holds the Chair for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at ESCP Business School and is Director of the . He is the academic head of the Executive Master in Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurial Leadership (EMDIEL), and serves as the European Coordinator of ESCP's European Entrepreneurship Department. 
His area of expertise is entrepreneurial decision-making in venture and corporate contexts. In practice, he has been working together with SMEs and larger companies such as BASF, BMW, Deutsche Post DHL or P&G. René has worked for 3M, in start-ups and in management consulting. He co-owns a family business, co-founded a technology-start-up and was involved in a variety of other venture projects, one of which is the expert network Effectuation Intelligence that he is a partner of.