Brussels Metropolitan Area
I am an executive leader at the science–industry–policy interface, with a focus on technology transfer, industrial partnerships and European innovation. At the German Aerospace Center (DLR), I currently serve as Head of Industry Relations, leading an organisation-wide mandate for technology transfer and industry-related innovation activities, with a direct reporting line to the Executive Board. My experience combines organisational leadership, governance, public-private innovation, EU funding, SMEs, startups and spinoffs, and European institutional engagement. I have led distributed teams across five locations and three continents, and previously served as Head of International Relations, reporting directly to the CEO. I spent seven years in Brussels representing DLR toward EU institutions and international stakeholders. My work focuses on connecting research excellence, industrial demand and policy priorities into partnerships, programmes and measurable innovation impact.
Lead DLR’s industry relations and technology-transfer activities at the interface of research, industry and public-sector innovation. Responsible for DLR's portfolio of technology transfer, industrial cooperation and innovation-related activities across the organisation. ● Direct reporting line to the Executive Board. ● Strategic steering of industry relations, technology transfer and innovation-related transfer activities. ● Leadership of staff across six locations. ● Development of industrial partnerships with companies, SMEs, startups and innovation ecosystem actors. ● Support for commercial use, transfer and market uptake of research results. ● Governance, stakeholder alignment and organisational capability-building across DLR.
Led DLR’s international relations function, reporting directly to the CEO. Responsible for strategic international engagement, institutional positioning and cooperation frameworks across science, technology, policy and diplomacy. ● Advised and supported the Executive Board, German Space Agency, DLR institutes and Project Management Agency on strategic international activities. ● Managed the International Relations department, including offices in Brussels, Paris, Tokyo and Washington D.C. ● Leadership of 35+ staff across five locations and three continents ● Coordinated seconded DLR staff in European and UN-related entities in Vienna and Bonn. ● Maintained senior relationships with governmental agencies, industry, research partners, academia and civil-society stakeholders. ● Contributed to DLR’s international strategy across space, aeronautics, energy, transport, security and digitalisation.
● Represented DLR’s transport research and innovation interests at European level. ● Maintained close liaison with the European Commission, European Parliament, national representations and international stakeholders. ● Contributed to European strategy processes, major initiatives, technology platforms and committees. ● Acted as key account interface toward the European Commission for research and innovation cooperation. ● Supported EU funding positioning, cooperation strategies and institutional reporting to CEO, Executive Board and Programme Director. ● Appointed expert reviewer for EU projects by the European Commission.
Comprehensive database management and migration, data synchronisation Realisation of ETL-Processes (Extraction, Transformation and Load) in the context of complex simulations Scientific analysis of simulator data with Machine Learning and KDD (Knowledge Discovery in Databases)
Planning and implementation of customer specific software solutions for SMEs Strong expertise in web technologies such as PHP, (X)HTML, XML, AJAX, Web Services and DMBS such as MySQL, Postgres und Oracle