Wilhelm Meemken

Wilhelm Meemken is the founder and from the beginning in 1988 a partner and managing director of ECOS. As director of the planning group, he has determined the orientation of the "Development Center Osnabrück" (ECOS) from 1985. The aim of the center was initially regional development through economic and employment promotion. Later, ECOS focused on promoting exchange and cooperation on the economic and political levels in Germany and Japan. After almost 30 years in this industry, Wilhelm Meemken has an extensive network that includes key individuals in German and Japanese governmental institutions, research institutes and companies.

Wilhelm Meemken completed technical training in the automotive industry from 1970 to 1978. He then studied economics and social sciences in Hamburg. After graduating in 1982, he began postgraduate studies in social sciences at the University of Osnabrück. From 1982 to 1983 he was a research associate on the London Technology Network of the Greater London Enterprise Board.

During a six-month research stay in Japan, Wilhelm Meemken devoted himself to the subject of "Regional Economic Development" in 1985, during which time he gained his first experience of the Japanese mentality and culture. A competence that he has continuously developed since then. In 1990 he developed for ECOS the first German-Japanese economic cooperation on a regional level between Mühlheim an der Ruhr, Essen, Oberhausen (MEO region) and Nagasaki Prefecture. The cooperation was later extended to North Rhine-Westphalia and the Kyushu region.

Wilhelm Meemken has initiated a series of exchange forums. These include the German-Japanese solar and biomass forums, the German-Japanese Environmental and Energy Dialogue Forums, and the German-Japanese Business Forums at the Hannover Messe. In 2016, he initiated and established the German-Japanese Energy Transition Council (GJETC) with the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy and Hennicke Consult.