Thomas Zeller is the CDO of UnternehmerTUM. He started his career in Product Management with the international e-commerce company Ciao. Afterwards he worked in product and technology leadership positions at Microsoft and Holtzbrinck before he joined UnternehmerTUM. In his current role he evangelizes digital technology and culture to students, startups, and enterprises within the program Digital Product School. Thomas owns a diploma in computer science for business and an MBA.

Andreas Zeitler is founder and CEO of the 3D, AR & VR start-up Vuframe. With more than 15 years of experience in the gaming industry and in XR, he is an expert when talking about augmented and virtual reality. In 2017, he was awarded with "Innovator under 35" (Germany) - competition brought to Germany by the US magazine MIT Technology Review. Vuframe today serves hundreds of customers worldwide with the company’s cloud-based augmented & virtual reality platform VUFRAME®. Customers include both small companies and large enterprises across many industries. 2018 Vuframe and SIEMENS were nominated for the German Digital Award 2018 in the category "Digital Transformation - Innovation" and made it to the final in Berlin at the end of April.

Poh-Kam Wong is Professor in entrepreneurship and innovation strategy at the NUS Business School. He obtained two BSc.’s, an MSc. and a Ph.D. from MIT. He has published extensively in leading international refereed journals on entrepreneurship and innovation and publications have been widely cited.  He has also consulted widely on science, technology & innovation/ entrepreneurship policy for international agencies including the World Bank, OECD and Asian Development Bank, various government agencies in Singapore, and many private corporations in Asia. Besides his academic position, he is concurrently the Senior Director of NUS Entrepreneurship Centre, where he spearheads the university’s experiential entrepreneurship education programs. He initiated StartUp@Singapore, the largest annual business plan competition in Singapore (1999-2012), and the DBS-NUS Social Venture Challenge Asia, the largest annual social entrepreneurship competition in Asia (since 2013). He also directs the National Lean Launchpad Singapore program on technology commercialization for professors and graduate students in the four leading universities in Singapore.  An entrepreneur who co-founded three companies prior to joining academia, he has been an active angel investor with investment in over a dozen high tech start-ups in Singapore, Silicon Valley, China and India.    

PD Dr. Benedikt Wiestler is a neuroradiologist at Klinikum Rechts der Isar (Technical University Munich). He finished his postdoctoral research at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg and worked on the computational analysis of high-dimensional genomics data in brain tumors, which led him to his main research focus: developing algorithms and strategies to make the wealth of information contained in medical imaging data accessible to clinicians. He is the principal investigator in the SFB project 824 and lead of the interdisciplinary working group „Computational Imaging“ where he works collaboratively with multiple faculties and innovative organizations to employ machine learning methods and improve the clinical diagnostic workflow. Benedikt serves as a medical advisor at deepc and runs the clinical studies to seamlessly integrate the solution into the clinical workflow.

Robin Weninger is Co-Founder & Managing Director of shapingwork, the first executive academy based on practical philosophy, offering a radical new approach to corporate education by pairing the "best-of-breed" practices from leadership and management with philosophy. In addition, he is the Managing Director of the German Tech Entrepreneurship Center (GTEC). He is a trusted Advisory Board member to multiple EU funded projects under the H2020 framework. Robin is always keen and happy to support initiatives that change the world for the better and leave sustainable footprints for the future of education and work. The World Economic Forum recognized Robin as a Global Shaper in 2015 and as a European Digital Leader in 2017.

Dr. Rudolf Tille is a general practitioner in his own office. He works as a specialist in intestinal flora and intestinal health. This is subject of his many lectures and medical trainings for experts. In cooperation with the University of Regensburg he is implementing antibiotic stewardship for resident doctors. In this effort he is striving to introduce modern and promising teaching methods as online trainings.

Robert Thielicke studied Biology and Anthropology at the University of Heidelberg. He has 15 years+ experience as technology and science editor, currently being the Editor in Chief of MIT Technology Review (german edition). The print and online publication ist the leading source of innovation-related information, covering the most important trends from Biotech to Artificial Intelligence. In addition, Thielicke curates the yearly competition „Innovators under 35“ for young Scientists and Founders, and the event series „Innovators Summit“.

He currently leads the Capital Projects & Infrastructure Practice in Western Europe and is a co-leader of the Operations Practice at McKinsey. He advises clients in the infrastructure, aerospace, rail, and machinery sectors on digital transformations, operational strategy, and performance improvement. Gernot has served clients in over 30 countries globally. His recent work includes a perspective on digitization in the construction industry and the establishment of capability center for the application of 5D BIM technology. Other projects include the digital transformation for a global EPC in industrial construction, leveraging modular construction for a leading European real estate investor and developer, development of the digital strategy for a Middle Eastern EPC, tendering for a mega mall, and the turnaround of critical large projects in infrastructure, aerospace and rail.  

Hauke Stars is a Member of the Executive Board of Deutsche Börse AG. She manages the Cash Market, Pre-IPO & Growth Financing Division which handles the listing and exchange trading of equities, bonds and other securities, and drives innovative pre-IPOgrowth financing initiatives. On 1 June 2018 Hauke Stars took on additional responsibilities as director of labour relations (“Arbeitsdirektorin”) of Deutsche Börse AG, leading Human Resources. From 2012 to 2015 she led the Information Technology and Market Data + Services Division and was instrumental in the modernisation of Deutsche Börse’s global IT infrastructure and the expansion of the market data business. Hauke is Member of the Supervisory Board of Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA and Member of the Board of Directors of Kuehne + Nagel International AG. She earned an Engineering Degree in applied computer science (Dipl.-Ing.) and an MSc in Engineering.

Industrial engineer by training, healthcare pioneer by passion. Maria, founder and CEO of inveox, digitizes & automates pathology labs to boost efficiency and make cancer diagnoses safe. The alumna TUM and Manage&More has won various awards and has been named one of “25 women who’ll change the world”. inveox made it “StartUp of the year 2017” and on the Forbes list of the “100 most promising startups 2018”.  

Michael O. Schmutzer is the founder and CEO of Design Offices, Germany’s leading provider of corporate co-working. By founding the company in 2008, the New Work pioneer was able to put his visionary concept for innovative work environments into practice. His work and vision have significantly contributed to shaping the new working world and won him the 2018 XING New Work Award. Schmutzer’s business objective: extending Design Offices’ current lead on the German market and expanding it to all DACH countries. Schmutzer has over 20 years of experience in implementing future-forward building projects. At Centacon, the company he founded in 1989, he spent multiple years heading up the development of complete residential housing projects.  

Kai Schmidhuber is a successful e-business founder, speaker and venture capitalist. Kai is also Chief Digital Officer of L’Oréal Germany. He is responsible for the cross-brand digital transformation of the company, focusing on e-commerce, digital customer relationships (CRM), big data analytics and innovation for Germany. After moving to Deutsche Post DHL, Kai Schmidhuber was vice president of product development for DHL’s new business, including building the third largest German online marketplace, introducing same-day delivery in Germany, and developing the delivery of parcels by drone. Prior to joining L’Oréal Deutschland, Kai Schmidhuber was Senior Vice President for the overall digitalization strategy of Fraport AG (Frankfurt Airport, among others), especially in the areas of UX, online shopping, CRM and mobile applications.

Since 2019, Christian Schmeichel has taken over as Senior Vice President HR at SAP for the board areas Technology & Innovation, Intelligent Enterprise Group, Finance and HR where he is driving the respective people agenda and co-shapes the future of work. From 2015 to 2018, Dr. Schmeichel served as COO for HR at SAP where he was responsible for SAP’s own HR transformation to best support the company’s global and diverse workforce of 95,000 employees worldwide. Prior to that, Christian Schmeichel held various global and local management positions at SAP. Before joining SAP in 2005, Christian Schmeichel worked for several years as Strategy Consultant. He is an acknowledged expert when it comes to global HR transformation programs in the era of digitalization.  

Dr. Stephan Rohr is Co-founder and Managing Director of TWAICE. He holds a Ph.D. from Technical University of Munich in Mechanical Engineering. Additionally he gained experience during visiting scholar positions at UC Berkeley and Nanyang University in Singapore as well as in strategic management consulting at Strategy Engineers.

Fabian is the Co-Founder and one of the two Managing Directors at Fazua. Together with four of his early childhood friends he founded the company in 2013. They developed a lightweight and elegant eBike drive system which was far ahead of its time. With almost ten years’ experience as a controller at ADAC he was responsible for Fazua's finances from day one. He has managed to build strong partnerships with investors who were brave enough to invest more than € 10 M in an upfront hardware product Made-in-Germany. Today Fabian is leading a highly motivated team of 65 employees who proudly count companies like Focus, Bianchi, Pinarello, Cube or Look among their 28 customers.  

Although people and tech are often seen as rivals, Andreea is passionate about both, and envisions to empower people through the help of technology. With this in mind, she started her career with Augmented Reality at Metaio in 2013, and continued as a Product Manager for VR Trainings at Innoactive. Currently Andreea’s mission as Head of Marketing & Partnerships is to supply the VR ecosystem with software and competences aimed at scaling up the production, distribution and usage of VR in the Enterprise sector.

Dr. Ingo Potthof is Managing Director and Managing Partner of  Unternehmertum Venture Capital Partners. He has been working in the high-tech industry for more than 25 years. As a venture capitalist, he had the opportunity to work with entrepreneurs in Europe, Israel, the US as well as Asia. Themes and technologies are constantly changing, but success always requires enthusiastic, persistent founders and a strong vision. Ingo is convinced that startups are the driver of innovation, more than ever before, and he is excited to be able to contribute to this development as an investor.

PD Dr. med. Dominik Pförringer is an orthopedic and trauma surgeon at Klinikum rechts der Isar, Munich. He holds an MBA from INSEAD and several years of work experience as a management consultant in the healthcare sector. He teaches entrepreneurship to young doctors and medical students and fosters the Digital Healthcare ecosystem in Munich by recurring events such as “Digital Healthcare Entrepreneurship” as well as a yearly conference on digital advances in healthcare. Dominik mentors and coaches innovative healthcare teams and lectures frequently about his research and development in the field of digital healthcare innovation.

Julian Petrin is an urbanist researcher and consultant for strategic urban development as well as an expert for urban co-creation and crowdsourcing. In 1998 he founded the leading german urban planning practice urbanista, specialized in participatory urban design and research on urban futures. In 2009 he founded the internationally acclaimed citizen think tank Nexthamburg that introduced the concept of open innovation to urban development in germany. Julian Petrin held a position as visiting professor for urban management at the University of Kassel in Germany and is lecturer at the international doctoral college „Spatial Research Lab“ founded by the ETH Zurich. Among his advisory work, Julian Petrin is member of the German Academy of Urban Design and Planning and is part of the advisory board for the international building exhibition IBA Thüringen.

Tijen Onaran is an entrepreneur, presenter and speaker. With startup affairs, she advises companies in PR and public relations work as well as in building and maintaining communities. With her Global Digital Women initiative, she supports networking and visibility of women in the digital industry. Tijen Onaran also publishes regularly as a member of the Handelsblatt Expert Council. She was appointed to the Faculty Board for "Digital Leadership" at the Management School St. Gallen. Before becoming self-employed, Ms. Onaran worked for members of the European Parliament and the Bundestag, for the Office of the Federal President, as well as for associations and a university in leading positions. She was voted Germany's top 40 among 40 by Capital magazine.  

Bastian Nominacher is a pioneer in the field of process mining technology and innovative big data analysis methods. He is Co-CEO and co-founder of Celonis, the leading provider of process mining software. There he is responsible for the implementation of the global go-to-market strategy, the global partner ecosystems as well as finance & operations. Prior to founding Celonis in 2011, he worked for Ernst & Young, Accenture, IBM and United Domains, among others. Today he runs a company with 450 employees worldwide, which is one of the fastest growing technology companies in Germany. Since 2018 Celonis has been one of the so-called unicorns: companies valued at at least one billion dollars. LinkedIn has ranked Celonis second among the most popular start-ups in Germany.

 

Daniel Metzler is Co-Founder and CEO of Isar Aerospace, a Munich based company developing orbital space launch vehicles. Having brought former SpaceX executives on board as investors Daniel aims to lower the barriers for commercial space access. He previously led a team of 40 students at the rocketry group WARR developing sounding rockets. Next to his studies in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering he also developed multiple web services.

Mario is Founder of Moovster a new Mobility-as-a-Service platform solution for Employers, Employees, Citizens and Smart Cities that wants to change mobility in big cities for the better. Moovster’s core element is a smart Mobility Budget solution which makes everyday's mobility more flexible, saves the user money and rewards sustainable and healthy mobility behaviour. Mario worked 15 years for BMW in different management positions. Most recently he was responsible for Digital Business Model Innovations. During his time being Head of Technology Foresight he got deep insights into new technology driven trends around the globe.  Marios vision are cities with less cars and a better quality of life.

Sylvia Lier is a mobility expert. She knows the car market as well as the sharing scene or public transport. The business economist has held numerous management positions in general management at LeasePlan Germany and Deutsche Bahn. Her mission: She wants to make it possible for people to do without the possession of a personally owned vehicle

Artem is the CEO and Co-Founder of KEWAZO. Together with his team, they automate on-site construction logistics through robotics and data analytics. Artem holds a master’s degree in Advanced Construction and Building Technology from the TU Munich. During his studies, he has received a holistic overview of past projects and ground principles of robotics in construction. Before Germany, Artem did his engineer's degree in Civil Engineering (5 years program) in Russia and worked as an operational manager in the logistics industry in the USA.

Christian Klein is Chief Operating Officer and a Member of the Executive Board of SAP SE. Leading the Intelligent Enterprise Group, Klein combines his global responsibility for the development and delivery of SAP’s core applications with his cross-board area mandate for SAP’s global business operations. Klein’s Intelligent Enterprise Group drives SAP’s digital core development functions and product management, including SAP’s flagship product SAP S/4 HANA and SAP Digital Supply Chain, and manages SAP’s rich industry-specific portfolio. Klein’s organization is also responsible for making SAP an intelligent enterprise by focusing on business process simplification, global IT and cloud infrastructure, product and services quality, portfolio and investment strategy, intelligent data and analytics, and value achievement through digital innovation adoption to the benefit of both customers and employees.

Giorgi studied Technology and Management at the Technical University of Munich. During this time, he worked for Allianz before he got in touch with the UnternehmerTUM programs for talents. In 2017  he co-founded Solos Mirrors, which is aimed at trainers, therapists and doctors, among others. Solos Mirror offers the recognition of the execution of a training exercise by sensors in the mirror.

From 2013 to 2017, Stephan Holzinger was a member of the Supervisory Board of RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG. Holzinger resigned from the Supervisory Board when he took over as Chief Executive and Chief Financial Officer in February 2017. At RHÖN-KLINIKUM, Stephan is responsible for Digital Transformation, Compliance, Internal Audit Communications, Investor Relations, Finance, Treasury and Controlling, as well as for business development. He also serves as the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Germany‘s third-largest university clinic, UK Gießen-Marburg. Additionally, he is the Chief Executive Officer of Foundation Münch, a non-profit organization which is focused on reforming the health care system.  

The experienced university manager has held the position of Senior Vice President Research and Innovation at TUM since 2009. He made a significant contribution to TUM’s success in the Excellence Initiative, especially in developing the internationally acclaimed “TUM Faculty Tenure Track” recruitment and career system. Under his guidance, TUM also became Germany’s top university for the establishment of start-ups. The holder of the Chair of Food Chemistry and Molecular Sensory Science has received multiple awards for his research and teaching. On October 1, 2019, Hofmann will take over from Prof. Wolfgang A. Herrmann, whose far-reaching reforms in his 23-year tenure saw TUM rise to international top level. The vote on October 17th, 2018 by the Board of Trustees elected Prof. Thomas Hofmann to the six-year presidential term starting October 1, 2019. TUM’s Board of Trustees is made up of ten elected members of the Senate and ten external members from the worlds of science, business and politics.

Martina Hildebrandt represents the City of Munich in the Public-Private-Partnership that is the Munich Urban Colab, Munich’s new centre for innovation and business creation for smart city solutions. This joint venture between the City of Munich and UnternehmerTUM is a unique place for start-ups, corporate innovators, scientists and creatives from the most diverse sectors and disciplines to work together on intelligent technologies and services for the city of the future. As a qualified economist Martina has many years of experience working with innovation and entrepreneurship in different branches of the public sector.

Kirstin Hegner heads the activities of Digital Hub Mobility at UnternehmerTUM. The qualified economist started her career at Bain & Company, a leading strategy and management consulting firm and then held various management positions at Daimler AG. For several years, she was a member of the supervisory board of automotive supplier SHW AG. Her passion is to bring politics, corporates and start-ups together to implement sustainable mobility solutions.

Pär Hedberg is CEO and founder of Stockholm Innovation & Growth, Sting 2002. He is developing new technology companies since 1999 and has experience of supporting 250+ startups. He acts as a Initiator and developer of several components of the Stockholm startup eco system such as Sting, Sting Business Angels network, the VC fund Sting Capital, the startup hubs SUP46, THINGS and H2, the angel fund Propel Capital, the VC fund Luminar Ventures and Ignite Sweden, the matchmaking organization for corporates and startups.

Benjamin co-founded Alasco to reduce costs and timing of construction projects. He was the CEO and co-founder of Stylight (acquired by Pro7Sat1) and is currently board member at Personio.

Andrea Griva is Vice Chairman of SEI, the new School of Entrepreneurship and Innovation based in Turin (Italy) which helps young talents to turn their business ideas into reality. Born in 1971, he studied communications in France (Lyon and Paris) and in Italy (Turin). A professional journalist, he started his career in communications at Fiat Group and then at EXOR, as the Head of Communications of the diversified holding company controlled by the Agnelli Family. In 2017 was appointed Head of Innovation projects of the Agnelli Foundation, while continuing to support EXOR’s strategic communication.  

After long term professional experience in innovation management, the qualified engineer Manuel Götzendorfer proves himself as expert in design thinking and business design. He already founded a start-up in the beverage industry. As a doctoral candidate Manuel conducts his innovation and consulting projects with his scientific research.

Claudia is CEO of the Munich Urban Colab, the new innovation and business creation centre for smart city solutions by UnternehmerTUM and the City of Munich. Furthermore she is CFO for UnternehmerTUM and in Charge for Finance, HR and Administration. Her wealth of experience in Finance and HR stems from her activities with various businesses that operate in the international arena.

HighTechXL’s founder and CEO, Guus Frericks, is a founder and investor with a passion for risk, innovation and entrepreneurship. He brings 20 years of international business management and investment experience to the table. He started his career in 1995 as an industrial engineer at Royal Philips Electronics. At Philips, he rose quickly through management positions in manufacturing, assembly, marketing, and overall management.Ultimately, he was chosen for the crucial leadership role as senior vice president at Philips Semiconductors in Caen, France. Here, he was responsible for building the global Home Media Devices business line with offices in China, India, the U.S., and Europe. Guus was part of the Philips leadership team that founded NXP Semiconductors, which ultimately went public via a leveraged buyout by KKR.In 2007 he was appointed President and CEO at Moversa GmbH in Vienna, Austria, a joint Sony/NXP venture that developed contactless technology for mobile payments, used by Apple Pay and Google Wallet.Prior to founding HighTechXL, Guus (co)founded, invested in and accelerated more than 50 startups across the globe. Guus holds a masters degree in business administration from Radboud University, in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, and an executive MBA from Ashridge Business School, Hertfordshire, U.K.

Irene Fialka is CEO of INiTS, Vienna’s high-tech incubator and one of the TOP10 University Business Incubators (UBI-global). She has worked with founders of innovative R&D-based startups since 2004. INiTS’ deeptech startups have proven to be extremely successful in raising funds and finding licensing or exit partners. Under her leadership, INiTS started to invest into its incubees and launched Start:IP, a program to match entrepreneurs with selected cutting-edge technologies, as well as Health Hub Vienna, an international acceleration program for health startups

Lisa is an engaging and motivated leader with a strong passion to create impact through innovation. She has over 20 years’ experience of working with innovation and entrepreneurship tied closely to the academic sphere. She has held a number of roles at KTH since 2002 and is today CEO of the investment company KTH Holding AB and founder and Head of KTH Innovation, the innovation support department. Lisa studied Business at Orebro University and at HES Amsterdam School of Business, and has taken complementary courses at MIT, Stockholm School of Economics and Cambridge University

Since early 2017 Stefan Drüssler supports UnternehmerTUM as Chief Operating Officer across all departments. Due to his time as a Strategy Consultant at The Boston Consulting Group Stefan Drüssler brings along a broad experience from a variety of sectors.

Jürgen Dittmar is an organizational psychologist, systemic management consultant and agile coach. Since 2011, his company „cocondi“ helps organizations introducing better, more agile structures. With the main focus on “Agile Leadership” Jürgen Dittmar mainly works with executives at different management levels and in different organizations, from various DAX organizations to Startups. His main concern is to help people seeing organizations as complex social systems and to develop them accordingly in an agile way. Prior to his self-employment, Jürgen Dittmar himself used to be a manager and senior executive for ten years as he was working in various IT-departments of an international telecommunications corporation. His career began in 1990 as a software developer of Geographic Information Systems.