Jonathan Ortmans
President, Global Entrepreneurship Network
Jonathan Ortmans is the founder and president of the Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN), a Washington, D.C.-based organisation operating programs and chapters in 200 nations to support entrepreneurs and foster healthier entrepreneurial ecosystems.
Raised in the United Kingdom, Ortmans trained as an economist, worked on Capitol Hill in Washington, and served as the CEO of a health care and trade policy think tank. His career has also included two successful startup exits.
Ortmans built GEN through its cornerstone initiative, Global Entrepreneurship Week where he assembled a broad multi-disciplinary coalition of partners and communities in 200 countries that now serve as the backbone of GEN operations around the world, including entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers, researchers, and entrepreneurial support organisations.
Ortmans oversees GEN’s grantmaking and has developed GEN operations in entrepreneurship research and public policy, ecosystem building, and all of its programs directly supporting entrepreneurs and investors.
Ortmans also chairs the Global Entrepreneurship Congress (GEC) now in its 15th year and serves on the boards of dozens of GEN affiliates and entrepreneurial support organizations around the world.
Learn more about Jonathan and his work:
Watch Jonathan’s opening remarks at the 2025 Global Entrepreneurship Congress
Why do you support the work of The Entrepreneurs Network?
I support The Entrepreneurs Network mostly because it is authentic. At GEN, we are exposed to literally thousands of organizations around the globe promoting entrepreneurship, but Philip Salter’s writings and the community he convenes are precise, on point, and always worth the read.
I also remain bullish about entrepreneurship in the UK. There is a certain no-nonsense honesty to British risktakers. Beyond being a Britisher myself, GEN was born from the communities that celebrate Global Entrepreneurship Week, which was created in the UK as Enterprise Week so many years ago by then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
What research should more people be reading?
My short answer is that everyone should read The Entrepreneurs Network’s research. But at the risk of appearing self-serving, I will point you to GEN's own take on who is doing what that matters in this field. Our GEN Atlas is the world's largest compendium of entrepreneurship policy case studies. We have now documented 500 case studies from around the world showing how different policymakers are contributing to smoothing the path for entrepreneurship in their respective countries.
Why is the UK an attractive place to start and grow a business?
When I joined the first cohort to Chile for Startup Chile, I learned an important lesson. The founders heading to Chile were enticed by the atmosphere, and unique things like snowboarding in August. Founders look for more than tax incentives, talent, and intellectual capacity. Of course, the UK excels in all those areas, but in the end the reason to start in the UK is cultural. The startup community is sophisticated, connected, globally minded, socially responsible, and built on centuries of trust and tradition on top of a great sense of British humour.