Dirk Krischenowski

dotBerlin GmbH & Co. KG

Dirk Krischenowski, born in 1965, is a qualified biochemist and economist.

He started his professional career at life sciences companies such as Sanofi-Aventis and Novartis. Starting in 1999 Dirk developed and implemented the business models for leading European health portals at Bertelsmann and Netdoctor. Since 1999 Dirk Krischenowski has been much in demand as a speaker at international conferences; he is the author of articles and studies on Internet marketing and is a guest speaker at the Institute of Electronic Business (University Berlin). From 2005-2006 he has also been a member of the European Commission e-Business W@tch Advisory Board.

From the late 1990s Dirk originated the idea of top-level domains as unique identity and place branding tool for cities and regions on the Internet into a business with founding dotBERLIN GmbH & Co. KG in 2005. His efforts significantly contributed to the creation of the New gTLD application process and the applicant guidebook at ICANN.

In 2009 Dirk has founded along with the City of Paris, the City of Barcelona and initiatives in New York and Hamburg the DOTCITIES city top-level domain constituency which aims to become a registered interest group at international forums and city organizations such as Metropolis, UCLG and ICANN.

During the last years he published various papers on how local top-level domains contribute to place branding; Dirk also has been speaker at numerous conferences on the topic, including United Nations (IGF), European Council, ICANN and many other occasions. Due to his work over the past years Dirk created awareness and incited cities and regions worldwide to aim for their respective top-level domain as in New York, Paris, Tokyo, and Bavaria.

In June 2011 the German Internet Association eco e.V. honored Dirk Krischenowski with a special award for his exceptional achievements on the New gTLDs, especially for cities and regions.