Tobias Kugler (Google): “Currently no more exciting industry

Transactions Tobias Kugler TRX20

Welcome to the Transactions 2020the event at which the most important heads of the Digitization-, Payment– and Banking-industry.

This is a series of interviews with this year’s speakers* of the second part of Transactions on 02/25/2011 – Today we will Tobias Kugler I’ll be available for questions and answers. Tobias is Industry Leader at Google responsible for strategic partnerships in the German banking market.

We are still in a partial lockdown, the situation is serious. However, our events live from exchange and in the last few months we have learned that many things can also take place in a virtual way. Nevertheless, we feel that personal exchange on site is important and in order to do justice to both, we have decided to leave Transactions 20 to make two events.

The first part took place as “Berliner Runde” as planned on 19.11.20. A completely virtual event with two keynotes from Sasha Lobo and Verena Pausderwho in their keynotes shared with you their vision for a digital Germany and to what extent Covid-19 is shaping our industry. We also had the man as a guest, who contributed significantly to the Wirecard case and who made the Wirecard topic the topic of 2020 in the industry: Dan McCrum. He spoke to us about the revelations in the Wirecard scandal.

Transactions 20.5 as the second event in February

The second part of Transactions 20.5 takes place on 25 February 2021 as a hybrid event, i.e. in stream and (hopefully) as a presence event, as originally planned, in Offenbach in the old steel construction. Of course we hope that the situation will have relaxed by then and that as many guests as possible will be able to attend not only in the stream but also on site. Every ticket purchased is valid on 19.11.2020 as well as on 25.02.2021. One ticket for two events. So if you have a ticket, you can be present at both events.

At the event in February 2021 the most important heads of the digitization, payment– and Banking-industry. Besides the many great participants, an event is only as good as its speakers on stage. The Transactions is one of the few interdisciplinary conferences in the DACH region that offers a stage for lateral thinkers from various industries on the subject of “digital structural change”. We are once again looking forward to national and international stars from the digital business who will give an outlook on the most important trends in the industry.

Who are these great minds #TRX20,5, you can read about this in the following pages, despite the shift in next weeks in our interview series.

Among others, the following will be included in the coming year Tobias Kuglerindustry leader banking & Fintech at Google. He is also on the panel: Panel: Bad Banks, New Kids & Big TechsExcept..;

We are happy about your acceptance of the Transactions 20.5 in February: Please introduce yourself briefly.

I am Tobias Kugler and head of the Banking & FinTech Team at Google. We take care of strategic partnerships with banks – be it in advertising, cloud or payment. I have been with Google for over 10 years and previously worked at Bertelsmann. Privately I spend a lot of time with my three daughters and enjoy reading a lot – but preferably offline.

Transactions Tobias Kugler

Since when have you been dealing with the topic of your panel and why are you enthusiastic about it?

I am a career changer in the banking & FinTech industry – I have worked in the telecommunications industry for 15 years. However, I cannot imagine a more exciting industry than Banking & FinTech at the moment. The tension between strong regulation and a vibrant start-up atmosphere is incredibly interesting.

What expectations do you have as a speaker for the upcoming TRX?

For me it is the first TRX – so I am very excited! The speaker line-up is very impressive. I am looking forward to my participation and will definitely watch all sessions.

Adapted to the situation, this year’s TRX will take place for the first time as a hybrid format. What experiences have you had so far with such digital event formats?

In any case, the hybrid format is a good compromise and the current measures make absolute sense. But of course I am really looking forward to the moment when it will be possible again to organize and attend events without distance rules.

Tobias Kugler: “The backlog demand in digital education is striking”.

For example, what questions would you like to ask your fellow panelists yourself?

Why do you think we have so little diversity in senior
management, both in the banking industry and in the start-up and development
Tech area.

The TRX takes place in Offenbach. Why should FinTech also be an issue beyond the big hubs?

Berlin is without doubt the leader in Germany in terms of the density of promising FinTechs. But diversity is always good – both in terms of gender diversity in bank boards and in the choice of location. Therefore: go Offenbach!

“Diversity is always good – in terms of gender diversity on bank boards, as well as in terms of location.”

Looking back over the year – what has changed massively in your particular sphere of influence? Which of these is positive, which negative?

The most obvious change for me is the massively reduced travel activity compared to the pre-Covid era and the resulting increase in video conferencing. For us as a digital company, the transition to purely digital communication was comparatively smooth, but I do miss the personal exchange – both at customer meetings and at events. Apart from the professional impact, I find the obvious backlog in digital education striking.

Author

  • Die studierte Soziologin und Medienwissenschaftlerin beobachtet, analysiert und schreibt als Journalistin seit vielen Jahren über die Startup- und Fintechszene. In der Vergangenheit arbeitete sie für führende on- und offline Gründer- und Wirtschaftsmedien im In- und Ausland, moderiert und schrieb mit Kollegen ein Buch über Unternehmen im Ruhrgebiet. Seit 2019 arbeitet sie für Payment & Banking, seit 2020 ist sie festes Redaktionsmitglied und ist in dieser Position verantwortlich für alle Themen Content, Planung und Entwicklung neuer Medienformate. In ihrer Zeit bei Payment & Banking ist sie zudem eine eifrige Podcasterin geworden.

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