Our Team

The people behind QUTAC

Behind QUTAC’s work is a team of managers, working group heads and chairpersons who connect strategic direction with concrete projects, publications and use cases. Meet the people who shape QUTAC’s activities and drive collaboration across industry and application areas.

How our team works

QUTAC’s organisational structure provides the framework for collaboration, while our team brings that framework to life through leadership, coordination and thematic expertise. Managers, working group leaders and chairpersons connect strategic direction with day-to-day consortium work, align expertise across member companies and help turn shared priorities into concrete initiatives. They guide the development of working group activities, publications, use cases and external dialogue, making them the link between QUTAC’s mission and its practical implementation.

How responsibilities are organized

  • QUTAC Management provides direction

  • Working group leaders translate that direction into thematic work

  • Chairpersons represent the consortium and help guide priorities

Meet the team

QUTAC Management

QUTAC’s management provides strategic direction, coordinates consortium-wide activities and represents QUTAC externally.

Caroline Bürsgens geb. Eckl

Operational Lead
Caroline Bürsgens leads the Quantum Technology & Application Consortium (QUTAC), an association of leading German and European companies for the joint application development of quantum computing technologies. Previously, she held various management positions at Menlo Systems GmbH, a global market leader in the field of optical high-precision metrology and quantum-enabling technologies, including Director of Corporate Development and Director of Operations. She began her career as a management consultant at the Boston Consulting Group. In terms of science, she was influenced by her research in the field of quantum dynamics and photonics at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics. She holds a Master of Science in Physics and an Executive MBA from the University of St.Gallen.

Sofia Todesca

Deputy Operational Manager, QUTAC Consortium
Sofia supports the operational management and coordination of QUTAC, contributing to strategic planning, stakeholder engagement, and community building. In her role, she helps foster alignment within the consortium and supports initiatives aimed at accelerating the adoption and industrial application of quantum technologies in Germany.
With a background spanning structural biology, biochemistry, biomedical research, business administration, and strategy, Sofia brings an interdisciplinary perspective to QUTAC's activities. She studied at the University of Pavia and gained experience at internationally recognized institutions, including Harvard University, the Max Planck Institute, and the University of Cambridge. She holds a PhD in Biochemistry and Structural Biology from the Max Planck Institute and an international MBA from the Collège des Ingénieurs.

Dr. Reinhard Ploss

Representative
Reinhard Ploss was born in Bamberg in 1955. He studied process engineering at the Technical University of Munich and received his doctorate in 1990. He began his professional career at Siemens AG in 1986. After holding various management positions at Siemens and following the spin-off of Infineon Technologies AG, Reinhard Ploss headed the Automotive & Industrial Division. He joined the Management Board in 2007 and served as CEO of Infineon from 2012 until 2022.
Reinhard Ploss was an appointed member of the Presidium of acatech (Deutsche Akademie der Technikwissenschaften) and was later President of the Academy and Member of the Executive Board. Today, he is Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Knorr-Bremse AG and a member of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Telekom AG as well as Chairman of the Advisory Boards of FMC (Ferroelectric Memory GmbH). In the field of quantum technologies, he is involved, among other things, in his role as Representative of the Quantum Technology & Application Consortium. (QUTAC).
Learn more about QUTAC

Working Group Heads

Our working group heads connect QUTAC’s strategic goals with the consortium’s thematic work in research, industrial application and policy dialogue.

Dr. Thomas Strohm

Head of the the Working Group Quantum Systems
By profession, Dr. Thomas Strohm is solid-state physicist. He joined Bosch Research in 1999 and worked for more than 10 years in software engineering research. In 2013, he started building up the research activities on quantum technologies at Bosch, of which he is now Chief Expert for Quantum Technologies. Bosch has R&D activities in quantum sensing and in quantum computing applications. In 2020, he was co-founder of the European Quantum Industry Consortium (QuIC), where he acts as president. He enjoys contributing to the German Quantum Technology and Applications Consortium (QUTAC) and being a member of it.

Marie Kempkes

Head of the Working Group Quantum Machine Learning & Optimization
Marie Kempkes leads QUTAC's Quantum Machine Learning and Optimization working group, aiming to understand the potential of quantum algorithms in industrial contexts. Her research focuses on the foundations of variational quantum models and on fault-tolerant quantum algorithms, bridging quantum computing theory and practical applications.

Dr. Florian Dommert

Head of the Working Group Material Science
Dr. Florian Dommert is Head of Quantum Computing at TRUMPF and Lead of the Material Science Working Group within QUTAC. With a Ph.D. in computational physics and extensive expertise in quantum algorithms, software architecture, and agile project management, Dr. Dommert drives TRUMPF's quantum computing strategy while leading technical research initiatives in material science across the QUTAC consortium.
His role encompasses advancing quantum computing capabilities, collaborating across QUTAC's member organizations on foundational research, and bridging TRUMPF's quantum computing vision with the broader European quantum ecosystem.
Explore our work

Current Chairing Company & Chairpersons

As chairmanship rotates, the current chairing company and its representatives provide strategic guidance, shape QUTAC’s priorities and represent the consortium during their term.

  • Jul – Dec 2026 Volkswagen Group

    Nikolai Ardey (ExCom Chair), Jens Fliegner (SteerCo Chair)

    Roman Firt, Sabine Spell (Team)

Dr. Nikolai Ardey

Chairperson of the Executive Committee
Dr. Nikolai Ardey is Executive Director of Group Innovation at the Volkswagen Group.

Jens Fliegner

Chairperson of the Steering Committee
Jens Fliegner is Head of Future Sensors and Compute at the Volkswagen Group.
Meet our members

Former Chairing Companies & Chairpersons

Former chairpersons and their companies have helped shape QUTAC’s strategic direction and contributed to the consortium’s development throughout previous terms.

  • Jan – Jun 2026: TRUMPF

    Berthold Schmidt (ExCom Chair), Florian Dommert (SteerCo Chair)

    Daniel Basilewitsch, Harald Vogt. Kristin Furtenbach (Team)

  • Jul – Dec 2025: Deutsche Telekom

    Claudia Nemat (ExCom Chair), Oliver Holschke (SteerCo Chair)

    Andreas Fier, Marc Geitz, Ming Yin (Team)

     

  • Jan – Jun 2025: Siemens

    Peter Körte (ExCom Chair), Norbert Gaus (SteerCo Chair)

    Christoph Niedermeier, Stefan Saatmann, Robert Otto, Karen Wintersperger (Team)

  • Jul – Dec 2024: SAP

    Jürgen Müller (ExCom Chair), Carsten Polenz (SteerCo Chair)

  • Jan – Jun 2024: Munich RE

    Fabian Winter (ExCom Chair), Andreas Nawroth (SteerCo Chair)

    Matthias Beuerle-Liegel (Team)

  • Jul – Dec 2023: Merck

    Kai Beckmann (ExCom Chair), Philipp Harbach (SteerCo Chair)

    Martin Schraub, Mathias Winkel, Anna Schroeder (Team)

  • Jan – Jun 2023: Lufthansa Industry Solutions

    Jörn Messner (ExCom Chair), Bernhard Kube (SteerCo Chair)

    Joseph Doetsch, David Zilch, Simon Wrigg (Team)

  • Jun – Dec 2022: Infineon

    Reinhard Ploss (ExCom Chair), Andreas Schumacher (SteerCo Chair)

    Sebastian Luber (Team)

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