Hirth is Vice President for Innovation and International Affairs at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and Chairman of the Board at the KIT Foundation. The degreed chemist is well acquainted with Fraunhofer: He held various positions in the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft between 1992 and 2015. Among other things, he headed the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB in Stuttgart and was a member of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft’s presidium.

Holger Hanselka, Chair of the Board of Trustees at the Fraunhofer Future Foundation, welcomed the new board chair: “With Thomas Hirth, we are gaining a leader who takes research organizations to the top, enabling them to combine innovation and social responsibility excellently. We look forward to continuing to develop the Fraunhofer Future Foundation together. Hirth is a worthy successor to Hans-Jörg Bullinger, who shaped the Fraunhofer Future Foundation with his remarkable instinct for issues and research formats relevant to the future. We are grateful to him for establishing the foundation and for his visionary contributions.”

Hans-Jörg Bullinger laid the groundwork for the Fraunhofer Future Foundation and has been a member of its founding circle since 2008. After his combined presidency of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and chairship of the foundation’s board of trustees, he became chair of the Fraunhofer Future Foundation’s executive board in 2020.