Clara Neppel

Dr. Clara Neppel is the Senior Director of the IEEE European office in Vienna, where she is responsible for the growth of IEEE’s operations and presence in Europe, focusing on the needs of industry, academia, and government. Clara serves as a point of contact for initiatives with regard to technology, engineering and related public policy issues that help implementing IEEE’s continued global commitment to fostering technological innovation for the benefit of humanity.

Clara joined IEEE after many years with the European Patent Office where she was involved in various aspects relating to innovation, intellectual property and public policy in the field of information and communication technologies. She co-authored publications both in the field of patentability of computer implemented inventions as well as possible future scenarios of the patent system. Before joining the Office she worked in research, in the area of parallel database optimization, and in industry, as program manager for archiving solutions.

She holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Technical University of Munich and a Master in Intellectual Property Law and Management from the University of Strasbourg.