Project Coordinator and Work Package 1 Lead

Biography:
Ruud van Iwaarden is employed since 2007 with Brainport Development NV and its predecessor REDE NV. His background in finance, consultancy, entrepreneurship and love for meaningful innovation led him to this regional economic development agency. Besides his role as investment manager and finance advisor to regional companies (80+ direct investments) he has matured in leading projects.

Some of the projects through the years that he was leading include: design valorisation programme; design-tech incubator fund; bright move plan development (regional high tech start-up fund in partnership with the Technical University Eindhoven and others); Founded By All (cooperative of tech + design companies); AR/VR clustering project; “AR/VR Reality Check“ project; Machine Learning Lab (AI; with the VNG, association of Dutch municipalities); 5G Hub Brainport (with Vodafone, Ericsson and HTCE); Data Value Centre – smart industry (ad interim project lead).

His regional and national network is well developed. Being able to understand and speak the languages of Business, Knowledge/education/research organisations and governments makes him a wanted partner for projects and challenges that involve multiple partners/organisations of different sorts. It also helps him in his community building skills needed in the AI community for instance. His understanding of and involvement with European projects has been growing as well through the years. He likes to structure projects in a way that promotes effective and efficient communication with/between partners and stakeholders. In this way he brings everyone’s focus on achieving the agreed goals.