Partners & Advisors
Our partners and advisors are one of our most important resources. They always give their best to support us and our founders. With the help of some of Germany's leading entrepreneurs and innovators, we can open many doors for you - investors, politicians or industry leaders.
Advisory board
Jens Krück
After graduating from Johann-Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, Jens Krück worked for almost 10 years for various companies in the areas of marketing, sales and communication. Since 2009, he has been working for the Contact Point for Knowledge and Technology Transfer at Saarland University (KWT) - initially in the area of corporate cooperation. In 2015, he also took over tasks in the Career Center and in 2018 also for the area of business start-ups. Since 2019, he has been responsible for all KWT departments and also as (co-) managing director of WuT GmbH - a corporate subsidiary of Saarland University.
Jens Krück
Text über Jens
Dr. Florian Kirschenhofer
Dr. Kirschenhofer worked at the Max Planck Innovation GmbH as StartUp Manager since 2007.
He is responsible for the assessment of business ideas and the support of spin-off companies from the Max Planck Society. In addition to his role as StartUp Manager, he serves as Chairman of the Supervisory Board of GFKD (Gesellschaft für kommunale Digitalisierung AG) and is a member of the Advisory Board of Aircloak. He studied business administration at the University of Regensburg and completed the MBA program at Murray State University. Subsequently, he was involved in the founding of a biotech startup. After leaving the company, he worked in price controlling in the finance department of Ford Werke AG. From 2003 to 2006, he taught entrepreneurship and strategic management at ESC Toulouse as an assistant professor. After his return from France he worked as a consultant. In the fall of 2007, he obtained his doctorate from the University of Regensburg.
Board of trustees
Thomas Arend, Ph.D.
Product management on Facebook
CEO and co-founder at Savvy
"The IT incubator helps transform cutting-edge research into successful companies."
Dr. Thomas Arend was Airbnb's head of international product management before starting his own company in 2014. Prior to that, Thomas was Head of International Product Management at Twitter and led Mozilla's Mobile Effort as Chief Product Manager. Prior to that, he spent 5 years leading major initiatives at Google, launching "Google Translator Toolkit", a social-based translation tool that supports nearly 400 languages and dialects. He also changed the face of Google's homepage with the personalization of the background image. Previously, Thomas worked at IBM Research Center and SAP, where he developed SAP's mobile technology and served as a strategic advisor to the CEO and his executive team. At SAP, Thomas launched the world's first mobile business application for Tablet PC devices in 2001.
Thomas holds a master's degree in mathematics and computer science from the Technical University of Berlin (TU Berlin). In 2003, he earned his PhD in artificial intelligence and human-computer interaction. Currently, Thomas leads the product team driving Facebook's international growth.
Partner
