Dr. Chirine Etezadzadeh (economist) is the president and founder of the SmartCity.institute (Ludwigsburg, Stuttgart and Cologne), of SmartCityNews.global – the global smart city knowledge base –, and CEO of the German Federal Smart City Association (BVSC e.V.). Prior to focusing on smart city research, she worked for global leaders in the automotive industry and as a business consultant in the energy sector. Since the summer semester of 2014, Dr. Etezadzadeh has been holding university lectures on product development for smart cities. Her book “Smart City – Future City?” was published in October 2015 by the Springer Publishing House in both German and English.