General director
James Wilson is General Director at Orkestra-Basque Institute of Competitiveness and teaching faculty at Deusto Business School.
He joined Orkestra in 2007, and between 2018 and 2024 he served as research director. He has more than 20 years of research experience in the field of competitiveness and territorial development. He began his academic career in the UK, where he graduated in Economics from the University of Warwick. He holds an MA in Economics from the University of Cape Town and a PhD from the University of Birmingham, where he was a Senior Lecturer.
His research interests are in policy-relevant analysis of territorial competitiveness and socio-economic development processes. Within that his work is focused especially on territorial strategy-making, governance, clusters, innovation and cluster policy, policy evaluation, and the roles that universities play in territorial development. James has published widely on these issues in peer-reviewed journals and academic books, and has played leading roles in European research projects, particularly in the fields of clusters and smart specialization strategies.
James is regularly invited as an expert speaker/advisor by institutions such as the European Commission and by national and regional governments, and he is a member of the Board of Directors (and currently Secretary) of TCI Network.
Wilson has extensive knowledge of the Basque context as he has directed several projects for Basque institutions and coordinates the annual Basque Country Competitiveness Report.
