Oliver Süme has been reinstated as Chair of the Board of eco – Association of the Internet Industry. At the eco Annual General Meeting which took place in Cologne on 30 September 2021, the Hamburg-based attorney-at-law and partner of the law firm Fieldfisher was unanimously re-elected to the Board. So too were the other Board members Klaus Landefeld, Felix Höger and Professor Dr Norbert Pohlmann.
Süme has been Chair of the Board of the Association of the Internet Industry since 2017. He sees his most important task as strengthening trust in the Internet industry and digital technologies and bringing politicians and companies into a constructive dialogue about the opportunities of responsible and sustainable digitalisation: “Digitalisation is the key to some of the biggest challenges of the coming years, such as tackling climate change. Companies and politicians carry a joint responsibility for making the digital transformation in Germany a success story and for having digital technologies used for the benefit of all,” says Süme. The eco Association intends to work closely with the new German federal government in promoting digital solutions and a comprehensive, cross-departmental digital policy.
To an increasing extent, the Internet industry is becoming the driving force of the German and European economy – a fact that was also demonstrated by the Covid-19 crisis, from which the industry emerged in a stronger position. This strength is also coupled with a responsibility for the industry’s own sustainability, related to topics such as digital education, skill shortages, the promotion of women in tech, and also voluntary commitments by the industry, for example in the area of security. “As an association, we therefore also see ourselves as an initiator and network platform for initiatives and for a constructive exchange between the industry, politics and civil society,” says Süme.
Oliver Süme has been Chair of the Board at eco since 2017. He has worked as an attorney-at-law for technology and IT law since 1997 and is a partner at the international law firm Fieldfisher. Süme is co-founder of Hamburg Top-Level-Domain GmbH (registry for the “.hamburg” domain extension) and heads the Data Protection Working Group at EuroISPA, the largest provider association in the world.
Felix Höger is an investor & entrepreneur and represents eco Association as Board Member for Online Services / Cloud Computing. Previously, he was COO & CTO of QSC AG (today q.beyond) and the founder and longstanding CEO of PIRONET NDH AG (today CANCOM Managed Services). He is Chair of the Supervisory Board of DE-CIX Group AG and a member of the Supervisory Board of NELEX AG and KROMI Logistik AG. Höger is also on the Board of EuroCloud Deutschland_eco e.V.
Norbert Pohlmann is a Professor of Distributed Systems and Information Security in the field of IT and Managing Director of the Institute for Internet Security at the Westphalian University of Applied Sciences, Gelsenkirchen. He represents eco as the Board Member for IT Security. Pohlmann is also on the Board of EuroCloud Deutschland_eco e.V. and a member of the “IT Security in the Economy” steering committee of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi).
