Dr. Kathrin DiPaola looks back at an impressive record of academic and industry endeavors and has worked for stellar institutions and companies in Europe and the U.S. She received a PhD from the University of Maryland and a Master’s Degree from Arizona State University. Until 2010, she held appointments as Assistant Professor and was the youngest and first female Director of Deutsches Haus at New York University. In 2012, she left academia to pursue a career in mobility consulting, where she was responsible for the intersection between products/technologies in social and cultural processes. Clients included OEMs, city governments, suppliers, urban planners, and more.
In October 2018, she joined Business Sweden, the Swedish Trade and Invest Council, and took on an assignment as Senior Investment Advisor, helping German companies in different sectors to grow and partner with the Swedish innovation ecosystem. Until February 2021, Dr. DiPaola held the position of Managing Director Germany for the Swedish tech scale-up TechBuddy, with market presence in Sweden, Spain, Israel and Germany. Since March 2021, she is back in New York, where she heads all programs for the German Center for Research and Innovation.

Julius Streifeneder is an expert in the field of urban mobility and sustainable architecture with 8 years of experience in strategy and design consulting and 12 years of planning expertise. He works with corporations, OEMs, municipalities and urban planners on strategy, concept design, economic and regulatory feasibility to the design of operator and business models in the growing field of urban mobility and prop-tech. Over the years his approach shifted from building design to designing towards achieving operational goals within the built environment. As an architect, he has worked for Foster and Partners, Make Architects and Studio Fuksas and was part of the design and execution of large scale office, retail and education projects in Europe and the US. He holds a specialized postgraduate degree with a focus on energy efficient design, innovative building services and technology integration. As an expert on integrated, human-centered systemic design he is regularly involved in teaching activities and as guest speaker at symposia.