In the fireside chats, individuals who have earned a doctorate in mathematics and subsequently pursued an exciting career outside of the university are given a voice. The aim of these discussions is to open up perspectives and look beyond the horizon of academic research in mathematics.
The next edition of the Fireside Chats will take place on July 5, 2024, at 4 PM in the Common Room. We are pleased to welcome Dr. Mirko Ebbers as our guest this time. The event will begin with a one-hour lecture in which Dr. Ebbers will discuss his career path after completing his PhD in Münster outside of the university, highlighting specific challenges and successes. Following the lecture, you will have the opportunity to direct your questions to Dr. Ebbers in a half-hour Q&A session. Afterward, we will have dinner with our guest at Milano im Westend. If you wish to join us for dinner, please note that we have limited seats available, so email us at davidsteigenberger@uni-muenster.de before the event if you plan to attend the dinner.
About Mirko Ebbers: Mirko Ebbers earned his PhD in Stochastic Processes from the University of Münster and left academia for the private sector after graduating in 2011. He began his career at Open Grid Europe, where from 2011 to 2012 he worked in long-term capacity planning for the H-gas network and was involved in research collaborations aimed at medium- and long-term improvements in capacity planning for OGE.
Subsequently, from 2012 to 2014, he worked at ITERGO as an application developer, responsible for the mathematical core of one of ERGO's life insurance systems. From there, he transitioned within the group to strategic market and customer research. In 2016, he joined the newly established ERGO subsidiary, ERGO Digital Ventures AG, where from 2016 to 2019, he worked closely with the Chairman of the Board as an executive assistant to help shape this new strategic focus area.
In 2019, he gladly accepted the offer to bring his digitalization expertise to a completely new industry, taking responsibility for this area in the strategic department of the LEG-Immobilien-Gruppe until 2022. As ESG and sustainability became increasingly important for the real estate industry both regulatorily and substantively, he established the Sustainability department in 2022, focusing on ecological and social sustainability, often combined with digital transformation.
Since June 2023, Mirko Ebbers has been serving as Chief Product Officer at termios, a joint venture he initiated with participation from LEG, responsible for the development and establishment of an intelligent thermostat optimized specifically for the needs of the institutional housing industry.
Dr. Mirko Ebbers and termios auf linkedin
On 27 January 2023, Dr. Dieter Wemmer joined us at the fireside chats. He briefly outlined his own career path and, based on his decades of experience as a CFO and CEO of several big companies such as Allinaz, offered our young mathematicians advice on how to approach making decisions about their career paths and which important factors need to be considered. He also gave an overview of job opportunities and tasks for mathematicians in fields like insurance, data science, IT, banking, consulting and start-ups.
He emphasised that – although different from academia – the private sector offers plenty of opportunities to find intellectually challenging tasks. He also gave interesting insight into how processes and decisions work amid the strong hierarchies often found in large companies.
The audience took the opportunity to ask the guest many questions about his career and career choices. The topic of renewable energy, which Dieter Wemmer is committed to, was also met with great interest. He spoke about his participation in a Danish company for wind energy plants and stated that, in his opinion, renewable energies could already be much more advanced and available if there were fewer bureaucratic hurdles.
About Dieter Wemmer:
Dieter Wemmer did his PhD in topology at the University of Cologne and after a postdoctoral stay in Oxford left academia for the private sector. He started his very successful career as an actuary in an insurance company and later held positions as a board member, CEO and CFO of several big companies (e.g. Zurich Versicherung, Zurich Financial Service, Allianz SE).