BACKGROUND
Jay Mitra is the Founder President of the International Entrepreneurship Forum and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Emerging Economies (JEIEE – published by Sage. ISSN No. 2393-9575 http://eie.sagepub.com) ). He is a Professor and Research Fellow at the Research Centre for Entrepreneurship, at Leuphana University in Luneburg, Germany. From 2004 to 2025, he was Professor of Business Enterprise and Innovation and Director of the Venture Academy at Essex Business School, University of Essex. He has acted as a Scientific Adviser to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) and its Scientific Committee on Entrepreneurship for the OECD’s Centre for Entrepreneurship and the LEED (Local Economic and Employment) Programme in Paris, France, and at its Trento Centre, Italy. Other recent Visiting Professorships include those at Bayero University, Nigeria, University Externado. Colombia, the Institute of Management Technology, India, the School of Management, Fudan University, China, the School of Public Policy at Jilin University, China, and at Bologna University, Italy. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in the UK.
Jay Mitra also leads the International Entrepreneurship Forum (IEF), a unique network and forum for researchers, policy makers and business practitioners working on entrepreneurship, innovation, and regional development issues (http://iefconference.org). The IEF holds annual refereed conferences, now in its 22nd year, in different parts of the world. He is a member of the Board of the International Network of SMEs (INSME), Rome, Italy (since 2016), an offshoot of the OECD, and on the Advisory Board of the Silk Road Partners BV based in Belgium. He has also served until recently on the advisory boards of the Cambridge Innovation Academy in Cambridge, UK, and the European Business Angels Network (Impact Investment Committee).
CURRENT
Professor Mitra trained in the private sector in the UK, worked as a Principal Officer for local government also in the UK, specialising in economic and business development, and taught at three other universities before joining the University of Essex. At Essex he established the unique and successful School of Entrepreneurship and Business (SEB) in 2005 which preceded his contribution to the creation of Essex Business School in 2008. He also created the first International Centre for Entrepreneurship Research (ICER), leading it since its inception in 2006. In 2014-15 he re-established the MBA programme into a successful and viable project, increasing the student intake six times, and revised and re-accredited the course. These achievements follow the setting up pioneering centres for Entrepreneurship at two other universities and the creation and ownership of two new businesses in the UK. He has led the Regional Studies Association Research Network for ‘Citizen Entrepreneurship’ involving universities and Social Enterprises in Germany, India, Poland, and South Africa, and supported by the Regional Studies Association in the UK
WRITING
He is a member of various editorial boards of international refereed journals. He has written and published widely on the subject of entrepreneurship, innovation, and economic development with significant contributions to international refereed journals, through books, chapters in leading research monographs, papers and presentations at refereed international conferences, seminars, symposia, and workshops. His work has attracted best research paper awards in both the UK and the USA. He is Editor-in- Chief of the unique ‘Encyclopaedia of Entrepreneurship’ and Editor of the research monograph series on ‘Studies in Entrepreneurship and Society’ both published by Palgrave, and the Springer series on ‘Entrepreneurship and Development in South Asia’.
INTERESTS
Music, Poetry, Literature, Jazz, Photos, Tennis and Cricket!