Mirjam van Praag is professor of Entrepreneurship and Leadership at the department of Management and Organisation of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Before joining the School of Business and Economics she was the president of the Management Board of the Vrije Universiteit. She was also affiliated at the Copenhagen Business School and the University of Amsterdam. She holds a PhD from the University of Amsterdam (1995).

Mirjam van Praag is a prominent pioneer of research into the economic role and significance of entrepreneurship. In doing so, she uses advanced econometric models to investigate the start, duration, and success of independent entrepreneurship. Van Praag also uses (field) experiments to investigate the effect of various interventions on the behavior of entrepreneurs. In her publications, she demonstrates the importance of education for successful entrepreneurship. She also shows that teams with a balanced (gender) balance perform better than teams with a one-sided composition.

• KNAW | Amsterdam | Lid | 2019-09-01 - present
• Anne Frank Stichting | Amsterdam | Lid Raad van Toezicht | 2020-01-01 - 2027-12-31
• De Balie | Amsterdam | Voorzitter Raad van Toezicht | 2021-05-01 - present
• AECA NL | Amsterdam | Bestuurder | 2021-05-01 - present
• De Nationale Denktank | Amsterdam | Lid Adviesraad | 2024-01-01 - 2027-07-31
• Biotech Booster | Utrecht | Commissaris | 2024-01-01 - present
• AWTI | Den Haag | Bestuurder | 2025-03-01 - present
• Prof de Vries Stichting | Amsterdam | Bestuurder | 2025-09-01 - present
• Accenture BV | Amsterdam | Commissaris | 2026-02-01 - present

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