Presidents and Sherpas

Matthias Krämer has been the head of the Department for External Economic Policy at the Federation of German Industries (BDI) since January 2021. He is responsible for all fundamental issues of foreign economic policy. This includes essential concepts of global economic development and international trade policy, German and European foreign economic and trade policy, transatlantic trade relations and investment policy. Moreover, he represents the BDI in numerous international boards (B7, B20, B20 Coalition, BIAC, ICC, BUSINESSEUROPE) and is editor of the BDI newsletter “Focus Global Trade & Investment”.

He studied economics at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz and at the Université de Bourgogne in Dijon.

After his studies, Matthias Krämer worked as a consultant in International Corporate Auditing at AgrEvo Hoechst Schering GmbH in Berlin.

He joined BDI in 1999. Here, he initially worked as a senior manager in the Economic Policy Department. In 2008, he moved to corporate communications at DZ Bank in Frankfurt/Main. In 2010, he became head of the Department for Association Development, Members and Customers, Project and Process Management at the BDI.

From 2011 to 2015, Matthias Krämer was head of the Department for SMEs, Family Businesses and Association Development, and from 2015 to 2017 head of the Department for Mobility and Logistics. From 2017 to 2020, he led the Department for Strategic Planning and Coordination.