

Vali's Cromme meets Dr. Ulrich Ehmes
We are delighted to welcome Dr. Ulrich Ehmes, CEO of theion, to ESMT Berlin for a Cromme Meets. Cromme Meets is a tradition at ESMT Berlin and is a fireside chat with founding father of the ESMT Berlin Gerhard Cromme and a special guest. Turning innovation into real-world production is where complexity, capital, and execution collide. Science combined with engineering will make the world better.
Dr. Ehmes has spent his career exactly at that intersection. From leading large-scale precision manufacturing at Leica Camera AG to innovation in battery projects across the world, he brings a rare perspective: how to take deep tech out of the prototype phase and into industrial reality.
What has carried him through is a mindset shaped less by management theory than by competitive sports, the discipline of setting your own goals, being focused, and the endurance to keep moving toward them.
Today, at theion, he is building the next-generation battery technology that aims to fundamentally change how energy is stored and produced, with implications for mobility, industry, and the energy transition at large. 3x better than state of the art batteries. Made in Berlin.
In this conversation, we will go beyond vision and into execution: what it actually takes to build and scale a deep-tech company and how founders can navigate the gap between breakthrough and scaling.
We look forward to seeing you there.