Juergen Maier is Chair of the Digital Catapult, co-Chairs Made Smarter and serves on the Industrial Strategy Council which advises Government on Industrial Strategy. He advises tech start-ups and scale-up businesses including the Welsh hydrogen car company Riversimple. Juergen argues strongly for the modern green re-industrialisation of the North of England and is Vice-Chair of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership.
Juergen is the former Chief Executive of Siemens UK, a position he held from July 2014 to December 2019. Over his 33-year career with Siemens he held a number of senior roles within the UK and Germany.
Juergen Maier joined Siemens in 1986 as a graduate engineer with a BSc in Production Engineering from Nottingham Trent University on a Siemens-sponsored graduate programme. He was made an honorary professor of Engineering at the University of Manchester in March 2014 and became a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in September 2017. Juergen has also received honorary doctorates for his services to UK Science and Engineering from the Universities of Lincoln, Nottingham Trent, Salford Manchester, Cranfield, Sheffield and Manchester Metropolitan. Juergen was awarded a CBE in the New Year’s honours list 2019.
Juergen takes a strong leadership role for UK’s industrial and manufacturing community. He is a passionate advocate for new post-COVID politics and economics; one that provides much stronger leadership and support for innovation and productivity led ‘frontier’ industries. In 2017 he was asked by the Government to lead a review into how to increase the digitalization of the UK manufacturing sector. The subsequent report led to the creation of the joint industry/government ‘Made Smarter’ Commission, which Juergen Maier co-chairs with the BEIS Business Secretary.
