Professor Andreas Pinkwart was born in 1960 in Seelscheid, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
After a banking apprenticeship he studied macroeconomics and business economics at the University of Münster and the University of Bonn from where he obtained his doctoral degree in 1991, with a thesis supervised by Professor Horst Albach.
Subsequently Professor Pinkwart ran the office of the FDP's (Free Democratic Party) leader of the parliamentary group in the German Bundestag from 1991 to 1994. In 1994 he became a professor for economics and business administration in Düsseldorf from where he later moved to the University of Siegen to accept a chair for business economics. Being on a sabbatical leave from 2002 to 2011, Professor Pinkwart was a Member of the German Bundestag (2002 - 2005) and Minister for Innovation, Science, Research and Technology as well as Deputy Prime Minister of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (2005 - 2010). In 2011 Professor Pinkwart has been appointed as Dean of HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management and ever since holds the Stiftungsfonds Deutsche Bank Chair for Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship.
In 2017 he became Minister of Economic Affairs, Innovation, Digitalization and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia

2003 Attested qualifications equalling those of a habilitation (post-doctoral lecture qualification), University of Siegen, Germany 
1991 Dr. rer. pol., University of Bonn, Germany
1987 Diplomvolkswirt (Master’s level degree in Economics), University of Bonn, Germany

2017 Minister of Economic Affairs, Innovation, Digitalization and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia
2011-2017 Dean and Chairholder of the Stiftungsfonds Deutsche Bank Chair of Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship, HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management, Germany
2011 Visiting Scholar, American Institute for Contemporary German Studies (AICGS), John Hopkins University, Washington D.C., USA
1998-2011 Professor of Business Economics, University of Siegen (Sabbatical 2003-2011    and from 2017), Germany
2010-2011  Member of the State Parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
2005-2010  Minister for Innovation, Science, Research and Technology as well as Deputy Prime Minister of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
2005-2010  Member of the German Bundesrat, Germany
2005-2010  Member of the German Council of Science and Humanities, Germany
2005-2010  Member of the Administrative Council and Chairman of the Risk Committee of the NRW Bank, Germany
2002-2005  Member of the German Bundestag, among others member of the Finance Committee, Germany
1994-1997 Professor for Business Administration and Economics, University of Applied Sciences North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
1989-1994 Research Associate and (from 1991) Executive Assistant to the leader of the Free Democratic Party’s parliamentary group in the German Bundestag, Germany
1987-1988 Research Associate, Institute for SME Research Bonn, Germany

• Board of Trustees of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
• Board of Trustees of RKW Rationalisierungs- und Innovationszentrum der Deutschen Wirtschaft e.V.
• Executive Committee of FGF (German association for research in entrepreneurship)
• German Association of University Professors and Lecturers (DHV)
• Erich-Gutenberg-Arbeitsgemeinschaft e.V.
• German Academic Association for Business Research (VHB)
• Board of Governors of Fresenius University of Applied Sciences
• Member of the Editorial Board of the Vision: The Journal of Business Perspective - SAGE
• Member of Working Committee for Academia and Economics of BDA/BDI/HRK

• University of Kent Innovation in Academia Award for Science and Business, May 2017
• Diesterweg Ring of the University of Siegen, November 2013
• Order of Merit of North-Rhine Westfalia, August 2012
• Deutscher Elite-Mittelstandspreis of the Union Mittelständischer Unternehmen e.V., Munich, 2008
• Commander with Star of the Order of Merit of Norway, October 2007