Harrie Bastiaansen appointed as Endowed Professor of Digital Transformation and Data Strategy in a European Perspective

The Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) is pleased to announce that Harrie Bastiaansen has been appointed as Endowed Professor of Digital Transformation and Data Strategy in a European Perspective. The special chair is situated within the Department of Innovation Management and Strategy (IM&S) and is established by the C.R. Rao Foundation. 

In his role as endowed professor, Bastiaansen will build a bridge between the theory of digital transformation and its implementation in practice.  The special chair fits well within FEB’s focus on the interdisciplinary theme Digitalization and AI and in this role, Bastiaansen will also be able to contribute to FEB’s Groningen Digital Business Centre and the UG’s Jantina Tammes School of Digital Society, Technology and AI. 

From fundamental research to practical impact

The endowed professor’s goal is to improve the adoption of the EU data strategy and its solutions for an effective data economy. By connecting fundamental research insights with the applied research domain, he aims to address the main challenges in implementing the EU data strategy. To do so, he will work together with colleagues from the IM&S department to combine knowledge on technology and business, develop the right governance and business models and create collaborative projects that combine fundamental research and practical impact. Apart from his role in research, Bastiaansen will also contribute to education at FEB on digital and business strategy and help build an (inter-)national network for FEB in the area of the EU strategy for data. 

Rich experience in guiding transformations

Next to his role as endowed professor at FEB, Bastiaansen will continue to work as Senior Scientist at TNO, where he contributes to TNO’s knowledge position, project portfolio and research group development on the EU data strategy for federative data sharing and data spaces. He is involved in many national and international research and innovation projects, including two of TNO's ERP (Exploratory Research Programme) initiatives, specifically aimed at knowledge development. Bastiaansen sees opportunities to share the knowledge from these TNO projects and initiatives within FEB and to facilitate knowledge exchange between TNO and the UG as a whole. 

Bastiaansen has a technical background and rich experience in guiding transformations. He obtained a PhD in applied mathematics while working for KPN Research in the (still) promising area of photonics. Since then, his research focus has shifted towards the large-scale application of major technical innovations to enable societal or business benefits. As such, Bastiaansen has had the opportunity to lead the KPN strategic team for the introduction of KPN’s IP (Internet) infrastructure. He has been an active proponent of positioning Enterprise Architecture as integral part of corporate strategy, also in his role as vice chair of the architecture group of the Community of European Telecommunication Professionals (ETIS). Building upon this core research interest, since 2017 his main focus within TNO has been on data strategy and data sharing as an essential part of the evolving data economy.