A new Office Director for ITEA

Jan Jonker takes over the reins as the new ITEA Office Director on 1 September 2019. He succeeds Fopke Klok who has been leading the ITEA Office since 2007.

Jan Jonker, who was born in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, has wide-ranging experience working on innovation projects in various positions and different domains including ICT, Health and Energy.

In 2000, he became senior project manager for Development and Innovation at the East Netherlands Development Agency (Oost NL), where he led a team within the field of health and medical technology from 2006-2009. Between 2009 and 2014, Jan Jonker was detached to Health Valley as managing director. Health Valley is a renowned Cluster in Health and Life Science Innovation in the Netherlands, organising many events as well as supporting innovation projects related to healthcare. In 2014, he also became team manager for Cleantech and Energy Development at the same agency.

Thanks to his extensive interaction with many different stakeholders ranging from entrepreneurs to corporate and governmental organisations, together with his experience in managing a leading-edge Cluster, he knows what it takes to manage an innovation Cluster like ITEA.

In handing over the baton to Jan Jonker, Fopke Klok stated: “I have really enjoyed working for ITEA, but after 12 years it is good to change. I am very happy that we have found a good successor in Jan Jonker and I wish him all success in the further development of ITEA.”

Just before his start at ITEA, Jan Jonker recorded a short video message to introduce himself:

In this video, he emphasises the importance of the strong ITEA Community:
“Together we can position ITEA as a very successful EUREKA Cluster. The people who built ITEA can be proud of it and it is very inspiring to me to work with them in the future. I look forward to meeting you during the PO Days in Amsterdam or on another occasion.”