Hannes Leo
Hannes Leo has been analysing various dimensions of innovative activities, innovation policy, competitiveness and telecommunications regulation for about 20 years. He joined the Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO) after completing his studies in business administration at the University of Innsbruck and Vienna. During his time at WIFO (1990 – 2007) his main focus of work has been on innovation research, technology policy, creative industries, ICT and new media and the regulation of the telecommunication sector. He has been responsible for large scale national and international research projects (e.g. technology, innovation and policy advice (tip), background report for the Competitiveness Report of DG Enterprise, Sectoral Innovation Watch (Europe Innova) and for various policy consulting projects.
At WIFO he coordinated research in the Industrial Organisation, Innovation and International Trade department and acted as deputy director from 2005 to 2007. From January to April 2008 he was director the Institute for the Study of Labour (IZA) in Bonn responsible for research management, external communications and policy consulting. Since May 2008 he has been working as independent consultant in Austria. Presently he is also Scientific Director of ERAWATCH. Besides the research and consultation agenda in his traditional fields of expertise, he co-founded Cbase in 2009 which designs and organises eParticipation and eConsultation projects that help institutions and businesses to develop their agenda with the support of a vivid community.
He is delegate to the Consultative Commission on Industrial Change (CCMI) of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), member of the UNECE Team of Specialist on Innovation and Competitiveness Policies (TOS-ICP) and lecturer at the Vienna University of Technology. During his career, he has provided advice for the European Commission, OECD, UNECE, national and regional governments and enterprises. Hannes Leo was a research fellow at SPRU (University of Sussex, Brighton) in 1994, the Istituto di Studi sulla Ricerca e Documentazione Scientifica, (Consiglio Nationale delle Ricerche, Rome) in 1995, a visiting economist at OFTEL (Office of Telecommunications, London) in 1996 and a research fellow of the University of California, Berkeley in 2001.