Jörg Wuttke is Vice President and Chief Representative of BASF China, based in Beijing. Since joining BASF in 1997, Wuttke has been responsible for helping guide the company’s investment strategy for China, negotiation of large projects, and government relations.
Before joining BASF, Wuttke worked with ABB for 11 years. His first professional encounter with China was in 1988 as the Finance and Administration Manager of ABB Beijing. In 1990, he returned to Germany as Sales Manager of ABB Power Plants Division, responsible for gas turbine sales to Africa and Russia. In 1993, he became Chief Representative of ABB China, in Shanghai, and in 1994 moved to the President’s Office of ABB China in Beijing, where he was responsible for the development and financing of large projects.
From 2001 to 2004, Wuttke was the Chairman of the German Chamber of Commerce in China. From 2007 to 2010 and from 2014 to 2017, he served as the President of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China. Since 2019, he has been serving in this role again. From 2011 to 2019, he was Chairman of the BIAC China Task Force of the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD (BIAC), a Paris-based body of major business associations that lobbies the OECD. From 2013 to 2016, and again since 2019, Wuttke has been Vice Chairman of the CPCIF International Cooperation Committee, a group representing Multinational Companies in China’s Chemical Association. Since its establishment in 2013, he has served as a member of the Advisory Board of Germany’s foremost think tank on China, Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS). In January 2019, he joined the International Board of the Stars Foundation, in Switzerland. He is the recipient of many honors, including the Order of Leopold II, presented by the Belgian King Albert II in 2011; the Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur, presented by French President Macron in April 2018; the Order of the Italian Star, from Italian President Mattarella in 2018; and the Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (Verdienstorden), awarded by German President Steinmeier in 2019.
Wuttke holds a B.A. in Business Administration and Economics from Mannheim and studied Chinese in Shanghai in 1982 and Taipei from 1984 to 1985.
