Dr. Nico Pestel is Head of Division at the State Chancellery of North Rhine-Westphalia, the executive office of the Prime Minister of Germany’s largest federal state. Before moving into public policy, Nico was an Associate Professor at the Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA) at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. Prior to that, he spent several years at IZA in Bonn, where he served in multiple roles, including Head of the research team Policy Challenges and Coordinator of the network program area "Environment, Health, and Labor Markets". Nico earned his PhD in Economics from the University of Cologne in 2013. His research focuses on applied labor economics, environmental and public economics, as well as political economy.