Prof. Volker Wittpahl

Prof. Dr. Volker Wittpahl

He studied electrical engineering in Germany and Singapore. He then gained industrial work experience in the Philips Group in the field of technology marketing and innovation management in the automotive supply market. Through an internal transfer to Philips Design in Eindhoven (NL), he became one of the responsible persons within the group's own interdisciplinary think tank.

He then worked as a freelance innovation manager for Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone R&D, ABB and many others in strategy and product development.

As an Affiliate Professor at Klaipeda University (KU) in Lithuania, Volker Wittpahl has been responsible for raising the awareness of first-year students in Cyber Security Literacy for several years and initiates German-Baltic projects for technology and knowledge transfer with the German-Baltic Chamber of Industry and Commerce.

Since January 2016, Prof. Dr. Wittpahl has been Managing Director of the Institute for Innovation and Technology (iit) at VDI/VDE Innovation und Technik GmbH in Berlin.

In his role, he supports public institutions such as state ministries and local authorities with strategic developments. For example, he developed a strategy for the use of artificial intelligence in companies in Brandenburg for the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy (MWAE) of the state of Brandenburg and supports various cities in the development and implementation of their Smart City strategies.

His tasks also include coordinating iit project activities with the division heads in order to identify and develop new topics in the area of conflict between business, science and society.

As part of the iit competence development GeoTechPolitics, his current focus is on the topics of Disinformation and Cyber Security. He benefits from a self-experiment on Digital Sovereignty that he has been conducting since 2018, during which he is regularly coached by the Chaos Computer Club (CCC). He publishes his findings on netzpolitik.org, among others.