Professor Jochen Rabe – currently Professor for Urban Resilience and Digitization at the Berlin Einstein Center Digital Future (ECDF) – will be the new Managing Director of the Berlin Centre of Competence for Water from June 2020. This has been decided by the supervisory board of the Berlin Water Research Center, in which the Technology Foundation Berlin and Berliner Wasserbetriebe hold equal shares.

"With Professor Rabe, we have been able to win a proven expert in the fields of sustainable urban development and digitisation with more than 20 years of professional experience for the Berlin Centre of Competence for Water", says a joint statement by the Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Wasserbetriebe CEO Jörg Simon, and Nicolas Zimmer, Chairman of the shareholders' meeting of the Centre of Competence and Head of the Technology Foundation.

Prof. Rabe (51) is regarded as a results-oriented innovation and transformation manager and a widely networked digital expert. His research focuses on "Rapid change in the city through digitization in the economy, infrastructure and environment" and "Green-Blue Infrastructure". Rabe has established and led numerous interdisciplinary research projects under public and private aegis as well as consulting teams for large companies.

"After three years of intensive research in the field of urban resilience and digitisation at the ECDF, I am very much looking forward to my new task at the Centre of Competence for Water. Water was, is and will remain a central topic. However, cities and rural areas are currently experiencing a change unknown in its extent and speed, which forces us to understand and redesign many goals, cycles, processes and governance systems. The Centre of Competence for Water has an outstanding responsibility here", says Prof. Jochen Rabe.

Founded in 2001, the Berlin Centre of Competence for Water has established itself as a player in water technology and water management in the national and international research landscape. The two previous managing directors, Edith Roßbach and Regina Gnirß, have successfully initiated the reorientation and have significantly advanced topics for the cities of the future. In order to continue this development, the management of the competence centre is to be concentrated in one hand again. Regina Gnirß, Head of the Research Department of Berliner Wasserbetriebe, and Edith Roßbach, Head of Finance and Administration of the Technology Foundation, will again concentrate on their activities in their companies from June onwards.