About GEN in the UK

GEN has deep ties to the United Kingdom.  In 2004, then-Chancellor Gordon Brown launched Enterprise Week as a national campaign to celebrate and promote entrepreneurship. The model quickly gained international traction, leading to a partnership with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to establish Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) in 2008. Today, Global Entrepreneurship Week reaches more than 10 million people annually through over 40,000 events across 200 countries and territories. The global community built through the campaign led to the creation of the Global Entrepreneurship Network.

The UK has also played a leading role in convening the global entrepreneurship community. In 2012, it hosted GEN’s flagship event, the Global Entrepreneurship Congress (GEC) in Liverpool, which brought together ecosystem leaders from around the world and featured addresses by then-Prince Charles and Richard Branson. Each year, the UK sends large international delegations to GEC, with 48 founders, investors, and ecosystem leaders attending GEC Indianapolis in 2025.

Much of GEN’s work in the UK over the past decade has been developed under the leadership of Marc Ortmans. Beyond GEW, this has included a LinkedIn-supported program in the UK for Ukrainian women entrepreneurs, an exporter accelerator, and a range of “Startup Planet” activities supporting clean and green tech entrepreneurs. The UK is also home to four Startup Huddle chapters, a global GEN program that builds startup communities through regular community support meetups.

Looking ahead, GEN is focused on:

  • Strengthening ecosystem collaboration in the UK through high-impact partnerships that drive connections and shared growth.
  • Expanding access to global markets and capital by connecting UK leaders with international peers and high-value inbound delegations.
  • Reinforcing the UK’s role in global policy and entrepreneurship dialogue by convening international leaders in London around economic, entrepreneurship, and innovation priorities.
  • Growing national participation in entrepreneurship by building on the momentum of Global Entrepreneurship Week.
  • Increasing the global reach of the UK's entrepreneurship ecosystem with a strong, regular presence at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress.
  • Broadening access to entrepreneurship nationwide by scaling programs like Startup Huddle that build entrepreneurship communities and provide direct support to founders.

In addition, GEN’s policy and research work supporting governments across the world is anchored and managed from London.

GEN’s work in the UK is supported by some of Britain’s most impactful ecosystem leaders as GEN Global Leaders. These individuals are deeply engaged in supporting entrepreneurship in the communities and fields, and many run GEN programs. GEN Global Leaders advise on program development, facilitate local and global connectivity, and amplify opportunities for founders, investors, and other ecosystem stakeholders.

“The United Kingdom remains a global epicenter of innovation with some of the world’s best universities, dense startup activity, and deep investor networks” said Jonathan Ortmans, founder of GEN.  “We are proudly building on our deep roots in the UK and strong foundation of people and partners to 'connect the connectors' around the world”.