Georg Fahrenschon, Bayer. Staatsminister der Finanzen

Georg Fahrenschon is born in 1968. He is married and has two kids. Since 2008 Georg Fahrenschon is Bavarian Minister of Finance and has the chair of the CSU-Economic Commission

Dr. Erich Joachimsthaler, Vivaldi Partners

Dr. Erich Joachimsthaler is the CEO and Founder of Vivaldi Partners and an internationally recognized authority on strategy, marketing and branding. He is actively involved in many of the client relationships at Vivaldi Partners and has served major client engagements for the last 15 years. During the course of the last 20 years, Dr. Joachimsthaler has held various faculty positions and speaker engagements at international conferences. In his career, Erich has published numerous articles and his book Brand Leadership, co-authored with David Aaker has been translated into seven languages. His latest book ‘Hidden in Plain Sight’ has recently been awarded with the Berry price “Best Marketing Book 2008” by the American Marketing Association.

Eric Liedtke, Adidas AG

Eric Liedtke is Head of Global Brand Marketing, Adidas, since 2006.

Dr. Alexander Urban, Audi AG

Dr. Alexander Urban is responsible for market and customer strategies at Audi AG. He was earlier leading the business unit Customer Relationship Management and Online Marketing for 5 years. His automotive career started in 1998 at BMW Group`s central marketing. Alexander Urban studied at the University of Regensburg and at the Université de Bordeaux from 1989 to 1994 and completed.

Michael Kuhn, Daimler AG

Michael Kuhn, Senior Manager of Business Innovation (BI) at Daimler AG, Stuttgart/Germany. The Business Innovation Team is exploring new business models. Michael Kuhn is, among others, responsible for the Business Innovation Community, a web 2.0 platform for new business ideas in the Daimler Intranet. Before joining BI he held various positions within Daimler´s Corporate Communications Unit. There he was responsible for Strategy, Controlling, News & Issues Management.

Bernd Blumoser, Siemens AG

Bernd Blumoser is project manager for the Siemens Open Innovation program, responsible for conceptualization and implementation of different open innovation approaches like idea contests or innovation jams. After studying International Cultural and Business Studies in Passau and Barcelona, he was consultant at Siemens Management Consulting (SMC)

Dr. Birgit Rieder, Swarovski

Birgit Rieder is Head of Gem Creative for the Synthetic and Gemstone Business of Daniel Swarovski Corporation / Signity Co., has worked for the Swarovski Group for the past dozen years. Later she became Manager for Special Marketing Projects and Head of Gem Creative, the trend and design department of Swarovski’s Synthetic and Gemstone Business. It was in the context of her most recent position that Birgit initiated the Signity fine jewellery trends forecasting service, Gem Visions. During the past five years that Birgit has managed this pioneering initiative, Gem Visions has grown to be a widely acclaimed and highly valued design and marketing tool for the jewellery industry.

Alexander Artopé, smava GmbH

Alexander Artropé is the founder and leader of smava GmbH, the online marketplace for peope-to-people loans, responsible for marketing, finances and strategy. Already while studying business science and journalism at the LMU in Munich, Artopé was working within Corporate Finance for Time Warner International in the US. After his master degree he started working as Managing Editor at the European Communication Council (ECC). Under the lead of Prof. Dr. dres. h.c. Picot, the committee published the European Council Report „Die Internet-Ökonomie – Strategien für die digitale Wirtschaft“. From 1999 to 1005, Artopé engaged himself as founder and CEO at detango AG, a software provider and market leader in e-learning technology.

Jörg Ihlau, Serviceplan PUBLIC OPINION GmbH & Co. KG

Jörg Ihlau is Managing Director of Serviceplan PUBLIC OPINION, Berlin.

Helen Parker, O2 It’s your community

Helen Parker became O2’s Community Manager in August 2006 having spent four years working the Communications Team at O2 in internal and external communications roles. She directs all of O2’s community investment activity in the UK and leads the O2 It’s Your Community programme which gives out £1 million a year in cash awards of up to £1,000 to individuals and groups who have great ideas on how to connect their communities. In her time at O2, Helen successfully helped establish the O2 Brand within the UK media in her role as consumer PR manager. Her position saw her work on a number of award winning campaigns and sponsorships including, Arsenal and England Rugby, O2 Wireless Festival, fashion brand Temperley and the launch of technologies such as 3G and i-mode. Helen is an experienced internal communications professional, leading organisational change communications and managing large scale events. Prior to joining O2 Helen worked for a number of major blue chip brands including Marks & Spencer and Scottish Power. She also spent time in the public sector, working in the press team at Surrey Police and has run her own PR enterprise in the North of England.

Michael Schmidt, HYVE AG

Michael Schmidt has been CEO of HYVE since the company’s’ foundation in 2000. He graduated as an Industrial Designer at the University of Applied Sciences Munich in 1997 and worked as a self-employed product designer for several years, e.g. for companies such as Porsche, BMW, AVIA and Premiere. In 1992, he passed the trade test as me-chanical engineer which forms the base for his expertise in the field of manufacturing processes and construction. Between 1986 and 1989, he received his high-school-graduation in the U.S. and also spent one term at the Cleveland Institute of Art in Ohio during his studies.

Dolf Wittkamper, MetaClue

Dolf Wittkamper is principal and owner of MetaClue. Currently working on several new business and non-profit initiatives which have in common the use of new technologies, the social immersive internet, advancement thru the social space, transformation into futures, co-creation and lifelong education. Until recently Dolf was Senior Director at Philips Design responsible for the Research and Development for “Design for Immersive Virtual Experience”. Prior to this Dolf was Global Design Account Director responsible at Philips Design for the Philips divisions Medical Systems, Semiconductors, Components and several other Philips and non-Philips accounts.

Ralf Hirt, Glam Media GmbH

Ralf Hirt is CEO of the Glam Media GmbH Germany, located in Munich. He is also CEO of Glam Media Japan and Vice President of Glam Media Inc., the international corporation of Glam Media. The born German is settled in the US and earlier fulfilled different management tasks at the online advertising specialist DoubleClick, e.g. as Vice President of Operations and strategic partnerships and as CEO of the Asia-Pacific region, based in New York, Hong Kong, Sydney and London. Ralf Hirt was also member of the board at the ADMA, the Asian Digital Marketing Association and of DoubleClick Japan in Tokyo. Working with online-publishers, brands and agencies in Asia, Europe and the US, Ralf Hirt gained a lot of international experiences. The impressions from his travels are integrated into his works as a co-author of the book “Infrastructure & Productivity in Asia” (Palgrave Press) and as author of “8W8 – Global Space Tribes” and www.8W8.com. This is a postmodern, fictitious perspective on internet and globalization, a category bestseller at Amazon.

Michael Ostertag-Henning & Lennart Wiechell

Michael Ostertag-Henning and Lennart Wiechell are the architects of the German Pavillons for the EXPO 2010 in Shanghai.

Prof. Dr. Christian Blümelhuber, Universität Brüssel

Prof. Dr. Christian Blümelhuber is widely recognized as one of the leading scouts in the marketing and strategy jungle. A soughtafter consultant, he is much appreciated in international business circles for his capacity to explain theoretical concepts in an accessible and highly entertaining – sometimes even provocative – manner. This charismatic lecturer has professorship at InBev-Baillet Latour Chair in Euromarketing and in Marketing at the Solvay Business School; also guest professorships at a number of other education establishments. He is also Ass. Director of the Center on Global Brand Leadership, Columbia University (New York), Yonsei University (Seoul), and Esade (Madrid). The mission of the Center is to bring together global brand leaders, business schools and brand consultancies in order to stimulate new research and foster new dialogue on branding and innovation.