Bernhard Simon has been head of the Kempten Water Management Office (WWA) since September 2024. He is a civil engineer specializing in water management and studied at the Technical University of Munich.

From 2011 to 2016, he held various management positions at the Kempten Water Management Office, including in the areas of biological and chemical monitoring, hydrology and flood forecasting, large dam management, and, in particular, general project management for large water engineering projects in the Allgäu region (Western Bavarian region, especially flood protection and the EU Water Framework Directive).

In the context of extreme rainfall and flash flooding events across Bavaria, and in particular the flood event in Simbach am Inn in 2016 with several fatalities, he moved to the Bavarian State Ministry for the environment and consumer protection (StMUV) and focused to the field of alpine natural hazard management and the development of municipal flash flood risk management. Further positions at the StMUV and the Bavarian State Chancellery followed.

Until his return to the WWA Kempten, he worked at the StMUV on international water management, the development of the Bavarian overall water strategy “Water Future Bavaria 2050”, water balance research and development, including the landscape water balance.

He also teaches at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) in the field of “International Water Policy and Law” and “Natural Resource Management”, is the delegate for Bavaria in the International Lake Constance Water Protection Commission (IGKB) and involved in various international environmental and water-related research projects.