Prof. Dr. H. Dieter Rombach studied mathematics and computer science at the University of Karlsruhe and obtained his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Kaiserslautern (1984). Since 1 October 2018, he has been a Senior Research Professor at the University of Kaiserslautern. Prior to that, he held the Software Engineering Chair in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Kaiserslautern from 1992. In addition, he is Chairman of the Board of the Science & Innovation Alliance Kaiserslautern (SIAK) as well as Founding Director and Executive Consultant of the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering IESE in Kaiserslautern, whose Executive Director he was from 1996 to 2014. In 2018, Prof. Rombach was appointed the first Chief Digital Officer of the City of Kaiserslautern. From 2006 until 2009, he was also a member of the Management Board of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft e.V. and chairman of the Information and Communications Group, which consists of 17 institutes. Prior to being appointed director of Fraunhofer IESE, Prof. Rombach founded the Software Technologie Transfer Initiative (STTI) Kaiserslautern and was its director for four years. This initiative led to the foundation of Fraunhofer IESE. From 2001 to 2006, Prof. Rombach was also a Visiting Professor at the Computer Science Department of the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. During the course of the years, Prof. Rombach has declined several university offers (including one from TU Vienna).