Thomas Kralinski has been Head of Office and State Secretary of the State Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labour and Transport since 1 February 2022. In 2004, Kralinski became managing director of the SPD parliamentary group in the Brandenburg state parliament in Potsdam. In 2014, he moved to the state government being appointed State Secretary and Plenipotentiary of the State of Brandenburg to the Federal Government and for Media and International Relations. From 2016 to 2018, Kralinski was head of the State Chancellery in Brandenburg. Subsequently, he was again appointed Plenipotentiary of the State of Brandenburg to the Federal Government as well as for Media, Digitalisation and International Relations.
From 2003 to 2017 Kralinski was editor-in-chief of the journal »Perspektive 21. He is a member of the board of directors of the think tank »Das Progressive Zentrum«, a board member of the Forum Ost der Sozialdemokratie, a member of the radio council of Deutschlandradio and a member of the advisory board of the East German Economic Forum. Since 2021, he has been a lecturer at the University of Kassel.
Mr. Kralinski studied political science, economics and Eastern/Southeastern European Studies (Magister Artium) in Leipzig and Manchester from 1992 to 1998. This was followed by positions at the Technical University of Dresden (1999), as a research assistant at the SPD parliamentary group in Saxony (1999–2003) and as a consultant at the SPD regional association in Brandenburg (2003–2004).