Bernd Fesel studied Economics and Philosophy in Heidelberg and Bonn and graduated with an economist degree. He had been visiting professor at the University of Bonn, University of Arts Berlin and currently at the Institute for Culture and Media Management, KMM Hamburg. In 1990 he started his career in the art market, becoming 1997 Managing Director of the German and then the European Gallery Association. He also served as speaker of the German Arts Council.
In 2003 he founded the Office for Culture and Economy and served as advisor f.e. of the German UNESCO Commission and German Federal Foreign Office. He initiated the first national conference on creative industries in Berlin from 2004 to 2009, which was co-organized with the Friedrich-Naumann-Foundation. Then he served as vice director at the European Capital of Culture RUHR.2010, since 2011 as senior advisor at the European Centre for Creative Economy, www.e-c-c-e.com – a legacy of RUHR.2010.
He was board member of the European network on cultural management and policy (ENCATC) in Brussels and Director of the European Creative Business Network (ECBN) in Rotterdam until 2021.
Bernd Fesel initiated the winning consortium “Innovation by Creative Economy” to the EIT Call for a Knowledge and Innovation Community for the Cultural and Creative Sectors and Industries. From 2023 to 2025 he served as founding CEO of the EIT Culture & Creativity, then continuing as Director Marketing, Communication & Partnerships to building this Institutionalized Partnership of European Union further and spread the message how EIT CC supports culture & creativity as change agents for a resilient Europe.
Presentation title: Innovative Investment Partners to scale in global markets
(promising enough)
Scaling in global markets needs more than funding, but risk capital. While this is not a new message for an old problem, partners looking to overcome the valley of death after public funding are rare. With the EIT Culture & Creativity, a new institution is starting in 2025 with exactly this aim: provide new and innovative tools to generate funding and financing, synchronize funds in regulations and time horizons, or even match them and create a partnership to de-risk private and public investments. On top EIT Culture & Creativity is providing acceleration training, access to first clients or markets and the option for shareholding. In fact, EIT CC wants to become in the coming 10 years the shareholding company in Europe for companies with global ambitions and capital needs. We hope to be built, with several partners from the industry, an alternative to calling to China or US for larger tickets.
