked to help advance new thinking about the role of entrepreneurship within a nation’s economy and culture and its power to address global problems.

Previously, Jonathan served as a congressional aide to the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Ways and Means; executive director of the Columbia Institute for Political Research; and, has founded three businesses, the most recent of which carries his name. Educated in England as an economist, Jonathan has been published in several journals, serves as an advisor on public engagement and outreach initiatives to several government agencies, foundations and members of the Cabinet, and devotes extensive time to moderating and facilitating meetings worldwide.