Jeremy Rifkin is an American economic and social theorist, writer, public speaker and high-level adviser. He is the author of 20 highly successful books on the impact of scientific and technological changes on the economy, the workforce, society and the environment. His two most recent books The Zero Marginal Cost Society (2014) and The Third Industrial Revolution (2011) have been international bestsellers.

Jeremy Rifkin has been an advisor to the European Union since 2000. He has advised three presidents of the European Commission: Romano Prodi, José Manuel Barroso, and the current president, Jean-Claude Juncker, as well as the European Parliament and numerous heads of state of The EU.

Jeremy Rifkin graduated from the Wharton Business School of the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in economics. He has been a professor in the Executive Education Program of the Wharton School since 1994, where he teaches about global trends in science, technology and trade and their impacts on the economy, society and the environment.

Christoph Burger is a professor and associate dean of the Executives Education Program at the European School of Management and Technology (ESMT). Prior to joining ESMT he worked for five years in the industry at Otto Versand and as vice president at Bertelsmann Buch AG, five years as a consultant at Arthur D. Little and five years as an independent consultant focused on private equity financing to small amd medium-sized entreprises.

He is co-author of the DENA / ESMT study on "Blockchain in the Energy Transition", the study "ESMT Innovation Index - Electricity Supply Industry" and the book "The Decentralized Energy Revolution - Business Strategies for a New Paradigm". He is a speaker at conferences of DENA, Eco-Summit, Energinet, IAEE, KAPSARC and OMIE.

Christoph Burger studied business administration at the University of Saarbrücken (Germany), the Hochschule St. Gallen (Switzerland) and economics at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor (USA).