Jonathan Potter

Dr. Jonathan Potter is Head of the Entrepreneurship Policy and Analysis Unit in the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities (CFE).  He leads OECD work advising governments around the world on strengthening their startup and scaleup policies. 

His work includes assessing the quality of entrepreneurial ecosystems and identifying government policy priorities. This includes a pioneering OECD report on Benchmarking Entrepreneurial Ecosystems for all OECD countries and OECD case studies of regional entrepreneurial ecosystems, including the report on Local entrepreneurship ecosystems and emerging industries: Case study of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, United Kingdom. He also examines the reasons for some regions making marked improvements in entrepreneurship performance over time, for example in the OECD report on Leapfrogging and plunging in regional entrepreneurship performance in the United States, with European comparisons. 

He leads OECD work on tapping into untapped potential for entrepreneurship with policies that involve more people from under-represented social groups such as youth, women and people with disabilities.  The outputs include the OECD/EU report on The Missing Entrepreneurs 2023: Policies for Inclusive Entrepreneurship and Self-Employment, the OECD/EU online guidance and self-assessment tool called Better Entrepreneurship Policies, the OECD/EU Youth Entrepreneurship Policy Academy, and the OECD report on Entrepreneurship Policies through a Gender Lens. 

He also developed the OECD's work with the European Union on HEInnovate and E360, which examine how universities, colleges and schools can promote entrepreneurship through entrepreneurship education, startup support and knowledge exchange with business. He has undertaken national reviews on these issues in more than 10 countries. 

He also advises governments on specific startup policy tools, such as on business incubation and acceleration and startup and scaleup financing, 

He leads the OECD's country reviews of SME and entrepreneurship policies, covering more than 15 countries to date, including countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, Canada, Italy, Israel and Ireland. 

He also leads OECD work on the evaluation of SME and entrepreneurship policies. This includes the Framework for the Evaluation of SME and Entrepreneurship Policies and Programmes 2023, as well as specific guidance to individual countries on policy evaluation. 

He holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge and has published in many international academic journals.