AI Pioneers Program
Conquer AI in 10 Sessions

Bastian Burger is Director for Software & AI at TUM Venture Labs. He uses his expertise in the areas of business growth, AI, Web3, crypto and cybersecurity to support young founders in the first steps of their entrepreneurial careers up to Series A. His career began with the founding of blik, a pioneering startup in the field of industrial IoT and intralogistics, which he led as CEO from idea generation to market launch. He is also a lecturer and researcher in the field of psychological resilience and well-being of startup founders, with a special focus on well-being and narcissism.

Gitta Kutyniok is a Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, where she holds the Bavarian AI Chair for Mathematical Foundations of Artificial Intelligence. Her research spans harmonic analysis, deep learning, compressed sensing, and signal processing, focusing on the mathematical principles underlying modern AI systems. She is a Fellow of both SIAM and IEEE and a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities.  

Andrej Levin is the Head of BCG X in Central Europe, Boston Consulting Group’s tech build and design unit, where he leads AI-driven transformations for major corporations. He founded and globally leads BCG’s Auto.AI product, enabling automotive companies to scale advanced AI solutions. Holding a PhD in Economics and Law from the University of Siegen, he also teaches “Value Creation with AI” at the Technical University of Munich and co-leads the BCG x TUM AI Strategy Research Cluster.  

Prof. Dr. Reiner Braun is a Professor for Entrepreneurial Finance at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). His research focuses on innovation financing, venture capital, and private equity, with particular emphasis on startup financing and management. His work has been published in leading academic journals including the Journal of Finance or the Journal of Financial Economics. He leads a research group on AI & Advanced Analytics in Alternative Investments at TUM (altqnt.com) and is a co-founder of equation AG, an private markets asset manager applying AI and data science in the real world.

Virginia Dignum is Professor of Responsible Artificial Intelligence at Umeå University, Sweden, where she leads the AI Policy Lab. She is also senior advisor on AI policy to the Wallenberg Foundations and chair of the ACM’s Technology Policy Council. She has a PHD in Artificial Intelligence from Utrecht University (2004), was appointed Wallenberg Scholar in 2024, is member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA), and a Fellow of the European Artificial Intelligence Association (EURAI), and of ELLIS (European Laboratory of Learning and Intelligent Systems). She is also co-chair of the IEEE Global Initiative on Ethics of Autonomous and Intelligent Systems 2.0, member of the UNESCO’s expert group on the implementation of AI recommendations, the OECD’s Expert group on AI, and founder of ALLAI, the Dutch AI Alliance. She has been a member of the United Nations Advisory Body on AI, the EU’s High Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence, co-chair of the WEF’s Global Future Council on AI, and leader of UNICEF's guidance for AI and children.  She has over 300 peer-reviewed articles in major international journals, conferences and workshops with in total over 20000 citations, yielding a h-index of 53. Her new book “The AI Paradox” is planned for publication by Princeton University Press in February 2026.

Marvin Hanisch is an Associate Professor in the Innovation Management & Strategy Department at the University of Groningen. His research focuses on organizational leadership and governance issues in response to significant disruptions, including discontinuous technological changes, grand challenges, and crises. Recently, his work has focused on the role of artificial intelligence in organizations and its impact on governance and strategic decision-making. Dr. Hanisch's research has been featured in leading academic and practitioner journals, and he has been honored with multiple international research awards.

Tobias Seemann is Senior Vice President Global Digital and E-Commerce at adidas. From 2020 to 2022, he previously served as Senior Vice President Commercial Europe at adidas. Before returning to the company, Seemann held senior roles at Miinto, Amazon, Aldi, and Galeria Kaufhof. He holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from EBS University of Business and Law.

Isabell M. Welpe holds the Chair for Strategy and Organization at the Technical University of Munich, Germany. Her research interests are in digital transformation of companies, business model innovation, the impact of digital technologies on the economy and organizations and the future of leadership and work/organizational design.

Theresa Treffers is an expert in individual and team behavior in entrepreneurship and innovation, as well as in artificial intelligence at work and in leadership. She holds dual roles as a Research Group Leader at the Technical University of Munich and as an Associate Professor at Seeburg Castle University. ​

Henri Beyer is a master’s student in Information Systems at the Technical University of Munich and an Honors student at the Center for Digital Technology and Management (CDTM). In collaboration with Stanford’s Human-Centered AI Institute (HAI), he researches the future of work and software engineering in the age of generative AI. He has published papers on fraud detection and targeting algorithms, combining large-scale data analysis with economic modeling to study how AI transforms productivity and organizations.  

Jannik Nolden is a PhD candidate at the Technical University of Munich. He earned his B.Sc. in Business Administration from the University of Cologne and holds an M.Sc. in Management, with a specialization in Data & Business Analytics, from Nova School of Business and Economics in Lisbon. At TUM’s Chair for Strategy and Organization, his research centers on deep tech ventures, including topics such as the influence of human capital on funding outcomes, early success prediction for startups, and high-impact studies like the European Unicorn project. Jannik has +3 years of consutling expereince. In his spare time, he enjoys padel, tennis, football, and running.

Nathalie Schenk is a PhD candidate at the Technical University of Munich, holds an MSc in Information Systems from TUM, and researches at the intersection of (Gen)AI and entrepreneurship. With her experience in consulting, she has worked on digital transformations across various industries.