First, I would like to sincerely thank Frizzi Engler-Hamm, who has served as CEO of MUNICH INNOVATION ECOSYSTEM (MIE) over the past years and is now embarking to seek new professional challenges. Through her strategic leadership and entrepreneurial vision, she has transformed MIE into an established platform connecting Munich’s innovation ecosystem. During her tenure, MIE significantly expanded its team, strengthened its funding base and established strategic partnerships across industry, academia and the public sector.

As Co-Initiator of AI NATION, she also played a leading role in establishing and scaling the initiative nationwide, supporting more than 250 AI startups on their entrepreneurial journeys. Her leadership and achievements have laid a strong foundation for MIE’s continued development.

Thank you, Frizzi, for your leadership, entrepreneurial vision and lasting contribution!

Following changes in our shareholder structure, the Strascheg Center for Entrepreneurship (SCE) has now taken over sole responsibility for MIE, and I have taken on the role of Managing Director. With more than 20 years of experience in building entrepreneurial ecosystems, SCE provides a strong foundation for continuing and further developing MIE's activities.

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This marks a new chapter, but not a new beginning.

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Innovation ecosystems are built by people who keep showing up for one another. That belief has shaped MIE from the beginning.

MIE has been shaped over the years by many people and institutions: founders, universities, companies, investors, the public sector and partners who brought their ideas, time and perspectives to the table. Many of these relationships continue today, and they remain at the heart of what MIE is.

After more than two decades working within Munich's startup and innovation ecosystem, one thing has become very clear to me: Munich does not lack ideas, expertise or strong initiatives. Much of the potential lies in how we connect them.

That is where I see an important role for MIE going forward.

We want to continue developing AI NATION while keeping ecosystem building at the heart of MIE. Universities play a particularly important role in this, bringing research, talent and entrepreneurship into closer dialogue with companies, investors and the public sector, where new ideas can find partners, practical applications and opportunities to grow.

Our ambition is not to build everything ourselves, but to understand what is already there, bring the right perspectives together and help turn exchange into collaboration and action.

We want to explore new ways of bringing partners together around shared challenges, turning connections into collaborations that create measurable impact.

Together with the MIE team, I look forward to building on what has been created, listening carefully to our partners and continuing to connect the dots across Munich's innovation ecosystem.

Our doors remain open. And so does the conversation.

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Prof. Dr. Klaus Sailer

Managing Director,

MUNICH INNOVATION ECOSYSTEM

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