Pathway Design for Industrial Fermentation

Walter Koch is Director of Biochemical Technology at BASF. He is responsible for the technology evaluation and benchmarking of potential fermentation products suitable as drop ins or precursors for the chemical value chains. His work focusses on cost structure referring to the technology potential and the carbon footprint of petrochemicals and fermentation products. Before his current assignment we wrote the technology strategy for the Nutrition & Health business of BASF and was Head of Pharma Marketing for the regions Europe, Middle East, and Africa. Walter Koch joined BASF in 2002 starting in strategy and portfolio development of the BASF research in plant biotechnology. He worked four years as consultant for the McKinsey spin-off Cologne Strategy Group. Walter Koch has a diploma in biochemistry (Tübingen), a magister in philosophy (Tübingen), a master in philosophy (University of Massachusetts) and received his PhD in Heidelberg on the private language argument from Wittgenstein.