Keynote Speaker

Prof. Dr. Andres Pinkwart

Minister for Economic Affairs, Digitization, Innovation and Energy, North Rhine-Westphalia

Minister Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart is a German politician and academic who currently serves as State Minister for Economic Affairs, Digitization, Innovation and Energy in the government of North Rhine-Westphalia

Professor Pinkwart studied macroeconomics and business economics at the University of Münster and the University of Bonn from where he obtained his doctoral degree in 1991. Subsequently Professor Pinkwart ran the office of the FDP's (Free Democratic Party) leader of the parliamentary group in the German Bundestag from 1991 to 1994. Professor Pinkwart was a Member of the German Bundestag (2002 - 2005) and Minister for Innovation, Science, Research and Technology as well as Deputy Prime Minister of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (2005 - 2010). In 2011 Professor Pinkwart has been appointed as Dean of HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management and now holds the Stiftungsfonds Deutsche Bank Chair for Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship. In 2017 he became Minister of Economic Affairs, Innovation, Digitalization and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia