Dr. Friedrich Kaufmann is currently working as the resident representative of the German-Mozambican Chamber of Commerce and Industry (AHK) a branch office of the Southern African-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry in South Africa. He lectured part time SME Policy at the University “Politecnica” in Maputo.

Before he was an international consultant in the area of Private Business Development, SMEs, BMOs and Public-Private Dialogue, mostly in Africa (incl. Mozambique) and Latin America. He lived more than10 years in Africa, namely in Mozambique, where he also worked as a Professor and Dean for Economics and Director of the Consultancy Unit GEA at the Catholic University in Beira until 2003. He was coordinator and team Leader for the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) in the Program: Sustainable Economic Development in Mozambique in the Ministry of Trade and Commerce in Mozambique until 2009.

In Germany Friedrich worked 10 years as a Research team leader at the Institute for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in Bonn, Germany. He studied at the Universities of Regensburg, Zurich, ESDE/Barcelona and Cologne. In 1985 he obtained a Degree in Business Management at the University of Cologne. In 1993 he received his PhD/Doctorate at the University of Cologne with a thesis about “Internationalization via Cooperation – A Strategy for SMEs.