Jill Addo
Official in Charge (member of the Federal Employment Agency), Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs

Jill Addo works for the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs in the department „Basic Aspects of Migration and Integration Policy“ (IIa5) in order to implement a nationwide funding program for women with migration experience as part of the next funding period of the European Social Fund Plus 2021-2027.

Thomas Bauer
Vice-President, RWI – Leibniz Institute for Economic Research

Thomas Bauer is currently Vice-President of RWI – Leibniz Institute for Economic Research and professor of economics at the University of Bochum (Ruhr-Universität Bochum). His main research interests are in the fields of migration, labor economics and micoreconometrics.

Athena Birkenberg
Post-doctoral researcher at the University of Hohenheim

Athena Birkenberg is a lecturer at the University of Hohenheim and conducting research in the field of socio-economics in tropical agriculture-particularly related to coffee and cocoa production. Research projects are for example dealing with sustainability certifications such as carbon neutrality, organic, rainforest alliance others are looking and policies along global value chains, or the potential of coffee by-products for comercialization.

Johanna Bodewing, Advisor, German Initiative on Sustainable Cocoa
Johanna Bodewing is an advisor in the Secretariat of the German Initiative on Sustainable Cocoa. The initiative’s goal is to improve the living conditions of cocoa farming households in cocoa producing countries such as Côte d’Ivoire. As an advisor, Johanna Bodewing supports the members of the initiative in contributing to this goal and is especially in charge of the topics „Living Income“ and „Human Rights Due Diligence“.

Nils Börnsen
Senior Policy Officer, Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy

Dr. Nils Börnsen is a senior policy officer in the unit in charge of competition policy, antitrust-law and competition-related aspects of digitization in the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy. He is a lawyer by training and working on competition-related topics such as distortions of competition by foreign subsidies and competition in digital markets.

Ulrike Brandi
CEO Ulrike Brandi Licht GmbH

Ulrike Brandi is the director of Ulrike Brandi Licht GmbH since 1986 and the Brandi Institute for Light and Design.
Her office planned around 1.300 projects around the world, including Masterplan light for the Expo 2000 Hannover, Hafencity Hamburg, City of Rotterdam and IGS in Hamburg.
Further projects are inter alia the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Day, Light and Night exhibition in the Istanbul Modern Museum, Pudong International Airport T2 in Shanghai, Amsterdam Central Station, Rotterdam Central Station, and the Royal Academy of Music in London.
A strong focus in her work is natural light in indoor and urban lighting planning and the sustainable and adequate use of artificial light.
She published various books and teaches at international Universities.

Anna Braune
Head of Department Research & Development, German Sustainable Building Council – DGNB e.V.

Anna is initiator and founding member of the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB), where she served as CEO from DGNB’s foundation in June 2007 to end 2008. Until June 2015 she worked at PE INTERNATIONAL, renamed as thinkstep AG in 2015. As Principal Consultant she was responsible for the construction team of the company’s consulting services branch. Since September 2015 Anna is working for DGNB, responsible for the organization’s unit “Research and Development”.

Anna is auditor, trainer and verifier for the DGNB scheme and former head of the DGNB expert group on Life Cycle Assessment. As environmental engineer, Anna has a deep understanding of both, environmental effects and issues and technical expertise on processing, using and disposal of natural and industrial goods

Peter Byck
Professor of Practice + director, Arizona State University + carbon nation

Peter Byck teaches documentary film production to students from the Schools of Sustainability and Journalism at Arizona State University. He also produces documentaries, and is leading a research team focused on Adaptive Multi-paddock (AMP) grazing – www.carboncowboys.org

Jean-Philippe Chauzy
Chief of Mission IOM Germany, International Organization for Migration (IOM)

Jean-Philippe Chauzy took up office as the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Chief of Mission in Berlin, Germany, on 1 January 2021. He represents IOM to the German government, the Bundestag and civil society. He started his career with IOM in 1998. Before joining IOM, Chauzy had a well-established journalistic career at the BBC World Service as a senior producer.

Gonçalo Correia
Associate Professor, Delft University of Technology

Gonçalo Correia co-leads the hEAT Lab (research on Electric and Automated Transport) at the Department of Transport & Planning of TU Delft. He leads projects on mobility sustainability, specifically in finding the role of new technologies and business models in decreasing emissions and enhancing transport equity.

Jonathan Cribb
Senior Research Economist, Institute for Fiscal Studies

Jonathan undertakes policy-relevant economic research at IFS, helping to inform UK policymakers and wider society about the effects of various government policies and changes in the economy. His work particularly focuses on how government welfare, tax and pension programmes effect employemnt and savings, and understanding the drivers of economic inequalities.

Photo: private

Lucienne Damm
Senior Environmental Manager, TUI Cruises GmbH

Lucienne Damm is a political scientist and working in sustainability and Environmental field for over 13 years. For nearly 10 years now, she is working as Senior Environmental Manager at TUI Cruises, a German premium cruise line operator. Among others, she is responsible for the company’s environmental strategy & supporting projects, shoreside and fleet environmental management systems and reporting processes. She is involved in TUI Cruises’ new build projects, always looking for sustainability innovations.

Leonhard Dobusch
Professor of Business Administration with focus on Organization at the University of Innsbruck

Leonhard Dobusch holds degrees in Law and in Business studies, and his main research interests include organizational openness and private regulation via standards, specifically in the field of intellectual property. He is co-founder and academic director of Vienna-based Momentum Institute, member of the ZDF television council and blogs at netzpolitik.org.

Quinten de Gooijer
General manager, Tempohousing

I have founded this company with 2 partners in 2002 and we have introduced the shipping container home in The Netherlands, there was no such product at that time. Today I am responsible for product development and sales.
Although we started with shipping containers as a basis, our product range today offers a wide choice of different prefab systems, next to the concept of a shipping container home.

Wouter De Tavernier
Economist pensions at OECD

Wouter De Tavernier analyses policies in the field of pensions and population ageing at the OECD’s Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs. Among others, he is involved in the ongoing project ‚Beyond Applause‘ investigating how to meet the increasing care need due to population ageing through improvements in working conditions and social recognition of care work.

Katharina Erbe
Economist at the Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF)

Dr Katharina Erbe works on economic issues of tax policy with a focus on VAT and environmental related taxation. Before joining BMF she worked on innovation policy issues at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. She has an academic background in public finance and empirical tax research.

Arndt Feuerbacher
Post-doctoral researcher, University of Hohenheim

Arndt Feuerbacher is a post-doctoral researcher at the Agricultural and Food Policy research group at University of Hohenheim. He conducts research within the fields of agricultural, environmental and development economics. His current research addresses questions of biodiversity friendly agricultultural and food policies and how model-based policy analysis can take into account non-monetary ecosystem services.

Andrew Forsey
National Director, Feeding Britain

Andrew leads Feeding Britain’s programme of practical action, research, and policy development which aims to prevent food insecurity and eliminate hunger in the United Kingdom.

Estelle Göger
Member of Cabinet of Paolo Gentiloni, European Commissioner for Economy

Estelle Göger worked in the European Parliament for 11 years as advisor to MEP Pervenche Berès, head of private office of President Martin Schulz and member of the secretariat of the committee on budgets. In this position she assisted the rapporteurs on the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) and developed a keen interest in investment policies and financial instruments. Consequently, she joined the Commission in 2017 to work on EFSI II and InvestEU in DG ECFIN, with a specific focus on legislative negotiations and relations with NPBIs. She joined the cabinet of Paolo Gentiloni, Commissioner for Economy at the beginning of the current Commission’s tenure. She currently deals with SDGs, G7/G20 among other topics within the Commissioner’s portfolio.

Helge Grammerstorf
National Director, CLIA Germany

Helge Grammerstorf, Master Mariner and Graduate Industrial Engineer for Maritime Transport is the founder and owner of SeaConsult group of companies, based in Hamburg. Since March 2013 Helge Grammerstorf holds the position of National Director of CLIA Germany, the German representation of CLIA Global, the world‘s leading association of the cruise industry.

Svenja Heber
Freelance moderator

Svenja is a freelance event moderator based in Stuttgart, Germany. By leading discussions, panels and interviews, she explores questions in the field of digitalisation, economics, politicis and science. In the last two years, Svenja mainly moderated digital events, bringing people into virtual exchange.

Christoph Heinrich
Chief Conservation Officer, WWF Germany

Christoph Heinrich, born in 1965, is a member of WWF’s Executive Board and is responsible for WWF’s nature conservation work to preserve biological diversity. His focus is on the protection of endangered habitats and species in international priority regions of the tropics and temperate latitudes, as well as in Germany.

Angus Holford
Research Fellow, University of Essex

Dr. Angus Holford is a Research Fellow at the University of Essex. He is currently the Principal Investigator of a Nuffield Foundation funded grant on the impacts of universal school meal schemes on children’s outcomes.

Michael Isfort
Professor of Nursing Science and Health Services Research, Catholic University of Applied Sciences

Prof. Dr Michael Isfort is Deputy Chairman of the German Institute for Applied Nursing Science, Cologne (DIP e.V.) and study and programme leader in the thematic area of nursing professions and nursing data.

Sami Kanaan
Minister, City of Geneva, Department of Culture and Digital Transition

Sami Kanaan was elected first to the Executive of the City of Geneva (Administrative Council) in spring 2011. Reelected twice in 2015 and 2020, he is currently in charge of the Department of Culture and Digital Transition, after having been in charge of the Department of Culture and Sport.

Mayor of Geneva on three occasions, he put at the center of his years as town hall, the dynamic of borders which can operate as ditches or on the contrary as bridges, the cultural and creative economy, support for the media, the digital transition. and the resilience of cities in times of crisis.

Nina Lemmens
Member of the Executive Board at the Joachim Herz Stiftung

Dr Nina Lemmens was appointed Member of the Executive Board of the Joachim Herz Stiftung as of October 1, 2018. In this role, she is responsible for the three central program areas – Science, Economics, and Personal Development – in which the Foundation performs its operational project work.

Lea-Maria Löbel
Technical Officer, International Labour Organization
As Technical Officer at the International Labour Organization, the United Nations Organization setting international labour standards, Lea-Maria Löbel supports development cooperation projects of the ILO funded by the German government. She also facilitates latest ILO research with German constituents and engages with German stakeholders on topics such as fair migration, child labour, future of work and global supply chains. Before her position at the ILO, Lea worked as a research associate at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), where she evaluated a Mentoring Program for Refugees in Germany.

David Patrician
Freelance Journalist

David Patrician is an American freelance journalist and moderator currently based in Hamburg. He has reported for a variety of media outlets, including the Voice of America, Deutsche Welle, N-TV, Newsweek, the Hamburger Abendblatt and RTL Nord. He has been involved with the YES! for 4 years.

Julia Plötz
Official in Charge, Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy

Julia Ploetz works for the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) in the department „Economic and Structural Policy Research“ where she is responsible for the financial and strategic support of the economic institutes of the Leibniz Association.

Wolf Prieß
Director of the Program Area Economics, Joachim Herz Stiftung

Dr Wolf Prieß is Director of the Program Area Economics at the Joachim Herz Stiftung. After studying business administration, he completed the subsequent doctorate at the Department for Vocational Studies and Economic Education of the Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel. He also worked for several years in the formation of secondary and vocational teachers at the Institute of Education at the CAU before joining the Joachim Herz Stiftung in the program Area Economics in 2012.

Stefan Profit, Deputy Director-General in the Economic Policy Department of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy

Dr Profit’s directorate deals with macroeconomic developments, economic analyses and projections. He has an academic background in labour economics, holding a doctoral degree in Economics from Humboldt University Berlin.

Arno Rasek
Chief Economist, Bundeskartellamt
The Bundeskartellamt is an independent competition authority whose task is to protect competition in Germany. The Chief Economist’s (and his team’s) role within the Bundeskartellamt is mainly to provide economic expertise and support to major investigations as well as policy formulation and in-house training.

Thomas Schlaak
Partner, Deloitte Consulting GmbH

Dr. Thomas Schlaak is a Partner with Deloitte, leading consulting services for the Power, Utilities & Renewables sector where he focuses on digital-enabled transformations across the entire value chain. In addition, he is leading Deloitte’s Sustainability Services across industries to provide clients with end-to-end to support from strategy conception through to ESG assurance.

Oliver Schmitz
CEO, berufundfamilie Service GmbH

Managing Director of berufundfamilie Service GmbH,
Lecturer in Labor Organization and Work Ability.

Willi Scholz
Head of the YES! – Young-Economic-Summit

Dr Willi Scholz is General Manager of the YES! – Young-Economic-Summit. Moreover, he is Science Policy Consultant at the ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.

Barbara Seelos
Deputy Head of Staff, Austrian Competition Agency

Babara Seelos is senior team leader of inspections and has many years of enforcement experience. Before she worked at the agency she worked for a big corporate law firm and adviced companies on competition matters.

Juliane Seifert
Permanent State Secretary, Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth

Permanent State Secretary Juliane Seifert is the highest-ranking civil servant in the Ministry and is responsible for all administrative affairs.

Denis Suarsana
Deputy Head of Department Strategy & Future of Work, Confederation of German Employers Associations (Bundesvereinigung der deutschen Arbeitgeberverbände (BDA))

Dr Denis Suarsana is the creative mind behind #futurework21 – the largest festival on the future of work in Germany. He also works at the BDA on the influence of digital technologies and business models as well as social trends on our working world.

Caren Sureth-Sloane
Professor at Paderborn University & WU Vienna University of Economics and Business

Caren Sureth-Sloane is Professor of Business Administration, esp. Business Taxation at Paderborn University (Germany) and Guest Professor at WU Vienna University of Economics and Business (Austria). In her research, she investigates the effects of (international) taxation on corporate decisions, especially on risky investments and compliance, including the drivers and effects of tax complexity and tax misperception.
She is Vice President of the Schmalenbach-Gesellschaft, Vice Chairwoman of Verein für Socialpolitik. Caren Sureth-Sloane is appointed full member of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts. She is the spokesperson for the DFG-funded Collaborative Research Center TRR 266 Accounting for Transparency.

Hermann-Josef Tenhagen
Editor-in-Chief at Finanztip

Hermann-Josef Tenhagen has been fighting for consumer rights for over 20 years. Der Spiegel once called him „Germany’s best-known consumer journalist“. He can explain the subject of finance in such a way that really everyone understands it. That is why he is a regular guest on radio and television. As editor-in-chief, publisher and managing director, he is responsible for all of Finanztip’s content and recommendations.

Klaus Tochtermann
Director of the ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics

Since June 2010, Professor Tochtermann has been the director of the ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics in Hamburg and Kiel. He also holds a professorship for Digital Information Infrastructures at Kiel University.

Elizabeth Tollenaere
Member of the National Board, Deutschen Berufsverband für Pflegeberufe e.V. (DBfK)

Elizabeth Tollenaere is a Registered Nurse and Registered Midwife who was born and educated in Australia. She moved to Germany in 2016 and works as a Nurse Educator at the Agnes-Karll Nursing School in Frankfurt. She is also a member of the National Board of the German Nurses Association (Deutschen Berufsverband für Pflegeberufe e.V. (DBfK)).

Léon van Geest
Director, Rotterdamse Dakendagen

Léon is director of the Rotterdam Rooftop Days, an NGO which wants to show how rooftops can contribute to a healthy, vibrant, inclusive, attractive and future-proof city. He’s committed to being an international role model in terms of the possibilities of rooftops, with innovative and surprising projects on rooftops. To serve as a source of inspiration and a driving force; with temporary interventions, sustainable projects and the sharing of knowledge.

Jürgen Waldorf
Managing director of the division lighting in the German Electrical and Electronical Manufacturers‘ Association ZVEI

Dr Jürgen Waldorf is managing director of the division lighting in the German Electrical and Electronical Manufacturers‘ Association ZVEI as well of the ZVEI marketing initative licht.de.
ZVEI represents 125 lighting manufactures and bundle their interests at national and European level. Via licht.de the association operates a comprehensive and neutral industry marketing and provide information on advantages and topical aspects of good lighting.

Harald Zeiss
Professor for Sustainable Tourism, Harz University of Applied Science

Prof. Dr Harald Zeiss is a professor at the Harz University of Applied Sciences in Wernigerode and heads the Institute for Sustainable Tourism. He is the chair of the DRV’s sustainability committee and the board member of the sustainability initiative Futouris.