Dr. René Deist is Chief Information & Digital Officer (CIO/CDO) at EnBW. Previously, he held senior positions at ZF, Bosch, and Faurecia, where he was responsible for global digital and IT strategies.

He has more than 20 years of international experience in the fields of digitalization, artificial intelligence, and the transformation of complex organizations.

With a background as a mathematician holding a Ph.D., he brings analytical depth that he combines with practical leadership experience.

His work focuses on agentic AI, digital business models, and the design of future-proof organizational structures.

Alaa Maso is an Olympic swimmer, coach, and advocate for integration through sport.

Born in Aleppo, Syria, he fled the civil war in 2015 and found a new home in Germany, where he rebuilt his life through swimming.

Competing for the IOC Refugee Olympic Team, he represented millions of displaced people at the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2021 and Paris 2024.

Today, Alaa lives in Hanover, speaks fluent German, and works with children and young athletes, inspiring the next generation through the transformative power of sport.

His story is a powerful reminder that resilience, belonging, and opportunity can turn even the most difficult journeys into new beginnings.

Dr. Mark T. Hofmann is a Crime- & Intelligence Analyst and one of  the most recognized experts on Behavioral- & Cyber-Profiling, who earned his doctoral degree in Psychology on Profiling Hackers. 

To understand how hackers, cybercriminals, and manipulators think, he conducts research in the digital underground and combines insights from psychology, criminology, and intelligence analysis. Known from international media including CNN, ARD, Forbes, and 60 Minutes Australia, Mark helps organizations and individuals better understand human behavior, deception, cyber threats, and the dark side of artificial intelligence.

He applies profiling-methods to the business world and shows, that soft skills can be a superpower to read and convice people. 

Rainer Petek, Certified Speaking Professional and one of currently 46 Global Speaking Fellows worldwide, is the author of ten books, trusted advisor, global keynote speaker and former extreme mountaineer.

As a 19-year-old, he climbed the north face of the Grandes Jorasses – one of the most difficult walls in the Alps.

As a professional mountain guide, he led clients through extreme routes in the Alps and up 6,000-meter peaks in the Himalayas.

For more than 25 years, he has been working with international companies and managers from Germany to Silicon Valley about leadership & change and has given keynotes worldwide – up to now in 31 countries on five continents with the main stage presentation at the Global Speaker Summit 2024 in Bali among them.

Sabine Mariss, a trained educator and musician, discovered the “magic of listening” as early as 1984 during a study trip to northern India.

Mastering classical Dhrupad singing required a completely new level of precision and depth in perceiving the finest nuances.

This special “acute listening” forms the foundation of Mariss’s expertise as a personal development coach and coach for Nonviolent Communication (NVC according to Rosenberg).

At its core, the question remains: How can deep listening, to both my counterpart and myself, give rise to a presence that truly reaches and moves people?

For over two decades, Mariss has been guiding executives and researchers on their journey toward a coherent, compelling presence and successful communication.

Dr. Dirk Czesnik completed his residency in clinical neurophysiology at the Department of Clinical Neurophysiology within the Center for Neurology at the University Medical Center Göttingen. He also worked for several years as a board-certified neurologist in the Department of Clinical Neurophysiology at the University Medical Center Göttingen.

He acquired specialized knowledge of various methods in clinical neurophysiology during a several-month stay at the University of Sydney, Australia.

As a senior physician in the field of neurorehabilitation, he gained further experience in both Bad Sooden-Allendorf and Lippoldsberg.
In January 2020, he took over the Böncke/Braun group practice.

Andreas Gaertner learned to draw as a tattoo artist on Hamburg’s Reeperbahn.

Since then, he has drawn live on television with Eckart von Hirschhausen, in the German Bundestag, and at universities. Today, the qualified illustrator (Dipl.-Illustrator) and Managing Director of AIM & INK GmbH helps companies make their strategy visible and put it into action.

David Gebhardt is Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and a member of the management team at mobile.de, Germany’s largest automotive marketplace.

Guided by his conviction that outstanding digital products emerge from the symbiosis of technology, people, and business, his career began with a degree in business informatics within a dual-study program at IBM. He went on to advise companies across Europe on their digital transformation as part of the Advisory Services team at Ernst & Young (EY).

Since 2015, he has helped build new business areas at mobile.de, among other roles, before stepping up to lead Product & Technology in 2019. In 2022, he was recognized as one of „Capital 40 under 40.“

What he has learned about leading in a world stuck on fast-forward, David also knows from a second discipline: as a multiple-time marathon runner, Ironman finisher, and 100-km ultramarathon finisher, he understands the difference between short-term sprinting and the art of managing energy over long distances.

It’s exactly this parallel between a long race and a long (working) life in the age of acceleration that sits at the heart of his TEDx talk.

After stints at the Theater im OP and the JT Göttingen, and several years as a guest musician, Hans Kaul has been a permanent member of the staff at the Deutsches Theater Göttingen for 17 years.

Since 2011, he has been working as a freelance musician, arranger, and composer.

His new roles have taken him to many theaters throughout the German-speaking world and on several tours with the production “Motown – The Legend.“

He works for the Théâtr’action in Bordeaux, the literary magazine KARAVAN in Stockholm, and is a member of the Göttingen theater group boat people projekt.

Since 2014, Hans Kaul has been making regular guest appearances as a musician at the Deutsches Theater Göttingen.