Short Biography
of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Michael Max Bühler, MBA, PMP, P.Eng.
Michael Bühler is a member of the T20/G20 Task Force TF7 Infrastructure Investment & Financing, the World Bank/G20 Global Infrastructure Hub Academic Advisory Panel and the OECD Executive Consultation Group of the Blue Dot Network. He is also an accredited member of the EU Gaia-X platform development team and of the VDI Advisory Board for Civil Engineering. As a visiting lecturer at the Technical University of Munich he contributes to the programme on sustainable real estate, and he serves as an independent director and chair of the audit committee at DevvStream, an ESG company based in Vancouver.
Currently, Mr Bühler is leading the development of the service and data cooperative Bauform eG, which enables sovereign data exchange across the construction industry, with the support of GemeinWerk Ventures GmbH, of which he is a founding member. He is also on the board of the International Resilience and Sustainability (inRES) Partnership and, in this role, advances the Maun Science Park project to support the digital transformation strategy of the Government of Botswana (SmartBots). He is furthermore a founding lecturer at the Lean Construction Academy Germany and holds a professorship in construction business administration at the University of Applied Sciences in Konstanz, where since 2026 he also directs the new consecutive Master's programme Applied AI Transformation Management (M.Eng.; first cohort: summer semester 2027). His research and teaching interests focus on infrastructure planning and development, particularly in the context of the challenges and opportunities posed by climate change and the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Michael Bühler serves as a peer reviewer for the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the European Commission, and as a doctoral examiner at the Technical University of Munich. He is the lead author of the Springer reference book Digitale und KI-gestützte Produktivitätsanalyse im Bauwesen — Der smarte Einstieg für KMU (Bühler, Nübel, Hollenbach, Köhler, Jelinek; Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden, 2026).
Before assuming his current role, Michael Bühler headed the Infrastructure and Urban Development sector at the World Economic Forum, where he significantly advanced the global industry agenda in engineering, construction, real estate, and urban services through leading global initiatives, research, strategy development, and community engagement. Prior to his time at the World Economic Forum, he was involved in Infrastructure and Capital Projects Advisory at Deloitte in Vancouver. Earlier, Professor Bühler served as a Design Manager for the construction firm Bilfinger Berger, working on major construction sites in North America.
With over 25 years of experience in the construction, mining, and real estate industries on an international, academic, and professional level, including extensive project management and consulting activities for large capital and public-private partnership (P3) projects, Mr. Bühler brings profound and comprehensive expertise to his teaching and consulting roles. He holds a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering and an MBA specializing in Finance and Accounting.
