Dr. Holger Bengs

Keynote Speaker "Networking is your new life insurance"
Managing Partner BCNP

Chemistry makes the world go around.

I grew up with Sesame Street.
 
This is probably the reason why I was always curious to ask my questions, why I started studying chemistry and why I am interested in people and what they do. Today, many see me as the prototype of a networker.
 
Networking is part of my life, from a professional point of view: as founder and managing partner of BCNP, as initiator of the Industry Speed Dating Event known as ECP, or e.g. the regulars' tables of the Association for Chemistry and Business in the Society of German Chemists.
 
A hybrid character characterises my strengths today: Chemistry studies - industry experience - business.

My work in the Bundestag mainly takes place in the committees, which are organised according to different subject areas. I am a member of the Budget Committee and the Foreign Affairs Committee for my Green parliamentary group. In the Budget Committee, we decide what our government is authorised to spend money on. Among my Green colleagues, we have divided up the budgets of the ministries: I am responsible for the budgets of the Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Home Affairs.

The Foreign Affairs Committee deals with German and European foreign policy. This is where we decide, for example, on foreign deployments of the German Armed Forces or on Germany's relations with other countries. Within the Green parliamentary group, I am responsible in this committee for the United Nations (and therefore also sit on the subcommittee "United Nations, International Organisations and Civilian Crisis Prevention"), for Western Europe and for Central and Southern Africa. I am a deputy member of the newly established Committee of Inquiry into the end of the Afghanistan mission.

I also have a deputy seat on the Europe Committee, which deals with all issues relating to our neighbouring countries and the European Union as a whole. Here I am responsible for all issues relating to euro finances.

Michael Brandkamp is one of the three founders and General Partners of the European Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF). Michael and his team’s goal is to speed up the transformation from a fossil-based to a bio-based circular economy in Europe. The German entrepreneur wrote and executed the business plan of High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), the most active early-stage fund in Europe, investing in innovative technologies and business models since 2005. As the first managing director, he led HTGF until 2019. Michael has 25 years of experience in investment and management in the venture capital industry.

About ECBF
The European Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF) is the first venture fund exclusively dedicated to backing up businesses, driving the shift from a fossil-based to a bio-based economy. ECBF aims to catalyse the transition towards a sustainable future by investing in biobased and circular growth-stage companies with high potential for innovation, favourable returns, and sustainable impact. As a growth-stage venture capital fund, the ECBF offers project funding and venture capital investments. ECBF shares its industry expertise to raise awareness among private and public investors to increase their financial participation in bioeconomy companies.

Dennis V. Carmen
Senior IP Counsel
Eastman Chemical Company
Kingsport, TN, USA

Gina Dunlevy holds a PhD in environmental microbiology with a focus on metal-microbe interactions. She joined BRAIN Biotech as a scientific project manager in 2020 and moved in 2021 into the Business Development team, where she is responsible for its cleantech business solutions. She is currently complementing her role by doing an MBA at ESMT Berlin. Gina’s focus at BRAIN is the development of various cleantech applications mainly focusing on the recovery of metals from waste streams, saving carbon emissions and the upcycling of other side streams.

BRAIN Biotech Group, leading European provider of bio-based products and solutions for industry, develops and provides specialised enzymes and microbial strains used in many industrial sectors. The Group´s customers benefit from its first-class R&D work, specialized production expertise, access to attractive markets and manufacturing capabilities.

Gina says: “I look forward to showcasing our current, extensive technical portfolio and how we offer it to industrial cooperation partners to help them achieve their goals.

Viktoria Rothleitner
Initiator, founder

Professional career

since 2020
Polytives GmbH Managing Director

2018 - 2020 Friedrich Schiller University Jena
Research assistant at the Institute of Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry
EXIST research transfer project "Polytives"

Education

2015 - 2018  
Friedrich Schiller University Jena
Study programme: Business Administration for Engineers and Natural Scientists Degree: Master of Science

2011 - 2015  
Friedrich Schiller University Jena
Study programme: Nutritional Sciences Degree: Bachelor of Science

Three questions for Viktoria Rothleitner

What is your motivation as Managing Director of Polytives GmbH?
Plastics make our everyday lives possible and easier and can no longer be replaced. That's why, in my opinion, we should refrain from perceiving plastic as good or bad. Instead of always emphasising the environmentally harmful aspects of plastics, we should move on to "making": Simply make plastic better! As Polytives, we have the tools to do this with our expertise. I want to use that and that's what drives me.

What do you associate with your role as Managing Director?
It's incredibly fulfilling when you see what you've achieved. We all know that. When I think of management, I don't just think of a lot of work and responsibility, but also of how much you can achieve directly. Setting up structures yourself is sometimes very demanding, but at some point you realise that you can make a difference.

What are your next goals?
We want to deliver many tonnes of our energy-saving flow improver. As banal as it sounds, there is so much work involved in finalising a product and actually getting it to the customer in the end. I'm looking forward to getting there.

Topic

Once a tech start-up has successfully completed its first steps, there are still often many steps between the founders and the hoped-for success of the start-up. Intellectual property (IP) is just one of many relevant topics and, given the typically limited resources available to start-ups, a clear focus on a few, particularly important aspects is often unavoidable.

So what is really important when it comes to "IP in tech start-ups" and why? This question is at the center of this seminar, which will begin with a short keynote speech introducing the topic before a panel of practitioners consisting of founders, investors and IP experts discuss various experiences, lessons learned and strategies from practice.

About the Lecturer

Michael Platzöder holds a degree in physics and has extensive practical experience both as a long-time head of an IP department in the IT/telecommunications and semiconductor industries and as a Patent Attorney. He started his IP career in 1995 as a patent engineer at Siemens AG in the field of telecommunications and computer technology and between 1999 and 2008, he headed the Intellectual Property department of the Communication Technology Division at Infineon Technologies, most recently as Senior Director Intellectual Property & Standards. Furthermore, he was responsible for collaborations, licensing, contract management (including negotiation of more than 100 IP contracts), standardization, innovation management, as well as technical competitive analysis.

Between 2008 and 2012, Mr. Platzöder worked as a patent attorney for a renowned German IP law firm, where his main focus was, among other things, the establishment and defense of several high-tech patent portfolios and a number of partly high-profile patent litigations, in particular in the field of "smartphones" and mobile technologies, electronics, as well as in the field of security solutions.

Since 2012, Mr. Platzöder has been with WR, where he heads the "High Tech" practice group and represents international and national clients in all areas of patent law, in particular in patent litigation and patent prosecution, with a focus on IT/telecommunications and semiconductor technology, electronics, computer-implemented inventions, embedded systems, security solutions, physics, renewable energy solutions, and medical technology. His scope of advice also includes strategic IP management, including innovation and patent portfolio management, IP exploitation, risk management, and in-house IP processes/structures, as well as IP and technology licensing, R&D collaborations, M&A, IP due diligence and alternative dispute resolution (ADR).

Mr. Platzöder has been continuously listed as a "recommended individual" in the "IAM Patent 1000 - The World's Leading Patent Professionals" ranking since 2016.