Koen Berden

Dr. Koen Berden is Senior Fellow at ECIPE and Managing Director of Trade Impact B.V. At ECIPE his research focuses on the interface between trade, innovation & ideas and geopolitics. At Trade Impact, he focuses on advising public and private sector clients on smart trade and investment, with a focus on sustainable, gender-balanced, equitable, and innovative elements of trade and investment agreements.

He is working on different projects, including for the European Commission on ex ante and ex post evaluations of trade policy. He is particularly interested in the sustainable elements (social, environmental and human rights) and on how to stimulate innovation. Having worked on these topics for many years, Koen has the ability to translate complex modelling work and analyses into accessible language and understandable concepts.

In addition, Koen is member of the Supervisory Board of the Netherlands Institute for International Relations Clingendael and has been assistant professor at Erasmus University Rotterdam for 25 years. His expertise is on international economics, trade law, competitiveness, geopolitical opportunities and risks, micro- and macro-economics, and maritime economics & logistics.

His PhD was titled: “On uncertainty, technology, and economic growth” and he has published in various journals, including the Journal of Development Economics, The World Economy and worked on over 50 applied research projects for clients like the European Commission (DG Trade, DG GROW), World Bank, OECD, UNDP, AMCHAM EU, and others.

In past employments, Koen served as Executive Director for International Affairs at the European Federation for Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), and Director of Outreach and Member of the Board of Directors at the World Trade Institute in Bern (Switzerland), where he was responsible for the WTI project portfolio, strategic alliances, and for strategic outreach of the WTI. Also, from 2006 – 2015, he worked at Ecorys, the oldest and one of the largest public-sector consulting firms in Europe, in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, where he was first Partner and Commercial Director and later served as Senior Partner and its Managing Director. For the Ecorys Group, Koen was EU Market Director, Chief Innovation Officer, and Chief Economist.

As part of his other interests, Koen is currently also senior fellow of the Transatlantic Policy Network, Executive Board member of the Women Economic Forum (WEF), member of the Studiegezelschap Economische Politiek, and member of the Rotterdam Economic Council.

List of publications, blogs, presentations and thesis supervisions is available here.