Gunnar Graef

Biography

Gunnar Graef is Professor for Strategy, Innovation and Entrepreneurship  and is lecturing in Paris and in Berlin. Prof. Graef is Chairman of Graef & Company and CEO of Deutsche Ventures investing in great teams and building companies in Berlin, Paris, New York, San Francisco and Singapore.

Prof. Graef is one of the pioneers of the mobile internet in Europe. In France he founded and co-founded Airtag (acquired by SAFRAN in 2015), haiku (acquired by INDEX, Japan) and DHL Globalmail france (acquired by Deutsche Post AG, Germany). Under his leadership, DHL Globalmail grew up 2 bn€ turnover operating in more than 200 countries  worldwide

Since 2003, Gunnar Graef is a Affiliate Professor at ESCP Europe. He greatly contributed to the development of the entrepreneurship education at ESCP Europe by initiating Die Unternehmerschule, the Chair for Entrepreneurship and other activities . Gunnar Graef is currently also a Visiting Professor at CFVG in Vietnam.

Prof. Graef is a senior advisor to politicians and the management board of a number of companies and organizations in Europe and Asia. In Berlin and Paris, he is today one of the anchors of the startup ecosystems contributing to the development of a number of tech accelerators and innovation centers such Axel Springer Plug and Play, Deutsche Telekom's hubraum and Microsoft Ventures.  He is a co-founder of Startupbootcamp in Berlin and Board Advisor of Local Motors. Inc., Udacity Inc, gestigon GmbH

Prof. Graef actively supports different social and philantropic activities with a particular focus on Education. He is board member of Betterplace.org. He was named a Responsible Leader by the BMW Foundation in 2012.

Gunnar Graef studied Mechanical Engineering and Robotics at TU Berlin and Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He graduated from EAP European School of Management (Paris-Oxford-Berlin). He also studied at Ecole Nationale d’Administration (ENA). 

Research Interest

Topics

• Entrepreneurship & Innovation
  
• Strategy & Organization
  
• e-business
  
• Leadership
  

Industries

• Aeronautic industry
  
• Automotive Industry
  
• Emerging countries
  
• High Tech
  
• IT & Telecommunications
  
• International Organisations
  
• Logistics
  
• Media
  
• Service Industry
  
• Transportation
  
• Videogames
  
• Energy
  

Geographical area

• Europe
  
• Middle East
  
• South Eastern Asia
  
• China
  
• Japan
  
• USA
  
• Vietnam
  
• Israel