Bernd Kowalski was born on March 22nd 1954 in Siegen, Germany. He visited university at the Rheinisch Westfälische Technische Hochschule (RWTH) in Aachen. In 1982 he joined Deutsche Telekom and worked first in the area of data communication networks. He was a member of the ITU standardization activities for Electronic Mail and Directory Systems (X.400 / X.500) and one of the editors of X.509, one of the first PKI-standards.

In 1990 he became product manager and head of the Productcenter Telesec of Deutsche Telekom, that provided secure communication products and services, e. g. Certificate and Smartcard Services for public Digital Signature and corporate security solutions for business customers.

In 2002 he changed to the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) in Bonn and took over a division that is responsible for Technical Standardization, Certification, Conformity Testing and development of Protection Profiles and Technical Recommendations in the field of Information Security.

He was in charge of the divisions “Certification and Standardization” and “Cyber Security for Digitization and Electronic Identities” since April 2019 where his activities covers all aspects of BSI-certifications, certain ID-solutions and the support of the Digitalization projects of the Federal Government like BSI Certification based on Common Criteria, IT-Grundschutz certificate, and cyber security aspects of eHealth and Smart Metering / Smart Grids, Industry 4.0, intelligent transport systems und the digital administration.

Bernd Kowalski was chairman of the Management Committee of the European Certification Authorities (SOGIS-MRA) and member of the Management Committee of the international Common Cri-teria Recognition Arrangement (CCRA). He represents Germany in several European activities like the European Cyber Security Organization (ECSO).