Jaap Donath, PH.D

Jaap Donath is Assistant Executive Director, Programs at the Alan B. Levan NSU Broward Center of Innovation where he oversees the four pillar programs, Ideate, Incubate, Accelerate and Post-Accelerate as well as other programs, including a Veterans Entrepreneurship Program and Space Entrepreneurship Program. Jaap has close to 30 years of economic development experience, including over 25 years with the Miami-Dade Beacon Council, the economic development partnership for Miami-Dade County, as Senior Vice President, Research & Strategic Planning. In this role he has been involved in the entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem in South Florida since the late 1990s, including BioFlorida Southeast Chapter leadership, Life Science South Florida Executive Committee and past member of the eMerge Americas Steering Committee. He also participated in tech tradeshows such as CeBIT (was the world’s largest IT tradeshow) in Germany and MEDICA (world’s largest medical device tradeshow) and BIO International Convention. He has also been involved in South Florida’s resiliency efforts, including an economic impact analysis (Business Case for Resilience in Southeast Florida), the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Compact, and Miami-Dade County’s Resilient305. In addition, he was an Adjunct Professor at Barry University teaching “International Business” and “Business Consulting” in the MBA program and member of the Business School’s Strategic Planning Committee and taught “Research & Inquiry” in the MBA program at Johnson & Wales University. He also taught at Florida Atlantic University, Florida International University and St. Thomas University. Jaap Donath, a native of the Netherlands, received a Ph.D. in International Business and International Relations from the University of Miami. He received a M.A. in International Relations from the same institution and a B.A. in Education for History and Dutch Language at the Christelijke Hogeschool Windesheim in the Netherlands. He is fluent in English, Dutch, and German. He has spoken at national and international economic development and business conferences. He has published 26 articles, book reviews, and op-ed articles internationally and lectured and presented papers at conferences in the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United States. In addition, he has been interviewed by national, regional, and local media, including Time Magazine, Bloomberg News, Florida Trend, and the Miami Herald. His recent community involvement included being a member of the 21st Century Schools Bond Advisory Committee (Miami-Dade County Public Schools) overseeing a multi-year, $1.2 billion capital improvement project and being a member of the Miami Dade College Hialeah President Campus Advisory Committee. Currently he is part of the Military Affairs Taskforce at NSU. Nationally he served on committees for the Council of Community & Economic Research (C2ER) and the International Economic Development Council (IEDC).