Leadership

Dr. Nils Dülfer

Managing Director

Nils Dülfer is Managing Director of IMP³ROVE and core team member of the Innovation and R&D Management practice at Kearney. He has led various consulting projects for clients in the consumer goods, chemicals and industrials industries as well as public sector clients that centered around topics such as innovation strategy development, (digital) business model design, agile innovation processes redesign, innovation benchmarking and innovation transformation.

Nils is author of various innovation-related publications, frequent innovation guest lecturer at leading universities in Europe as well as co-founder of the ISPIM Innovators Club, a new platform for innovation leaders to enable best practice exchanges.

Dr. Martin Ruppert

Managing Director

Martin Ruppert is Managing Director of IMP³ROVE and a core member of the innovation and R&D management teams at Kearney. Building on various consulting projects, he has comprehensive experience across the world in innovation management, ranging from the review of innovation strategies and portfolios to the development of innovative business models. 

Martin is author of numerous publications on innovation management and co-author of the Global Innovation Index reports in 2015 and 2016. He collaborated with the World Economic Forum to manage “Fostering Innovation-Driven Entrepreneurship in Europe,” and was advisor for the project “Collaborative Innovation – Transforming Business, Driving Growth.”

Advisory Board

Nicholas Davis

Head of Society and Innovation,
Member of the Executive Committee
World Economic Forum (WEF)

  • Working for the World Economic Forum, Nick is an acknowledged expert for projects related to understanding the complexity and uncertainty of the global business environment and developing appropriate strategic responses
  • Nick focuses on how innovations in technology, society and policy are combining to both exacerbate and solve a wide range of social and economic challenges.
  • He sits on the European Commission’s expert group on Digital Entrepreneurship and is an author of journal articles, reports and other publications on innovation, entrepreneurship, social development and scenario thinking.
Dr. Sven Schade

Policy Officer

DG Research and Innovation, European Commission

  • In his role at the European Commission DG Enterprise, Sven was responsible for the lighthouse project for better innovation management support service for SMEs (IMP³rove) and was instrumental in the establishment of IMP³rove as a non profit organisation
  • Amongst others, Sven has developed policies for innovation and cooperation with the business sector in DG Environment
  • He holds a post graduate degree in geography from the university of Bayreuth, Germany.
Prof. Dr. Frank Piller

Professor and Head of Group

RWTH Aachen University I Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

  • Frequently quoted in The New York Times, The Economist, and Business Week, amongst others, Frank is regarded as one of the leading experts on strategies for customer-centric value creation like mass customization, personalization, and innovation co-creation.
  • He is an acclaimed speaker at management conferences and in executive education programs around the world.
  • As a member of the board of directors or scientific advisers, he works with a number of innovative technology companies to turn his research into practice.