Willem F. Bakker
Executive Director of Information Technology Coalition of Innovate St. Louis

Willem F. Bakker

Biography

Mr. Bakker is the Executive Director of the Information Technology Coalition and the Chief Executive Officer of the Technology Entrepreneur Center. He is responsible for directing the activities of the Coalition, including strategy development and implementation, fund raising, and representing the Coalition within the community.

Mr. Bakker has over 8 years of leadership experience in business assistance and economic development. He was the CEO of Missouri Enterprise and led the Iowa State University Manufacturing Extension Partnership, bringing millions of dollars from the Federal government to the State of Iowa and ranking #1 in bottom line impact in the nation. He connected 3000 plus business enterprises to over 15 educational institutions. Launched a state-wide Lean/six sigma initiative to bring this continuous improvement methodology to all types of industries, service companies, government, healthcare and education.

Mr. Bakker has over 25 years of leadership (CEO & COO) experience running small and medium size high tech companies: increasing the revenue of one company from $1 million to over $10 million with a return of over 30% on equity. He launched more than three new businesses, turned around four businesses and negotiated the acquisition and sale of six businesses in the manufacturing, communications and healthcare industry sectors.

Mr. Bakker is a former member of the Young Presidents Organization. He pursued mechanical engineering studies in his native country, Holland; graduated with a Bachelors of Science degree in electrical engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology and a Masters of Business Administration from Rutgers University.
Mr. Bakker holds 3 patents, co-authored a book in the field of Electro-Magnetic Compatibility and pursued advanced studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.