Alf Henryk Wulf: Expanding range, communicating openly
After completing his studies at the Technical University of Munich, Wulf spent many years in leading positions in industry at companies such as Alcatel-Lucent Germany AG, Alstom AG and GE Power AG. Currently, the well-connected electrical engineer is an active investor as well as a supervisory board member or chairman in various companies.
Currently, the well-connected electrical engineer is an active investor as well as a supervisory board member or chairman in various companies. In his second term as VDE president, Wulf wants to work above all toward a higher visibility of the VDE as well as a wider range of content: "This includes all areas of electrical engineering, electronics and information technology, as well as related fields, by which I mean three very specific ones: Environmental technology, transportation including the maritime part as well as individual transportation, and the segment of modern energy." To achieve this, he said, it is necessary for everyone to be involved and to communicate candidly. Therefore Wulf also pointed out in his New Year's address that his door will be open and that questions and suggestions will be warmly welcomed in order to bring the VDE even more successfully into the future.
All Electric Society and VDE Campus
In the view of the new VDE President, another building block for the future is the All Electric Society. The concept foresees that regeneratively generated electricity will become the new primary form of energy worldwide and replace fossil fuels. The basis for this is energy sector coupling in the grid, i.e. an integrated system of all users in mobility, in the heating sector, in industry, etc. The key to this is information technology sector coupling, because information from all sectors is needed for control.
Thus, in the future, questions of electrical engineering and information technology would become central in this context. In order to be able to support the development professionally on all levels, it is important to use the VDE Campus as a meeting place for the VDE's own specialist societies and for interested and committed people outside the VDE. The new campus will also include the testing and certification institute as well as the DKE as the core of standardization and all the other areas of the VDE Group. Wulf also emphasizes the importance of standardization for the rollout of innovations: "In this way, I would like to ensure that Frankfurt is the center of the standardization world. I want content to be communicated from this forum that will provided to political decision-makers as a precise basis for setting the course for the future."
