Walther Pelzer has been a Member of the DLR Executive Board since 1 January 2018. He is Director-General of the German Space Agency at DLR, based in Bonn. Acting on behalf of the German Federal Government, the German Space Agency at DLR is responsible for the planning and implementation of the German space program at the national, European, and international levels.
Born in 1967, Walther Pelzer studied mechanical engineering at RWTH Aachen University and went on to complete a doctorate at the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology. From 1999 to 2007, Walther Pelzer took on various Leadership roles at national and international level (Degussa, FERRO, etc.). From 2007-2017, he took on a leading position in the Department of Research and Technology at the Ministry for Innovation, Science and Research of the State of North-Rhine Westphalia.
Walther Pelzer has held a variety of guest lectures and seminars at universities focusing on the issues of balanced scorecards, technology management, innovations based on technology platforms and working with subsidiaries in the USA.