Ambassador Hinrich Thoelken was appointed Special Representative for International Digitalisation
Policy and Digital Transformation of the German Federal Foreign Office in August 2018. In this
position he is tasked to analyze the effects of digital transformation in economy, society and on an
international level with a view to developing a strategy for the German Federal Foreign Office.
Hinrich Thoelken is a career diplomat with a strong scientific background. On his previous posting as
Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the Rome based UN Agencies he oversaw a trebling of
Germany’s contribution to the World Food Programme and was instrumental in establishing the WFP
Innovation Accelerator in Munich.
Previously he led Germany’s initiatives on Climate and Environmental Diplomacy. He initiated a UN
Security Council debate on Climate change and Security and oversaw a path breaking regional project
on transboundary water management in the Aral Sea basin. Other foreign postings include Paris,
Washington D.C., Windhoek and Kinshasa. Earlier in his career he served a head of media relations
and public affairs for the Helmholtz Association of national research centers, Germany’s largest
scientific organization. Thoelken is a fully-qualified medical doctor (Heidelberg and London).