Saskia De Klerk

Associate Professor Saskia De Klerk is a faculty member at the University of the Sunshine Coast (UniSC), Queensland, Australia, serving as Discipline Lead for Marketing, International Business, and Tourism within the School of Business and Creative Industries. She holds adjunct positions at North-West University (South Africa) as Associate Professor and at UNSW Canberra as Adjunct Senior Lecturer.

Education:

• PhD (Potchefstroom University)
• MCom (Potchefstroom University)
• BCom(Hons) (Potchefstroom University)
• BComm (Potchefstroom University)

Research Interests:

• Entrepreneurial Ecosystems & Regional Development
• Networking & Social Capital
• Innovation & Bricolage Strategies
• Sustainable Practices (Circular Economy)
• Women Entrepreneurs & Leadership

Her work focuses on advancing entrepreneurship through ecosystem mapping, cultural adaptation, and sustainable resource utilization.

Awards & Recognition:

• Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (2021)
• Best Paper Award, USC Research Celebration (2018)
• Outstanding Service Award for Journal Reviewing (2019)
• Certified Accidental Counsellor (Lifeline Australia, 2018–2020)

Grants & Projects:

• Lead researcher on $926k ACIAR-funded project on Pacific horticultural loss reduction
• Co-investigator on Australian Govt.-funded accelerator ecosystem study ($100k impact)
• Sunshine Coast Food & Agribusiness Profiling ($10k council grant)
• Military Veteran Entrepreneurship grant ($8k)

Labs & Collaborations:

• UniSC Seaweed Research Group
• Sunshine Coast Regional Innovation Project Team (SCRIPT)
• North-West University’s TREES Tourism Research Group

Teaching & Mentorship:

• Mentor for Generation Innovation (2019–2023)
• Telstra Mayor Innovation Program Mentor (2022)
• Supervised 14 global PhD students across diverse fields