About us

Prof. Dr. Estelle Herlyn has been a freelance researcher with FAW/n since 2012 and is responsible in particular for research projects with politics and business.

She is also professor and scientific director of the CompetenceCenter for Sustainable Development at FOM University of Applied Sciences in Düsseldorf. There she adresses the responsibility of companies for sustainable development, inter alia. In addition, questions of catch-up development and global climate protection in a are a major focus of her work.

She is a member of the German Society of the Club of Rome and deputy chair of the board of trustees of the Senate Institute for Common Good Policy. After studying business mathematics at the Technical University of Dortmund, she first worked for several years in the SAP units of various international companies (PwC, Ford, L’Oréal, HSBC) before completing a PhD at RWTH Aachen University on balanced income distributions as a crucial aspect of the social dimension of sustainability.

Dr. Tobias Orthen is a research associate at FAW/n in Ulm and works together with Global Energy Solutions e. V. on the topics: Climate Neutrality (net zero), Renewable Energy System, Power-to-X, Green Hydrogen/Green Methanol/Methane/Ammonia, Carbon Capture and Usage (CCU), CO2 Circular Economy, Synthetic Fuels, Nature-based Solutions, CO2 Assessment/Balancing, Cross-Industry and International Collaboration.

He completed his PhD at the University of Ulm on the question of what role rich top emitters can play in solving the climate problem. In the context, he continues to work on questions of how climate change and economic/social inequality affect the stability of the global economic system.

Tobias Orthen studied physics in Kiel, Göttingen, and Tokyo and spent an extended period at CERN in Geneva before starting his PhD in economics. In 2016, he was awarded the Lower Saxony Science Prize in the category Students and the Prize of the Foundation Council of Georg-August-Universität Göttingen. In 2021, he became a fellow of the Global Justice Program at Yale University.

During his studies, he organized public events in university groups on the topics of globalization, sustainability, and future perspectives, and was accepted into the Association of German Scientists as a result. Since 2018, he has been a speaker on these very topics.

Nikolas Lokau is a research assistant at FAW/n in Ulm. At the Institute, he is primarily concerned with the analysis of regulatory policies of the European Union in the areas of energy and climate policy.

Nikolas Lokau holds a Bachelor’s degree in “Politics, Administration and International Relations” from Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen at Lake Constance. In his thesis, he looked at the regulatory plans of the European Commission and various EU member states regarding hydrogen as an energy carrier in the context of European integration.

His research interests lie in the field of international energy policy, EU politics and transatlantic relations as well as security policy.

Gerhard Wendlik is Germany’s “longest-serving” business mathematician and has long been associated with FAW/n and its director, on the one hand as an honorary board member of the FAW/n Friends’ Association and, on the other hand, as a freelancer for the institute since the beginning of 2016, responsible for the areas of controlling, finance, organization.

In his professional career, he first worked for two years in Munich at the Allianz insurance group, then for nine years in the mobile communications division of the AEG/Daimler group in Ulm, and finally for three years as commercial director in a software company in Stuttgart. Since 1996, he has been working as an independent business consultant and interim manager, with medium-sized companies as his target group and the topics “International Investment Controlling”, “Early Warning Systems (Balanced Scorecard)” and “GEOmarketing” as the dominant focal points of his activities.
In addition to his diploma in business mathematics, he also studied mathematics (with a focus on statistics) at Ulm University and earned a French Master’s degree in econometrics during a one-year scholarship at the University of Paris.

Bert Beyers, born in 1956, studied philosophy, German studies and art history. He gained his first journalistic experience in Berlin, still at the time of the Berlin Wall. He then completed a traineeship at Norddeutscher Rundfunk in Hamburg. He still works there today as a radio and multimedia editor. For some time now, he has added a second, future discourse to journalism.

Books: Die Zukunftsmacher: Denker, Planer, Manager des 21. Jahrhunderts (1999). Corporate Foresight: Unternehmen gestalten Zukunft (Koautor) (2004). Der Ecological Footprint: Die Welt neu vermessen (Koautor) (2010). Welt mit Zukunft: Die ökosoziale Perspektive (2011) with Franz Josef Radermacher.

Dr. Halit Ünver is a consultant for digitalization, sustainability and international relations. He is Professor of Technology & Innovation Management at the FOM Hochschule für Oekonomie und Management in Frankfurt. He is Member of the Advisory Board at the European Technology Chamber (EUTEC). He was Director of International Relations at the Senate of Economy Europe.

He received his PhD from Ulm University in cooperation with the Humboldt University of Berlin on the topic of “Global Networking, Communication and Culture – Conflict or Convergence”. Previously, he studied information technology and economics in Ulm and completed an executive education at Imperial College London Business School. He was a member of the Young Leaders Group of the European Institute for Innovation and Technology (EIT) and received an award in this context at the Annual Innovation Forum 2013 in Brussels. During his studies, he was a trainee at Daimler AG in the areas of Commercial Vehicles, Global IT Management, as well as Research and Development.

On his professional path, he has been supported by the Alcatel Foundation for Communication Research, the Vodafone Institute for Society and Communication, Vinton G. Cerf (VP Google) and the Mercator Foundation. He is a member of working groups of think tanks in the context of the G20 Presidency as well as the UN Summit Internet Governance Forum.

After studying mechanical engineering at the TH Darmstadt and obtaining his doctorate at the Friedrich Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, he worked for Lurgi GmbH for more than 40 years – until his retirement (2009) – most recently as Chief Technology Officer. During his career, he “built” some of the world’s largest methanol plants himself (black methanol) and is therefore sometimes referred to, with good reason, as the “Methanol Pope”.

Consulting activities for energy and environmental issues/technologies. Dr. Plass is a member of the scientific advisory board of the Dechema Research Institute, a member of the research project “Power to Methanol: Green Methanol” funded by the BMWi. He is chairman of the advisory board of Schaefer Kalk GmbH, Diez, Lahn.

After completing his studies and doctorate in physical chemistry in Kiel, Dr. Wernicke worked for eight years for the Linde Group in petrochemical plant engineering and then moved to Süd-Chemie AG in Munich, today part of Clariant AG. After spending several years in South Africa in the context of coal and offshore natural gas-based synfuels projects and in the U.S., Dr. Wernicke was a member of Süd-Chemie’s Executive Board from 1997 to 2011, and Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board from 2007.

In addition to several supervisory board mandates, Dr. Wernicke is involved in many specialist bodies, such as member of the board and currently chairman of the foundation board of the German Society for Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology (DECHEMA), in the economic policy committee as well as innovation committee of the Bavarian chemical associations, in the advisory board of the Bavarian Chemical Cluster and the board of trustees of the Leibniz Institute for Catalysis in Rostock. He is co-author of two relevant technical books titled “Zukünftige Kraftstoffe – Energiewende des Transports als weltweites Klimaziel” and “Methanol: The Basic Chemical and Energy Feedstock of the Future”.