Jaap Boonstra is a professor of 'Organizational Dynamics and Leadership' at Esade Business School in Barcelona (Spain), professor of 'Organizational Change' at Rotterdam School of Management of the Erasmus university, and a senior lecturer in 'Public Administration' at the Netherlands Institute of Governance in The Hague. Before he worked as a professor of 'Global Leadership' at CEMS, The Global Alliance in Management Education, and as a professor of 'Organizational Change and Learning' at the University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands). He also worked as Dean and Academic Director of Sioo, Inter-university Center for Organizational Change and Learning (The Netherlands).

At ESADE Business School, Jaap is involved in education on strategic and cultural change in organizations, transformational leadership, and organizational and professional development. His research focuses on transformational leadership, success factors to organizational change and innovation, power dynamics in organizations, cross-cultural management and organizational change and development.

As an independent consultant he is involved in change processes in international business firms and organizational networks. In addition, he was a member of supervisory and non-executive boards in financial services, the service industry, and public institutes in telecommunications, safety and liveability, social housing, and in health and youth care.

Jaap has published more than twenty books and three hundred articles on technological and organizational innovation, management of organizational change, politics in organizations, strategic decision-making and transformational change in production firms, the service sector, public administration and global values-driven alliances. His international handbook 'Dynamics of Organizational Change and Learning' was awarded with the best contribution to organizational science by the Dutch association of management consultants. His book 'Organizational Change and Leadership in Organizations' was nominated for Management book of the year. His book 'Change Management Adventures' is reviewed as the most approachable and inspiring books about change management. In 2019 he published 'Organizational Change as Collaborative Play' (Boom, 2019) and 'El Cambio como un Juego de Interacción Estratégica' (Together with Francisco Loscos, Profit Editorial, 2019). His most recent book 'Alliances for Sustainable Futures' is published in English, Spanish and Dutch with Marcos Eguiguren as co-author (Edward Elgar, 2023 / Profit Editorial, 2023 / Boom, 2023).