Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg is the chairman and a founder of Spitzberg Partners LLC. Karl-Theodor served as Minister of Economics and Technology and then as Minister of Defense in the cabinet of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. As the youngest defense minister in German history, he led the most significant structural reform of the German armed forces since the Bundeswehr’s founding. During his time in office, he was Germany’s most popular politician. Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg was a member of the German Parliament (Bundestag) from 2002 to 2011 and served as spokesman on the Foreign Affairs Committee. Karl-Theodor was also a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and secretary general of Germany’s co-governing CSU party. He is a distinguished statesman at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. and served as senior advisor to the European Commission leadership on global Internet freedom. He sits on a variety of international corporate and not-for-profit boards. Karl-Theodor has published numerous op-eds and articles, and holds a law degree from the University of Bayreuth.
Analytics + Data
European Legislators Face “Data Secessionism”
The key players in the public and private sector are now working to protect their interests in a world that is shifting from government to “Googlement”—driven by the unprecedented ability of companies to gather, store, and evaluate vast amounts of personal data. Adding to the challenge will be unabated progress on more invasive technologies such as biometrics, household robotics, smart homes, and connected cars, coupled with widespread adoption of cloud computing. Even overconfident U.S. tech titans must concede that Europe is in the pole position to shape this process and that the Old Continent’s success or failure will reverberate around the world.
Conferences
Techonomy 14
This year Techonomy moves to the beautiful Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay, November 9-11, on the cliffs south of San Francisco, near Silicon Valley.
