Prof. Dr. Philipp Sandner | Frankfurt School

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In Memoriam - Professor for Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Personal Details

Prof. Dr. Philipp Sandner has founded the Frankfurt School Blockchain Center (FSBC) at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management. From 2018 to 2021, he was ranked among the “top 30” economists by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), a major newspaper in Germany. Further, he belonged to the “Top 40 under 40” — a ranking by the German business magazine Capital. He has been a member of the FinTech Council and the Digital Finance Forum of the Federal Ministry of Finance in Germany. He was also on the Board of Directors of FiveT Fintech Fund and Blockchain Founders Group - companies active in field of blockchain startups.

The expertise of Prof. Sandner includes blockchain technology in general, crypto assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, decentralized finance (DeFi), the digital euro, tokenization of assets, and digital identity.

Furthermore, he was engaged in the EU Blockchain Observatory established by the European Union. He co-founded the German Blockchain Association, the International Token Standardization Association (ITSA), the Digital Euro Association (DEA), the Multichain Asset Managers Association and the DLT Education Consortium (DEC). He also hosted two podcasts with broad reach, Block52 and Irgendwas mit Krypto.

The Frankfurt School Blockchain Center (FSBC) was launched in February 2017 and analyzes the implications of blockchain technology on companies and business models. It provides a networking hub for managers, start-ups, and experts to exchange knowledge and best practices. The FSBC advises financial organizations, industrial corporations, and startups concerning their blockchain activities. The FSBC also organizes educational opportunities for both students and executives, including on-campus courses, workshops, and conferences. Find more at: www.fs-blockchain.de; as head of the FSBC, Prof. Sandner also initiated the DLT Talents program to empower women in the blockchain space, the DeFi Talents program for education in the DeFi sector and the NFT Talents program for leadership in the NFT space - helping to educate hundreds of talents for the blockchain domain.

Before joining Frankfurt School, he co-founded a consulting company specialized in the area of innovation strategy, IP, and technology transfer. He was a research fellow at the Technical University Munich, the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, and the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology. Previous to that, he studied business administration with a focus on computer science at the University Mannheim.

He was awarded several scholarships and research prizes. Prof. Sandner has published in international peer-reviewed journals such as Administrative Science Quarterly, Research Policy, the Journal of Marketing Research, and the Journal of Business Venturing. See his publications on Google Scholar. Recently, he also edited two books. One book focuses on the implications of blockchain technology on companies, the other one focuses on the implications for society. More: www.die-blockchain.ist/die-zukunft/

Professor Dr. Philipp Sandner passed away unexpectedly on 16 January 2024. He has been a part of our community as a highly esteemed scientist and valued colleague since 2015. We will forever carry his memory with us and honour the contributions he made to both our personal and professional lives.

Bitcoins are based on the blockchain technology. A blockchain is a distributed ledger that is synchronised between multiple computers. These computers, or nodes, together maintain the Bitcoin network. The nodes contribute the hardware and electricity which the blockchain needs to operate and are themselves paid for it with Bitcoins. This process, called mining, provides incentive to its participants and ensures that the blockchain continues, even if a single node leaves the network.