Birr remains with the company as chief strategy officer. Stefan Padberg will take the innovation role.
Thomas Birr, photo courtesy of LinkedIn
Thomas Birr has left his role as leader of innovation at E.ON, the German multinational utilities company. He remains with the company as chief strategy officer.
He was chief strategy and innovation officer at the company from July 2019, responsible for incubation, acceleration and corporate venture capital. He was leader of E.ON Group Innovation, the company’s incubator, during which time he also published a personal blog reflecting on energy innovation.
He came to the company as part of E.ON’s acquisition of Innogy, another German utilities company, where he was chief executive of Innogy’s Innovation Hub, its startup accelerator and corporate venturing arm, which he joined in 2016.
In 2022, E.ON spun off its CVC arm, Future Energy Ventures, which is now an independent fund. The company still makes strategic investments, however, mainly targeting clean tech startups. In April 2024, it took part in the $146m funding round for Tree Energy Solutions, a company working to produce e-NG (electric natural gas) from green hydrogen.
Birr’s successor as head of innovation is Stefan Padberg, who was previously managing director of E.ON Group Innovation.
