Ruben is an entrepreneur and now an Entrepreneur in Residence acting as the director of TechConnect, a program spearheaded by the Amsterdam Economic Board.

He was the former director of StartupAmsterdam and a driving force in connecting leading Dutch startup initiatives & tech clusters into a catalyst program: StartupDelta.

In 2018 his focus shifted from ‘strengthening the startup & tech ecosystem’ to —“something that I\’ve been passionate about for years”— Talent Development & Education.

Roles include:

1. Director TechConnect — Tech Talent program to activate, re- and upskill and attract 50K tech talents in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area in the coming 4 years.
2. Educating Cities to grow as a Tech hub — via the SCALE.CITIES platform
3. Board Roles in Educational Initiatives — Codam, FutureNL, Chair Entrepreneurship Minor UvA/VU, and Growth Tribe Academy.

Nieuwenhuis was involved in various startups and innovation projects: i.e. DutchBasecamp (founder), CodeUur (co-founder, now FutureNL), Open Cities, FellowForce (co-founder & CEO), StBC (founder & CEO), Amsterdam Capital Week, Startup in Residence, SCALE network, Growth Tribe Academy, Coding4Amsterdam, IXAnext, Dutch Student Investment Fund and Corporate Partner Network Amsterdam.

Co-author of the book StartupCity. StartupCity is designed to provide administrators, civil servants and public-private initiatives the guidance on how they can think and work as a startup. It gives a comprehensive look at how the public sector can engage with the private sector to form initiatives that boost the startup worlds ecosystem and nurture the city as a breeding ground for innovation and job growth.