Werner Vogels

Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Amazon

On January 15, 2026, the TUM Speakers Series, in partnership with Digital Life Design (DLD), welcomed Werner Vogels, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Vice President (VP) of Amazon, to the Audimax at TUM’s main campus for an insightful keynote and Q&A.

As our first event of 2026 we had the honour of listening to the thoughts and perspectives of one of Amazon’s top managers and one of their leading architects behind its cloud-computing branch Amazon Web Services (AWS).

In his keynote titled “Unmapped: No Data, No AI” he provided the audience with valuable perspectives and insights on the importance of data for AI. By diving into real-world examples, from humanitarian crises like the Haiti Earthquake (2010) to crucial environmental efforts like The Ocean Cleanup, he showed the audience how the correct use of data can not only save lives but maybe our planet as well. Another key take-away was the importance of sharing crucial data between different institutions in order to use them for good.

In the second part of our evening, our attendees had the chance to ask their questions, which Werner thoroughly answered in a Q&A session moderated by Cara Speer. A great way to end the event!

A sincere thank-you to Werner Vogels, Amazon, our partner DLD, Prof. Dr. Claudia Peus for her warm welcoming words and everyone who contributed to making this special evening possible.