Anandi Iyer is the Director & Head of the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, India Office. She was for several
years also Special Advisor to the Federal Ministry of Education and Research Govt. of Germany
(BMBF). She has repeatedly broken through several glass ceilings, working as she does in a
male-dominated, multinational field of R&D and Innovation. She has been working in the field of
collaborative Technology and Innovation in the Indo-European corridor for the last more than 20
years. She is a member of the Indo-German Expert Group on Digitalisation set up by the two Heads of
Government. She is Chairperson of the Women in Science and Entrepreneurship Council (WISE) of
the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), and the Co-Chair of the
Science, Innovation and Technology Committee. Ms Iyer has won awards on leadership and
excellence, including the Outstanding Woman Achiever Award 2013 by the ISBR School of Management
and Public Relations Council of India. and the 51 Most Innovative Smart Cities Global Leaders by the
World CSR Congress in January 2019.
She has been nominated by the Government of India, as the Core Member of the G20 Empower, and
Chair for G20 Empower Working Group on STEM. She has recently been distinguished as one of the
top 75 women in STEAM by the Indian Govt and the British High Commission to mark the 75 years
of Indian Independence. She is also a Board member of a leading automotive company in India and a member of the Expert Group on Technology for the Department of Science and Technology,
Govt of India. She has written several research papers on Innovation and Technology.