Dr. Volker Wissing

Dr Volker Wissing was born in Landau, Germany in 1970. Appointed a double Minister, he is both the German Federal Minister for Digital and Transport as well as the Federal Minister of Justice. From 2016 to 2021, he was a member of the state parliament, Deputy Minister-President and Minister for Economic Affairs, Transport, Agriculture and Viticulture of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. He is a Member of the German Bundestag from 2004 to 2013 and again since 2021. He chaired the Finance Committee there from 2009 to 2011. From 1997 to 1999 he worked as a judge and public prosecutor, from 2000 to 2004 as deputy chief of staff to the Minister of Justice of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate. He was appointed a judge at Landau Regional Court in 2001 and was a practising lawyer from 2013 to 2016.

Gerd Chrzanowski

For more than 20 years, Gerd Chrzanowski has held various positions of responsibility in companies of Schwarz Group, which consists of the discount grocery store Lidl, the retail company Kaufland, several production companies, and the waste and recycling service provider PreZero. Until he assumed the role of General Partner in December 2021, he was Chief Executive Officer of Lidl Stiftung & Co. KG. The native Offenburger was largely responsible for establishing the waste and recycling business unit and for accelerating the digitalization process within the companies of Schwarz Group. Chrzanowski has a degree in business administration and a Bachelor of Arts in business management from Manchester Metropolitan University. Before his studies, he completed an apprenticeship as a car salesman.

Dr. Bruno Kahl

Dr. Bruno Kahl, born 1962, has been President of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Germany since 2016. After his second state examination in law he became consultant in the German Chancellery in 1995, and in the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in 1996. In 2005, he became head of the minister’s office at the Federal Ministry of the Interior for Dr. Wolfgang Schäuble, and head of the executive group in 2006. He switched to the same position at the Federal Ministry of Finance in 2009, where he became head of Division in charge of federal real estate in 2010.

Dr. Gerhard Schabhüser

Dr Gerhard Schabhüser took office as Vice President of the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) on January 1, 2017.

He was born in Warendorf in 1961. After graduating from high school, he studied mathematics at the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster. From 1987 to 1990, he completed his doctorate at the University of Münster and the Open University of Hagen.

In 1991 Dr Schabhüser joined the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI). Initially, he focused on the development and evaluation of cryptographic procedures and later became head of the "Cryptography and Scientific Foundations" department.

From 2005 to 2016 he served as head of the department which was responsible for the topics "cryptography", "scientific coordination" and "technical classified information security".

Chris S. Robbins

Special Agent Chris Robbins is an Assistant Legal Attaché responsible for FBI Cyber matters in Germany. Prior to arriving in Germany, he led the FBI Cyber Division's Advanced Digital Forensics Program. He has been with the FBI since 2005 investigating cyber threats, including nation states, cyber crime, and ransomware. He is an expert in Digital Forensics and Incident Response (DFIR) and is a member of the FBI's Cyber Action Team (CAT), a highly trained rapid response team of FBI agents, analysts, and computer forensics and malicious code experts who respond to cyber intrusions.

Prof. Dr. h.c. Wolfgang Ischinger

Prof. Dr. h.c. Wolfgang Ischinger is the President of the Munich Security Conference Foundation Council. He served as Chairman of the Munich Security Conference (MSC) from 2008 to 2022. A German career diplomat, he was State Secretary (Deputy Foreign Minister) from 1998 to 2001. From 2001 to 2006, he was the Federal Republic of Germany's Ambassador to the U.S., and from 2006 to 2008, to the Court of St James’s. Professor Ischinger is a senior Fellow at the Hertie School, Berlin, and serves on the boards and advisory boards of companies as well as non-profit-institutions, including Atlantik-Brücke/Berlin, the American Academy/Berlin, and the Atlantic Council of the United States/Washington D.C.

Dr. Markus Richter

Dr Markus Richter was born in Münster, Westphalia in 1976. He has two children. After graduating from law studies at the Westfälische Wilhelms-University in Münster, he earned a doctorate in law and completed his practical legal training at the Regional Court in Hamm, followed by the second state examination in law one year later. Starting in 2005, Dr Markus Richter held several positions at the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, with assignments in human resources, organisation, the office of the President and areas including integration and migration policy issues. In 2014 he became head of IT units at the Federal Office of Administration. He returned to the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees as head of the Infrastructure and IT Directorate in 2015 and became Vice-President of the agency in 2018. On 1 May 2020 Dr Markus Richter was appointed State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community and Federal Government Commissioner for Information Technology.

Prof. Dr. Joachim Wuermeling

Prof Dr Joachim Wuermeling has been a member of the Deutsche Bundesbank’s Executive Board since November 2016. His remit covers banking supervision, controlling, accounting and organisation as well as information technology and risk control. He is a member of the ECB Supervisory Board and represents Deutsche Bundesbank in the Basel Committee for Banking Supervision (BCBS) as well as the German Financial Stability Committee (AFS).
His previous positions include serving as Member of the European Parliament, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Technology, member of the Executive Board of the German Insurance Association, and Chairman of the Association of Sparda-Banken.

Tamir Pardo

From 2011 to 2016, Tamir Pardo served as the Director of the Mossad, the National Intelligence Agency of Israel and one of the main entities in the Israeli Intelligence Community. He joined the organization in 1979 and served through all levels of command before assuming overall leadership in 2011. Mr. Pardo is one of the most respected public figures in Israel and around the world. He is also a Lamont Lecturer at Harvard University.

Andreas Stenger

Andreas Stenger is a graduate of the German Police University. He has been president of the Baden-Württemberg State Bureau of Investigation since May 2021 and is one of the most experienced criminologists in the country. Previously, he was not only President of the Mannheim Police Headquarters, but also Head of the Forensic Institute at the State Bureau of Investigation as well as an advisor at the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Interior.

Jens Meier

Jens Meier (56), a computer scientist graduate, has been CEO of the Hamburg Port Authority (HPA) since 2008. With over 25 years of experience in the port, logistics, finance and IT sectors, he is a proven expert and renowned speaker on future maritime issues and in the field of digitalization and cyber security. In the International Association of Ports and Harbours (IAPH), Jens Meier has been the elected Vice President for the European region since 2019 and has also been temporarily responsible for the African region since the end of 2021.

Christian Müller

Christian Müller is Co-CEO of Schwarz Digits, the IT and digital division of Schwarz Group. Schwarz Digits offers digital products and services relating to cyber security, cloud, artificial intelligence and secure communication that meet the high German data protection standards - for the greatest possible digital sovereignty. In addition, Christian Müller has been responsible for the business of Schwarz IT KG since January 1, 2018 - first as a divisional director, then as a board member and since July 1, 2021 as CEO. As a service provider, it manages the entire digital infrastructure and software solutions of Schwarz Group companies and provides support for their IT projects. Since joining Schwarz Group on January 1, 2004, Christian Müller has held various positions of responsibility. He started his career at Lidl Stiftung & Co. KG in the IT department.

Rolf Schumann

Rolf Schumann is Co-CEO of Schwarz Digits, the IT und digital division of the Schwarz Group. Schwarz Digits offers digital products and services relating to cyber security, cloud and artificial intelligence that meet the high German data protection standards - for the greatest possible digital sovereignty. In addition, Rolf Schumann is responsible for the digital activities of the companies of Schwarz Group with a focus on e-commerce, loyalty, retail media and digital innovations. With over 30 years of experience in the strategic planning of IT projects and digital transformation, he is constantly driving technology and innovation-related topics across all industries. Before joining the Schwarz Group, Rolf Schumann was in charge at SAP as General Manager worldwide for the Platform & Innovation division. From 2008 to 2012, Rolf Schumann dedicated himself to the topic of clean tech and founded the start-up company Better Place, with a focus on electromobility. Prior to that, he was CTO for Europe at SAP. Before joining SAP in 2000, Mr. Schumann spent nine years at Siemens, where he was responsible for data center operations in Europe and the planning of Internet architecture.

Noam Erez

Before co-founding XM Cyber, Noam Erez spent over 25 years with the Israeli Technology Community. Mr. Erez brings extensive managerial experience, leading technological divisions, where he planned and executed a growth strategy for cyber capabilities.

Prof. Dr. Haya Shulman

Prof. Dr. Haya Shulman is a full professor for Computer Science at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, and the director of the Cybersecurity Analytics and Defenses department at the Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology SIT in Darmstadt. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the National Research Center for Applied Cybersecurity ATHENE.

Jana Ringwald

Jana Ringwald is a Senior Public Prosecutor with the Cybercrime Center (ZIT) of the Attorney General’s Frankfurt am Main/Germany, heading the Cybercrime investigations division and the Central office for the recovery of virtual currencies. Jana Ringwald and her team investigate with the German Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt) and various state agencies in the international context. Jana Ringwald currently represents the German federal government in the European Judicial Cybercrime Network (EJCN) at Eurojust in The Hague.

Ralf Michelfelder

Ralf Michelfelder is a graduate of the German Police University and the FBI National Executive Institute. He ran positions as deputy State Director of Criminal Investigation at the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Interior, Head of the Waiblingen Police Department, President of the Aalen Police Headquarters and President of the Baden-Württemberg State Bureau of Investigation until April 2021. There he expanded the cybercrime department into one of the leading investigative authorities in Germany.

Ammar Alkassar

Ammar Alkassar served as State Government Commissioner for Innovation and Strategy and CIO until May 2022. He was responsible for the governments long-term strategy and was the main driver of its economic transformation.
Previously, Alkassar was founder and CEO of Sirrix AG security technologies before being appointed CEO at Germany's largest cybersecurity company Rohde&Schwarz Cybersecurity in 2015 after a successful exit.
Alkassar studied computer science and electrical engineering at Saarland University and was senior researcher at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence and the Stevens Institute of Technology. He was long-time board member of the German National NIS Association and director of the European Competence Center for IT Security. Ammar Alkassar serves as active reserve officer.

Roland Harings

Roland Harings studied mechanical engineering at RWTH Aachen. After earning his engineering degree in 1989, he began his career at Webasto AG in Stockdorf, Germany, an international supplier of the automotive industry. After different responsibilities and international assignments in quality, development, and key account management at Webasto, he switched to Alcan, an aluminum producer and processor, in 1995. He initially managed the sales and purchasing department of the engine components division in Nuremberg and, starting in 1998, was responsible for developing the automotive division in the aluminum strip sector. Following the merger of Alcan with Alusuisse in 2002, Mr. Harings oversaw automotive sales for Alcan in Europe. From 2005 to 2010, he served as General Manager of the integrated aluminum rolling mill of Novelis in Sierre, Switzerland. As Vice President, Mr. Harings managed Novelis’ global automotive business from 2010 to 2014. Prior to his appointment to the Aurubis Executive Board, Mr. Harings was CEO/Managing Director of MKM GmbH, a manufacturer of 280,000 tons of copper semi-finished products with about 1,200 employees in Hettstedt, SaxonyAnhalt (Germany). The company was extensively modernized in this period and was successfully sold to KME in 2018. Mr. Harings was appointed to the Executive Board of Aurubis AG effective May 20, 2019 and has served as Executive Board Chairman since July 1, 2019.

Michael Bartsch

Michael Bartsch is a crisis manager, consultant and trainer for cyber security. For many years, he has advised states and companies in the areas of risk prevention and the implementation of technical and organisational (cyber) security measures during and after a cyber attack. As the founder of two public-private partnerships to fight cybercrime, he has a deep insight and knowledge of the "modus operandi" of cybercriminals.

Heiko Weigelt

Heiko Weigelt was born in Bruchsal in 1973, is married and father of a daughter. After graduating with a master of science degree in mechatronics, before FUNKE he pursued a career as a consultant and project manager with a focus on SAP business systems, culminating in the position of Vice President IT Business Systems and Enterprise Architect at the international scientific publishing group Springer Nature. Since July 2019, as CIO he is responsible for IT at FUNKE Mediengruppe and is pushing the technology-driven digital transformation of the media group forward.

Walter Wolf

Walter Wolf is a board member at Schwarz IT KG and with STACKIT, the Cloud and Colocation Brand supports the digital transformation in the companies of Schwarz Group. The aim of STACKIT is to also offer companies outside the Schwarz Group a secure and stable cloud and colocation platform. For many years, before the foundation of Schwarz IT, Walter Wolf was responsible for the infrastructure and IT operations of Kaufland. Previous to that, Walter Wolf worked for Unilever as the European Infrastructure Integration Manager, and was responsible for infrastructure and IT operations at Bestfoods, supporting the CPC (Corn Product Company) team as a network engineer.