About Us

Our Mission • Our Team • Our History

Our Mission

Provide a platform for exchange between the leaders of today and tomorrow

Meet the Team

  • Cara Speer

    Co-President

  • Emmanouil Agiakatsikas

    Co-President

  • Vivian Kafadar

    Head of External Relations

  • Jan Möller

    Head of Moderations

  • Maximilian Marquart

    Head of Marketing

  • Laurenz Utzel

    Head of Operations

  • Christian Hess

    Co-Head of Internal

  • Stephan Wurbs

    Co-Head of Internal

  • Denys Kolomyychuk

    Chief Financial Officer

Our History

The TUM Speakers Series began in 1999, founded by then-students Alexander Selzle, Clemens Berger and Dr. Jörg Siebert as part of the TUM Business Club e.V., which was founded by Prof. Dr. Helmut Schönenberger. He later co-founded UnternehmerTUM and remains an advisor to the TUM Speakers Series until today.

From the start, it attracted top speakers like Volkswagen CEO Dr. Bernd Pischetsrieder and entrepreneur Roland Berger. Over the years, it welcomed global leaders, including German President Roman Herzog and former UK Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair.

Since its relaunch in 2014, the series has expanded, partnering with the Munich Security Conference (MSC) and Digital Lifestyle Design Conference (DLD) to bring international voices to Munich. Today, run entirely by volunteer students, it has grown into Southern Germany’s largest student-led event series, drawing wide audiences of students and professionals alike as well as media attention. Since then it has welcomed more leaders and shapers, including UN Secretary Generals Ban Ki-moon and Kofi Annan as well as innovators Bill Gates and Sam Altman.

Prof. Dr. Thomas F. Hofmann
Born in 1968, Prof. Dr. Thomas F. Hofmann studied food chemistry at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and received his doctorate (1995) and habilitation (1998) at the Technical University of Munich. In 1998 he was appointed Deputy Director of the German Research Institute for Food Chemistry, a member of the Leibniz Association. Prof. Hofmann followed a call from the University of Münster as Professor and Director of the Institute of Food Chemistry (2002) and returned to TUM in 2007 as Full Professor of the newly founded Chair of Food Chemistry and Molecular Sensor Technology. From 2009 to 2019, he was Vice President for Research and Innovation, and since 2019 he has been President of TUM.

The Patron