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YP Steering Committee 2024

Thorben Beckmann, Co-Chair
Thorben moved to Boston in 2018 to become Area Sales Manager for the Americas of the Metal Foils division at SCHLENK. Since 2023 he also serves as Global Sales Manager for the new CuNex copper sinter paste division. He is a graduate of the University of Applied Sciences of Karlsruhe where he earned his M.Sc. and B.Sc. in International Management. Thorben served as Co-Chair of the GABC YP Steering Committee from February 2020 to February 2022. As the current GABC YP representative, he also holds a seat on the Board of the Directors of GABC.
⇒ LinkedIn

 

Kai Schmitz, Co-Chair
Kai is Strategy & Development Associate at TÜV SÜD America, and is experienced in global projects, digital transformation, and urban development. He previously worked as a management consultant where he was program manager for data management and core banking. He earned a B. Sc. in Economics, an MBA, and a Graduate Certificate in Business Data Analytics from the University of Alabama in Birmingham.
⇒ LinkedIn

Felix Kraus, Secretary
Felix is a post-doctoral research fellow at Harvard Medical School working on cellular mechanisms underpinning neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s Disease. In addition, he serves as the program manager for a subgroup as part of the ASAP Research Consortium. He holds a B.Sc. and M.Sc. from Ludwigs-Maximilians-University in Munich and a PhD from Monash University in Melbourne. Felix served as Co-Chair of the YP Steering Committee from 2022 to 2024.
⇒ LinkedIn

Additional Steering Committee Members

Susanna Bächle

Susanna is Field Medical Director, Vaccines, for Pfizer. Her previous roles included Medical Science Liaison for Vaccines at Sanofi; Scientific Outreach Manager for the nonprofit biotech Addgene; and Business Development Associate for Olink Proteomics. Susanna is a German scientist with study and work experience from Australia (Flinders University), Germany (B.Sc from Georg-August-University, Göttingen) and Sweden (M.Sc and PhD in Medical Science from Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm). Susanna served as co-chair of the GABC YP Steering Committee from February 2020 to February 2022, and where she has been a member since 2018. She is also a member and the secretary of the board of the Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce. Previously, she was vice president of the MIT European Club and co-organized the 2018 MIT European Career Fair.
⇒ LinkedIn

Johannes Becker
Johannes is an experienced engineer and management consultant with a background in R&D optimization, startup leadership, and software architecture. He is the founder of Becker Consulting Boston where he advises clients in the IoT, connectivity and ICS security space. He is also the CTO  of Netzwork LLC where he is develops pre-product IP on edge compute optimization. Johannes holds an M.Sc. (Dipl. Ingenieur) in Mechanical Engineering from the Technical University Munich and a Ph.D in Computer Engineering from Boston University.
⇒ LinkedIn

Daniel Danckert
Daniel was born in Stuttgart and moved to the Greater Boston area in 1993. He studied engineering at the University of Rhode Island, graduating in 2012 with a Bachelor of Science in Chemical & Ocean Engineering and a Bachelor of Arts in German through URI’s International Engineering Program. During his undergraduate studies, he spent 6 months studying at the Technische Universität Braunschweig and then an additional 6 months interning at Robert Bosch GmbH in Stuttgart-Feuerbach. After graduation, he continued his engineering studies part-time at URI, completing a Master of Science in Chemical Engineering in 2018. He currently works as Senior Reliability Engineer and Laboratory Manager at Waters Corporation in Milford, MA. He joined the Young Professionals Steering Committee in 2020.
⇒ LinkedIn

Nadine Klabunde
Nadine is Director of Marketing and Marketing Communications at Delta Energy & Communications. Previously, she worked for H.C. Starck for 17 years, most recently as Head of Global Marketing & Strategy Development at H.C. Starck Solutions. She has 15 years of experience in the B2B manufacturing industry implementing successful business strategies, driving best practice marketing and promotional campaigns. Nadine is currently obtaining her M. Sc. in Innovation at Northeastern University.
⇒ LinkedIn

Mareike Möhlmann
Mareike is Assistant Professor at Bentley University. She conducts research in the field of information systems management. She has been teaching courses such as business analytics, design thinking, digital innovation and digital marketing at the undergraduate, graduate, executive levels. Previously, she worked as an Assistant Professor at Warwick Business School, a teaching fellow at the London School of Economics, and a postdoctoral researcher at NYU’s Stern School of Business. She holds a doctoral degree in Business/Management from the University of Hamburg.
⇒ LinkedIn

Shirley Sun
Shirley is a research associate at Harvard Business School. She conducts research and writes business cases on digital strategy and innovation.
⇒ LinkedIN

 

 

 

Jason Wong
Jason is Assistant Professor of Economics at Babson College and an award-winning educator, having won the 2020 London School of Economics Student Union Award for Masters Supervision and the 2017 Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching at Columbia University.  He is also passionate about sustainable entrepreneurship education. In 2018, he served as an International Parliamentary Fellow at the German Parliament (Bundestag). Since 2021, he has co-directed the Global Circular Challenge at the LSE, a unique case competition that blends circular economy with design thinking. He holds a PhD from Columbia University. He is fluent in German, Cantonese, and Mandarin. Jason joined the YP Steering Committee in 2024.
⇒ LinkedIN