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Dr. Bert Twaalfhoven

Dr. Bert Twaalfhoven newly joined our Board of Advisors - he is founder of the European Foundation for Entrepreneurship Research (EFER). He holds a Bachelor in Science from Fordham University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. In 1993, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Fordham University.

Dr. Bert Twaalfhoven is often described as a "serial entrepreneur": Over the past 40 year years, he has founded 51 high tech companies in 11 countries, cooperating with 28 universities. These include Reynolds Aluminium (Harderwijk, The Netherlands), 350 Wasserettes (The Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and Switzerland) and Indivers, a holding company of the Interturbine Group of Companies with factories in The Netherlands, Germany, UK, USA, China and the Ukraine. Mr. Twaalfhoven also co-founded the Gilde Venture Capital Fund and serves on the board of several companies. Dr. Twaalfhoven is regarded as one of the leading advocates for entrepreneurship in Europe. Besides EFER, he is also founder of Europe's 500 and a member of the board of the association for Europe's fastest growing entrepreneurs, located in Brussels, Belgium, originally called Growth Plus, now called Europe's 500 Entrepreneurs for Growth.

Dr. Twaalfhoven is an avid supporter of business education. He is former Chairman of the Harvard Business School Alumni and currently serves on the advisory boards of Fordham University School of Business in New York, Nijenrode Business School in The Netherlands, GEA College in Slovenia and Mahindra College in Pune, India. In June 2001, he received the Harvard Business School Alumni Achievement Award. In addition to being an active supporter of entrepreneurial initiatives and business education, Dr. Twaalfhoven gives numerous speeches and seminars all around the globe at universities, business schools, entrepreneurial organizations as well as various conferences and symposia.