Jaap Schut

Jaap Schut is CEO & Founder of 4E Innovation Consulting, and an experienced innovator, consultant, coach/mentor/advisor, venture partner, adjunct professor, speaker, and materials scientist.

Jaap has 21 years of experience in innovation: 8 years as global innovation consultant (4E, PACE Business Partners), 8 years as new business developer/strategic marketeer in the chemical industry (Momentive/Hexion, Fujifilm), and 5 years as polymer materials researcher (Europe, USA).

At 4E he is accelerating and de-risking the path to growth and impact of startups and corporate clients. As a mentor and innovation consultant he assists organizations with their innovation strategy and commercialization of novel materials/products to answer unmet market needs across a variety of industries, by building business cases, doing customer discovery, market and competitive research and positioning, sharpening value propositions, and drafting investor pitches.

In parallel, as Adjunct Full Professor at NC State University (Wilson College of Textiles), he is giving guest lectures (on innovation strategy, new product development, technology scouting and selection, the circular economy, and bioplastics), and assisting students as a dissertation advisory committee member.

Dr. Schut obtained his Ph.D. degree in Polymeric Materials and Composites from the National Institute of Applied Sciences (INSA) in Lyon, France and his M.Sc. degree in Polymer Chemistry from Groningen University in The Netherlands.

He holds 2 patents and (co-)authored 13 publications in the fields of: bioresorbable polymer for medical devices and drug delivery systems, thermoset-thermoplastic polymer blends, organic coating primers, and fiber reinforced composites.