Dr. Joachim Kuhn

EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year™ 2026 Judge
Founder and former CEO of va-Q-tec AG, Germany

Dr. Joachim Kuhn is advancing thermal insulation technology, saving energy and transporting goods efficiently.

Dr. Joachim Kuhn is a professional on highly efficient thermal insulation and its application, an area he has been working in for more than 30 years. While CEO of va-Q-tec AG, he worked to improve quality of life and be more sustainable by using thermal energy more efficiently — from how it’s used in distributing life-saving medicine and food across the supply chain to its use in vehicles and buildings.

Joachim founded va-Q-tec AG in 2001 to bring vacuum insulation panels (VIPs) to the market. VIPs deliver an insulation performance that is up to 10 times more efficient than traditional insulation materials. The panels are used to insulate buildings as well as in refrigerators and thermal packaging solutions — in short, wherever space is limited and very good insulation is required.

The company is a worldwide pioneer of this technology, and Joachim and va-Q-tec AG have received more than 80 national and international prizes, including the World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer Award 2013, the European Business Awards German Champion 2019, Financial Times Tech Champion 2021 and the Rudolf Diesel Medal for outstanding engineering and innovation 2023. Joachim is EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ 2023 Germany.

Joachim speaks at events worldwide and is a member of national and international committees. He is passionate about sports, having coached the German national table tennis team for 10 years. He also has held senior roles within the German Table Tennis Federation and the International Table Tennis Federation for more than 18 years.