Wolfgang Schön (1961) is Vice President of the Max Planck Society, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance and Honorary Professor at the Ludwig Maxi-milians University in Munich.

       Wolfgang Schön studied law, business, and economics at the University of Bonn (1979 – 1984) and obtained a doctorate in law in 1985. After his legal training (1985 – 1988), he worked as a graduate assistant at the Institute for Tax Law of the University of Bonn (1988 – 1992), where he completed his postdoctoral lecture qualification (“Habilitation”) in 1992. Before he became Scientific Member of the Max Planck Society and Director at the Institute in 2002, Wolfgang Schön was Full Professor at the Universities of Bielefeld (1992 – 1996) and Bonn (1996 – 2002). Since 2008, he has been Vice President of the Max Planck Society.

       As Anton-Philips Professor at the University of Tilburg (2004/2005), International Research Fellow at the Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation (since 2006), Global Hauser Visiting Professor at New York University (2008/09 and 2010/11) and Ross-Parsons-Lecturer at the University of Sydney (2011), Wolfgang Schön takes active part in the global academic discourse. In 2009, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Université Catholique de Louvain. He is member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the Academia Europaea.

       Wolfgang Schön held and holds numerous offices in scientific bodies, such as Chair of the Scientific Committee of the Deutsche Steuerjuristische Gesellschaft (DStJG) (2003 – 2010), Vice-chair of the Permanent Scientific Committee of the International Fiscal Association (since 2008) and Member of the Council of Scientific Advisors to the Ministry of Finance (2003 – 2006). He is member of the board of trustees of the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation (Amsterdam), of Hertie School of Governance (Berlin) and of ifo Institute (Munich).