Supervisory board member since November 2005. Professor Thielmann is a Managing Director and shareholder of Emphasys GmbH in Heroldsberg specializing in international technology and innovation management, with experience in the USA, South-east Asia and Arab countries. After finishing his studies at the Darmstadt Technical University, he worked at the Philips group from 1974 to 1994, 10 years of which he was Managing Director of a world-wide business unit. Prof. Thielmann was director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology (SIT) in Darmstadt from 1994 to 2004. He is a member of various supervisory boards and advisory boards of StartUps and SMEs, co- founder of some StartUp ventures, advisor to the European Union, a member of BITKOM, the “Münchner Kreis“ (Munich circle) and in Ghorfa (the Arab-German Association for Trade and Industry) .