Philipp Depiereux (born July 12, 1977) is a German

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

and

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

Early life and education

Depiereux was born in

Düren Düren (; Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: Düre) is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, between Aachen and Cologne, on the river Rur (river), Rur. History Roman era The area of Düren was part of Gallia Belgica, more specifically the ter ...

, Germany. Depiereux completed his

Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...

at Burgau-Gymnasium in Düren in 1996 and then studied

business administration Business administration is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. Overview The administration of a business includes the performance o ...

at the International School of Management.

Career

In 2004, Depiereux joined the management of Alesco (formerly Schoeller Aldo), a company that produces plastic films, alongside his father, Gunter Depiereux. He served as

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

until 2010. In 2010, together with Philipp Herrmann and Christian Lüdtke, he founded the company ''etventure'', a consultancy for digital transformation and business model development. In addition to providing digitalisation services for businesses, Depiereux, through etventure, also published studies on digital transformation in Germany in collaboration with the research institute

GfK GfK (originally ) is the largest German market research company. It provides data and intelligence to the consumer goods industry and is headquartered in Nuremberg, Germany. The company is a subsidiary of NIQ. History GfK was founded as GfK-N ...

. In an article in the German business magazine ''

Handelsblatt The ''Handelsblatt'' (literally "commerce paper" in English) is a German-language business newspaper published in Düsseldorf by Handelsblatt Media Group, formerly known as Verlagsgruppe Handelsblatt. History and profile ''Handelsblatt'' was es ...

'', Katrin Terpitz referred to Depiereux as the "Messiah of Digitalisation" in Germany's mid-sized business sector due to his achievements in the field of digitalisation. The company was acquired by EY (formerly Ernst & Young) in 2017. Depiereux remained CEO until his departure in 2021. In 2018, Depiereux launched ''Changerider'', a project featuring interviews with business, politics, and research professionals on topics related to digital transformation. These interviews are presented as videos, podcasts, and articles and were covered by German magazine t3n. In addition to his business activities, Depiereux is also an author and journalist, having published his own articles in magazines such as ''changement!'' and ''

Capital Capital and its variations may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** Capital region, a metropolitan region containing the capital ** List of national capitals * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Econom ...

''. Since February 2025, Depiereux has been publishing a biweekly column in the German magazine ''

''.

Anti-Digital Education

He advocates against a solely digital education and emphasises the importance of practical education. In an article in ''

Die Welt (, ) is a German national daily newspaper, published as a broadsheet by Axel Springer SE. is the flagship newspaper of the Axel Springer publishing group and it is considered a newspaper of record in Germany. Its leading competitors are the ...

'', Depiereux warned that early and excessive exposure to digital devices could negatively impact childhood development.

Personal life

Depiereux is married and has four children and lives in

Newport Beach, California Newport Beach is a coastal city of about 85,000 in southern Orange County, California, United States. Located about southeast of downtown Los Angeles, Newport Beach is known for its sandy beaches. The city's harbor once supported maritime indu ...

Publications

* ''ChangeRider: Pioniergeister statt Bedenkenträger: Wie mutige Macher aus Politik, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft unsere Zukunft gestalten'' (2019). Murmann Publishers. * ''Werdet WELTMUTFÜHRER'' (2020). Great2Know Publishing.

References

External links

Official Website

in ''

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Depiereux, Philipp Living people 1977 births German businesspeople 21st-century German businesspeople