Dirk Baecker (*1955) did his PhD with Niklas Luhmann. Baecker has worked in a variety of areas, including the theory of art and symbolically generalized communication media, as well as being an expert in the fields of economic and organizational sociology, with a focus on planning and decision theory, management theory, and the concept of risk. He has also written extensively on the mathematics of George Spencer-Brown.

Baecker is co-editor of the journals Soziale Systeme and Cybernetics and Human Knowing, and was also the editor of the book series "copyrights" at the Kadmos Culture Verlag in Berlin. Some of his notable writings include "Information and Risk in the Market Economy," "What Do Banks Deal In?", "The Calculation of Form," "Postheroic Management: A Vademecum," and "Organization as System: Essays."

Baecker has held teaching positions at the University of Bielefeld, the University of Witten/Herdecke, and the Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen, and is currently the chair of cultural theory and management at the University of Witten/Herdecke.