Founder
Jochen Rabe
Jochen Rabe is a strategic advisor in urban transformation and digitalisation, distinguished by senior leadership experience across public institutions, international engineering consultancies and applied research environments. His work spans the economic, environmental, infrastructural and governance dimensions shaping urban development — a combination rarely united within a single professional trajectory.
He advises federal and state ministries, metropolitan authorities and international corporations — including leadership at the highest levels of government — on long-term urban positioning and institutional capability.
From 2016 to 2022, he held the Professorship for ‘Urban Resilience and Digitalisation’ at the Einstein Center Digital Future and the Technical University of Berlin, and continues to contribute as an Associate Researcher. His academic work focused on integrating resilience, governance and digital transformation into coherent strategic frameworks.
He has held senior leadership positions at internationally renowned consulting and engineering firms and led a non-profit extra-university research institution advancing interdisciplinary approaches linking infrastructure systems, environmental resilience and digital innovation.
Jochen studied and conducted research at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford as well as at the University of Fine Arts Hamburg, developing a multidisciplinary approach centred on the sustainable integration of city, nature, economy and technology. His expertise spans foresight and innovation management, strategic urban planning, urban and regional economics, resilience strategy and Smart City governance. Across these fields, his work focuses on shaping durable transformation trajectories rather than isolated projects or short-term interventions.
In addition to his advisory practice, he contributes his expertise on a voluntary basis to federal and state ministries, NGOs and selected urban initiatives in Germany and internationally.
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Private Practice
Jochen has devoted his professional life to conceptualising, structuring and managing complex, large-scale transformation processes. Over more than 25 years, he has contributed to regional and metropolitan development strategies, innovation ecosystems and resilience frameworks across diverse international contexts.
He has held senior positions at leading international interdisciplinary engineering consultancies, including Arup and Buro Happold, in both the United Kingdom and Germany. There, he operated at the interface of strategy and delivery, integrating infrastructure systems, environmental performance and economic viability.
From 2020 to 2023, as Managing Director of the Competence Center for Water Berlin (KWB), he advanced strategic responses to water scarcity, climate adaptation and infrastructure resilience. He strengthened the integration of urban water cycles and nature-based solutions within metropolitan planning and led the development and market introduction of digital technologies emerging from applied research, including within EU Green Deal contexts.
Throughout his career, resilience has functioned not as a thematic add-on, but as an enabling framework linking environmental stewardship, economic robustness and institutional capability.
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Academia
Jochen pursued his studies, research and teaching at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, the University of Fine Arts Hamburg, the Einstein Center Digital Future, the Technical University Berlin and ESCP Business School.
His academic and professional work has consistently explored the intersection of cities, nature, governance and technology, with sustainable transformation as the guiding principle. At Oxford, he examined the interfaces between the built and natural environment. At Cambridge, he focused on interdisciplinary management of complex transformation processes.
As Professor for Urban Resilience and Digitalisation, he conducted research and teaching on Smart City strategies, resilience frameworks and institutional responses to rapid structural change. He has lectured at numerous universities, including the Technical University Berlin and ESCP.
Volunteering
Jochen has contributed pro bono expertise to institutions including the Federal Ministry of Housing, Urban Development and Construction, the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the Capital City of Berlin, the City of Heidelberg, the Wüstenrot Foundation, the Lusatia Region and Tempelhof Projekt GmbH, among others.