Professor Dr. Jan Jonker will be a guest at the fifth edition of the ESG&FRIENDS forum, organized by the first Bulgarian media platform for sustainable practices ESGnews.bg. The forum will take place on February 17, 2026 at the Hilton Sofia Hotel.
Prof. Dr. Jan Jonker is a renowned expert in sustainable entrepreneurship, business modeling and sustainable transition. He was knighted with an officer’s rank by the King of the Netherlands for his non-academic work promoting sustainability.
His research focuses on how sustainable and circular business models promote transition. His work in and outside academia has earned him recognition as an “academic activist” whose goal is to create impactful change by working with large groups of participants in conducting research or writing books.
Throughout his career, Jonker has authored over 35 books and approximately 250 publications, both academic and popular works.
Contribution to sustainability
For seven consecutive years, he has been among the 100 most influential green Dutch people and was awarded the National Green Ribbon in 2016 for his contribution to sustainability.
For over 30 years, Jan Jonker has been a professor at the Radboud University School of Management in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. He has held prestigious positions at the Academy in Toulouse, France, and the Free University of Brussels, Belgium.
During his tenure as a visiting professor at the Pierre de Fermat Chair at Toulouse Business School, France, he founded the Conference on New Business Models in 2016. Since then, the conference has become an annual phenomenon, held successively in Graz (2017), Sofia (2018), Berlin (2019), Nijmegen (2020), Halmstad (2021), Rome (2022), Maastricht (2023), San Sebastian (2024) and Reykjavik (2025). In 2026, the conference will be held in Toulouse (France).
Most recently, Prof. Jonker developed the WEconomy Transition Canvas in collaboration with over 100 practitioners. It is a practical approach to designing and shaping large-scale transition programs (available in Dutch only).
Among Jan Jonker’s various roles in his professional life, he has served as the Director of the PhD Program at his faculty for over ten years. He has also served on numerous boards, including academic, policy and grantmaking boards.
Don’t miss his participation in the ESG&FRIENDS 2026 forum on February 17 at Hilton Sofia!
Stay tuned for more information about the program and guests of the event on the ESGnews.bg website!
