Wilfried Karl has been the director of Germany's Zentrale Stelle für Informationstechnik im Sicherheitsbereich (ZITiS, Central Office for Information Technology in the Security Sector), since June 1st 2017. From 1993 to 2017 he held various Positions within the Bundesnachrichtendienst, at last as acting head of the signals intelligence directorate. Prior to this, he worked as a freelance engineer. Wilfried Karl received his university diploma in electrical engineering from the Friedrich-Alexander-University in Erlangen (Bavaria).