Combating the climate crisis is one of humanity's biggest collective undertakings, and many businesses responded in the last decade with pledges. However, it’s become clear that very few corporations will meet their own climate and sustainability goals. To everyone’s detriment.

Christian will speak to the hardest part of fighting climate change: the how. What can CIOs and Heads of Innovation do - fast, and at scale - to reverse the damage we’ve already done to our planet? How do you pull out all the stops to innovate with purpose, fund technologies that halt global warming, and help future-proof your own business at the same time?

Christian is a serial entrepreneur who has co-founded several successful startups, including Reflex Aerospace — the first venture-backed satellite manufacturer in Europe, a virtual reality startup that was acquired by booking.com, and Skyroads — an open digital operations platform for the urban air mobility market. He was also CEO of UN:IO Enterprise GmbH, Europe's first low latency and high bandwidth satellite mega constellation.

Before joining Mach49, Christian served as Head of Airbus Scale — Airbus’ central innovation unit — where he drove all of the company’s internal and external innovation activities. He also served as Managing Director of Wayra Germany — Telefónica’s CVC arm — where he oversaw the strategic direction of the organization and managed the selection of and investment in startups to be integrated into Telefónica’s portfolio.

Christian has created and advised over 20 incubator and accelerator programs across Germany, Switzerland, and Austria and holds board seats at several high-tech, high-growth startups across Europe. As Co-Founder and Director of TechFounders — a high-tech hardware accelerator based in Munich — he was responsible for the development of over 50 high-tech startups.

Born in Brazil and raised in Mexico, Christian holds degrees in international business administration and economics from the Leopold-Franzens University in Innsbruck, the University of New Orleans, and the University of Barcelona. He now lives in Barcelona with his wife and two children, and enjoys surfing the European swells in his free time.