New advisory board with industry experts at LRZ
The LRZ Board of Directors and its Council of Experts, from the left: Prof. Hans-Joachim Bungartz (TUM), Prof. Markus Schwaiger, Präsident BADW, Prof. Dieter Kranzlmüller (LMU/LRZ), Dr. Wieland Holfelder, Google, Wolf I. Faecks, WIF-Ventures, Prof. Thomas Seidl (LMU), Prof. Martin Schulz (TUM) sowie Prof. Helmut Reiser (LMU/LRZ). Foto: LRZ
The Leibniz Supercomputing Centre is inviting three renowned experts from the IT industry to join its new Industry Advisory Board in order to better assess the economic prospects of technological developments and adapt its services for cooperation with industry.
On the recommendation of its Scientific Advisory Board, the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ) has appointed a group of experts from the business world: In future, the LRZ Board of Directors will regularly convene with Wolf I. Faecks, founder of WIF-Ventures and advisor, with Dr Wieland Holfelder, Vice President Engineering and Technology Director of Google's Munich Engineering Centre, and with Stefan Wagner, Managing Director of SAP Labs in Munich, to discuss future developments. "The transfer from science to industry is becoming increasingly important, and the world of AI brings new users and new requirements to LRZ. One response to these developments is the Industry Advisory Board," says Prof Dieter Kranzlmüller, Chairman of the Bord of Directors at LRZ, explaining this strategy. "With their perspective from industry, the experts can advise us on how we can further develop the organisation of the LRZ and position ourselves more clearly on issues relating to the digital transformation of science and research and their use in industry."
Sharing knowledges, networking and mutual support
The LRZ Board of Directors and the Industry Advisory Board will meet twice a year to discuss current technological challenges and organisational measures. The agenda will also include opportunities for cooperation, strategies for the training and further education of future IT and digital transformation specialists and, last but not least, the question of how research results can be used more efficiently for commercial purposes.
The three appointed experts not only bring knowledge and IT experience from different areas and positions, but are also very closely connected to companies, associations and initiatives:
• Wolf I. Faecks holds a degree in industrial engineering specialising in electrical engineering from TU Berlin and has just founded the consulting and investment company WIF-Ventures. He has been on the main board of the German IT industry association bitkom for over seven years, and is also on the advisory board of the Association of German Industrial Engineers and a certified supervisory board member of Tallence AG and Mobile Software AG. Most recently, he was a member of the Management Board of communications service provider Serviceplan SE, where he was responsible for developing the Group's technology and AI services. He previously used his IT and consulting expertise as CEO at Sapient (now Publicis Sapient) and on the management board of Capgemini. As a board member of the Global H2O organisation, he has been building drinking water wells in schools and underserved regions in Uganda for many years.
• Dr. Wieland Holfelder studied at the universities of Mannheim and Berkeley and holds a doctorate in computer science. After working at IBM, ICAST and in the research and technology department at Daimler, he is now the head of Google's Engineering Centre in Munich. Among other things, here arise services relating to the Chrome browser as well as services to privacy protection and IT security for online platforms. Holfelder is also involved in Acatech, the German Academy of Science and Engineering, the Deutsches Forschungszentrum für KI and the Münchner Kreis, an association that deals with the regulation of information technologies, tools and media.
• As Managing Director of SAP Labs Munich, Stefan Wagner is responsible for the strategic development of the site. His focus is on the development of innovative applications and services for key areas of the SAP portfolio, including Cloud ERP, Supply Chain Management, Customer Experience and the Business Technology Platform. He is also responsible for the strategy for SAP’s Munich site, including a new R&D campus in Garching, and strengthens cooperation with the Technical University of Munich and other innovation partners. During his studies (Bayreuth, INSEAD and Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and in international management positions, Wagner has dealt with leadership issues and the stimulation of innovation.
Trends in research and for computer-aided scientific computing
In addition to this new expert panel, the Scientific Advisory Board of LRZ has been supporting the Directorate since 2016: a total of 30 professors are delegated or elected by Munich and Bavarian universities and the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BAdW), suggest scientific projects or technical innovations or track current developments in computer-aided computing for research and teaching.