Mathias Becher is the new head of the Digital Transformation division of the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH), according to exclusive information from the German media Inside-IT. Mathias Becher succeeds Sang-Il Kim, the first to have held this position, from April 2020, and who resigned in September 2021.
According to his Linkedin profile, Mathias Becher took up his new post in August. Previously, he worked for more than 13 years at SBB, most recently in activities related to “Product Management Digital Governance Operating Model Development”. Prior to working for Federal Railroads, he was employed by Computer Science Coperation, first as a developer and later as a solutions architect. He also holds a Master of Business Administration from Bern University of Applied Sciences.
The new head of digitization should have his work cut out for him. Digitization has still not really entered the customs of the FOPH. Thus, in July 2022, all cases of notifiable disease (with the exception of Covid-19 and monkeypox) still had to be transmitted to the office by post or fax. The Covid crisis had also shone the spotlight on the aberrant shortcomings of data collection at the FOPH.
