Managing Director

After studying economics in Hanover, specialising in environmental economics, systems management, human resources management and strategic marketing, and graduating in 1998 with a Master degree in economics, he began his professional career as a project manager at target GmbH, a company for the management of EU-funded projects and vocational training based in Hanover. With grants from the European Commission and the Hannover Region, he managed his marketing campaign "Solar energy is coming!" for two years, which he conceived while still a student, to spread solar energy in the Hannover Region. To this end, he networked numerous actors from the solar industry, the heating and electrical system installers, local administration, finance and from consumer advice. He also coached SHK and electrical system installers in the sale of solar systems at seminars in northern Germany and advised for the EU Commission's Directorate-General for Energy a campaign to raise awareness of renewable energy solutions at the European level.

In 2000, he moved to Berlin and founded his own consulting company, eclareon, with the mission of supporting German federal ministries and small and medium-sized German companies from the energy sector in the international expansion of energy efficiency and renewable energies. In the course of this, he has been working as a consultant for the Federal Government since 2005 within the framework of its foreign trade programmes "Solutions made in Germany”. In the course of this advisory work, he conceived and initiated the conference format "Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue" in 2015 with the German Federal Government, the German Renewable Energy Federation (BEE) and the German Solar Industry Association (BSW-Solar). The event, which has since been held annually in spring, has become the world's leading event for governments to exchange views on the global issues of the energy transition.

In 2017, he founded his second company, the non-profit ideas into energy. He has been the institute's managing director since its founding.

He also holds honorary positions in several sector associations: Since 2008, he has been Chairman for for International Affairs at the BSW-Solar. He has been a member of the executive committee of the Berlin-Brandenburg Energy Network since 2012 and became President in 2022. Since 2019, he is chairing a Working Group on Agriculture & Irrigation at German Water Partnership, and since autumn 2021 he has been elected to the board of German RETech Partnership.