Celonis Appoints ‘Godfather of Process Mining’ Professor Wil van der Aalst as Chief Scientist

NEW YORK and MUNICH -- August 24, 2021 -- Celonis, the global leader in execution management, has appointed Professor Wil van der Aalst – widely known as “the Godfather of Process Mining” – as Chief Scientist.

Professor van der Aalst will support Celonis in accelerating its leadership in the process mining and execution management space. He will work closely with the Celonis product and engineering organization and the Celonis Academic Alliance to advance process mining innovations in both the commercial and academic sectors.

Professor van der Aalst has previously served as an independent Chief Scientific Advisor to Celonis. With his appointment to the Celonis Chief Scientist role, van der Aalst will work exclusively with Celonis and step away from advisory board positions with other technology vendors.

Wil van der Aalst is widely credited as the inventor of process mining and the first to coin the term process mining in academics and in business. He is seen as one of the world’s leading experts in process mining, business process management, workflow management, simulation, concurrency, and process modeling. He is also the author of the process mining industry’s most seminal book “Process Mining: Data Science in Action.”

“My work with Celonis over the last 10 years as collaborative-pioneers in the process mining space has been an incredibly rewarding experience. Together we have helped elevate process mining to one of the most important technology foundations in business,” said Professor van der Aalst. “I believe that Celonis has only scratched the surface to unlock the full potential of the world’s processes in both business and society. I can’t wait to get started!”

“Professor Wil van der Aalst is the undisputed top academic researcher and innovator in the process mining industry and business process management. I speak on behalf of our Celonis’ customers, partners, leadership team, and our 1,400 employees that we are honored to have Wil join our mission as Chief Scientist”, said Martin Klenk, CTO and co-founder of Celonis. “Together we will combine best of breed academic insights and commercial innovation to drive a generational change in the way the world operates and executes.”

Van der Aalst is considered one of the most cited computer scientists in the world (top-15 worldwide according to Guide2Research). He has published over 250 journal papers, 22 books (as author or editor), 550 refereed conference/workshop publications, and 80 book chapters.

Professor van der Aalst is a full professor at RWTH Aachen University leading the Process and Data Science (PADS) group. He is also part-time affiliated with the Fraunhofer-Institut für Angewandte Informationstechnik (FIT) and a member of the Board of Governors of Tilburg University. He has professorship positions at Technische Universiteit Eindhoven (TU/e), Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane and is a Distinguished Fellow at Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK) in Trento. He is also an IEEE, ACM, and IFIP Fellow, and chair of the IEEE Task Force on Process Mining.

About Celonis

Celonis helps organizations to execute on their data. Powered by its market-leading process mining core, the Celonis Execution Management System provides a set of applications, a developer studio and platform capabilities for business executives and users to eliminate billions in corporate inefficiencies, provide better customer experience and reduce carbon emissions. Celonis has thousands of global customers and is headquartered in Munich, Germany and New York City, USA with 16 offices worldwide.

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