Dr. Peer Ederer is an associate partner of the Center for Strategy & Leadership and Director of the Human Capital Project of the Brussels-based Lisbon Council. Furthermore, he heads the Innovation and Growth Project of Zeppelin University, Friedrichshafen and is the Academic Director of the European Food and Agribusiness Seminar.
His clients comprise some of the fastest growing companies in Europe, with CEO's who want to accelerate growth through innovation and value-creation oriented strategies and regional governments interested in innovation-led economic growth.
Peer studied Business Administration at Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan and at Harvard Business School in Boston, USA. He completed his PhD at the University of Witten Herdecke in Germany, exploring the financial relationship between the state and its citizens.
In 1995, he co-authored the best-selling book Das Erbe der Egoisten, a socio-economic comparison of Germany, Japan and USA. In 1999, he co-authored a second best-selling book, Geschäftsbericht Deutschland AG, an analytical description of the German state as if it were a stock market quoted company. Numerous articles and brochures have followed on this subject, including participation on a variety of expert panels for the German government. In 2008, his newest study Geschäftsplan Deutschland was published, analyzing the need to increase investment in human capital in the German economy.
Peer started his business career as a financial trader at Deutsche Bank in Japan, trading interest rate derivatives and money market instruments. He worked for four years in the German office of McKinsey & Co specializing on issues of technology management and business growth. He subsequently co-founded a Dutch technology company specializing in food supplements. He also co-founded the think tank "Deutschland Denken!", which is creating and publishing innovative public policy choices for the German society.
The underlying theme to Peer's background ranging from financial trader, public policy expert to technology start-up entrepreneur is his long-standing love-affair and fascination with the power of strategy. Strategy is the "poor-man's tool" to be successful against the odds by generating innovation and growth.