IWES directors: Innovation is an incentive and a promise

Prof. Dr. Andreas Reuter is Managing Director of Fraunhofer IWES since 2010 and in parallel a W3 professor for wind energy technology in the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geodetic Science at the Leibniz University of Hannover. After completing his doctorate on the fatigue of wind turbines at TU Berlin, he worked for 15 years in the wind industry as a project engineer, head of technology and managing director. He was responsible for the design of one of the world's most successful wind turbines and several early offshore projects in Europe. After setting up his own engineering office with a focus on wind turbine development, he returned to science. He is a member of the scientific advisory board of the vgbe and spokesman for the Renewable Energy Research Association (FVEE).

Prof. Dr. Jan Wenske, born in 1968, studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Clausthal (1988–1994) with a focus on high performance drives and power electronics. He received his PhD in 1999 at the Institute of Electrical Engineering at the TU Clausthal. He worked as a project manager within the Pre-Development division for forklift trucks at STILL GmbH (2000–2004). Subsequently Prof. Dr. Wenske was in charge of the Power Electronics Development department at Jenoptik’s Defense & Civil Systems division ESW GmbH (2004–2010). Since 2011, he has been Deputy Director of Fraunhofer IWES and Chief Technology Officer (CTO).

Dr. Bernhard Lange is Deputy Director and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Fraunhofer IWES, with a focus on wind farm planning and offshore wind energy. He studied physics at the Universities of Constance, Edinburgh, and Oldenburg and completed his doctorate on offshore wind energy meteorology at Risø National Laboratory (now DTU) and the University of Oldenburg.

He has worked at Fraunhofer IWES (formerly the Institute for Solar Energy Supply Technology ISET) since 2005, initially as group and department head for energy meteorology, power forecasting, and grid integration, and from 2014 as division head for Wind Farm Planning and Operation. Since 2007, he has also been in charge of coordinating the RAVE (Research at alpha ventus) research initiative.

Jenny Kuball completed a commercial apprenticeship and subsequently studied economics with a focus on accounting and taxation as well as production management at the University of Paderborn. During her studies, she deepened her knowledge in the field of controlling in various companies such as Deutsche See GmbH.

Jenny Kuball has been working at Fraunhofer IWES since 2009. She was appointed Head of Administration, responsible in particular for operational and strategic issues related to the institute’s finances, in 2014. She has been Chief Financial Officer at IWES since 2023.

Christian Broer, a graduate mechanical engineer, has developed industrial mechatronic drive components for aerospace, public transport, the navy, and the army. He joined the Fraunhofer IWES in Hannover in 2012 and worked as Head of the Reliability and Validation Department. This included the Data Science group in Hannover and the Large Bearing Laboratory in Hamburg. Christian Broer has been Chief Operating Officer at Fraunhofer IWES since 2023.