Roundtable Luncheon with Professor Dieter Kempf

The American-German Institute and the Representative for German Industry and Trade hosted a small, private luncheon on Wednesday, April 6th with Professor Dieter Kempf, the new President of the Federation of German Industries (BDI). Prof. Kempf was the Chairman of DATEV, one of Europe’s largest IT service providers, for the past 20 years.

After his opening remarks, the discussion focused on the new Administration’s economic policy, its potential impact on the transatlantic community, and how the digital transformation of trade and manufacturing could shape politics and industry on both sides of the Atlantic.

Prof. Kempf sits on the executive board of the Business20 (B20), the business community’s advisory body to the G20, the presidency of which is held by Germany in 2017. The G20 summit will take place this year in Hamburg on July 7-8 with the theme “Shaping an Interconnected World.” In the run-up to the summit, AGI will convene an international symposium on May 30th in Berlin, “The United States and Germany in a Changing Geoeconomic World,” focusing on the G20 economic, trade, and financial agenda.