Academic Director of the Leadership in Commodity Trade and Supply Networks and Senior Researcher
Erasmus University Rotterdam
Dr. Wouter Jacobs is the founder and director of the Erasmus Commodity & Trade Centre at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, a dedicated thinktank supported by the commodity trading industry. He initiated and leads the international executive programme Leadership in Commodity Trade and Supply Networks at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Wouter is a member of the advisory council of J.P. Morgan Centre for Commodities at the CU Denver business school of the University of Colorado and for over 8 years he has been involved as fellow at Erasmus UPT. Wouter teaches MSc courses at the Rotterdam School of Management and Erasmus School of Economics. Wouter has a PhD in Management from Radboud University Nijmegen, based on an international comparison of port competition strategies in Los Angeles-Long Beach, Rotterdam and Dubai. Wouter has a specialization in teaching scenario planning methodologies, which result in strategic options for industry and governments. He is also the programme director at Erasmus University for the Maritime Studies Abroad program of Nanyang Technological University from Singapore. Making the connections, whether between people, between companies, between theory and practice, between public and private interest, between generations and across geographies is at the heart of Wouter’s activity. Wouter has been an invited panel member on industry platforms such as the FT Global Commodities Summit 2022 and the Zug Commodity Association 2021 in Switzerland.