Dr. E.-F. Markus Henke is CEO of the PowerON Group, a German-New Zealand startup that aims to revolutionize robotics as we know it. Markus studied mechatronics, focused on biomedical engineering at TU Ilmenau and TU Dresden and focused on smart materials during his Ph.D. Subsequently, he researched soft, biomimetic robotics at the Auckland Bioengineering Institute of the University of Auckland (New Zealand) as part of a Marie Curie EU fellowship. Also, he got to know the later founding team of his startup. In 2017, Dr. Henke returned to TU Dresden and, after another research stay at RICE University in Houston, Texas, founded PowerON Ltd in 2019 as a spin-off from the University of Auckland (New Zealand). Since 2020, this company has also been operating in Dresden under PowerON GmbH.