Petra Wassner

Curriculum Vitae

Petra Wassner is Chief Executive Office of the NRW.INVEST GmbH, the Economic Development Agency of the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia. She has been working in economic development for over 20 years. Having originally graduated in social and political sciences, Petra Wassner has worked in various positions for NRW.INVEST, most recently as authorized signatory and manager of the Information, Public Relations and Location Marketing division. Initially, the main focus of her work was on the promotion of small and medium-size enterprises, as well as the establishment of cooperation networks of municipal and regional economic development facilities in NRW. She is an expert on concepts and strategies for economic development, has both domestic and international experience, and has set up an in-service study course for economic developers at the University of Applied Sciences (FHM) in Bielefeld, to which she contributes as a lecturer.

The key tasks of her business division at NRW.INVEST include international marketing for North Rhine-Westphalia as a business location, as well as the acquisition and support of foreign investment projects for NRW from the target markets Asia, Turkey and Russia. Petra Wassner is a member of the Board of Directors of NRW Japan K.K. in Tokyo.

She was appointed Chief Executive Office on 15 March 2001.

In July 2007, Petra Wassner was appointed spokeswoman of the economic development agencies of the German Federal States, which in April 2008 formed the AG WFB (Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Wirtschaftsförderungsgesellschaften der Bundesländer / Working Group of the Economic Development Agencies of the Federal States). She has been chairperson of the expert advisory committee of Invest in Germany GmbH since September 2008.