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Olumide Abimbola
Dr Olumide Abimbola is founder and director of the African Policy Research Institute (APRI). His areas of focus include economic informality, trade policy, regional integration and natural resources management. He has either conducted research or worked in Tunisia, Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, Togo and Nigeria. He has also worked with high-level government officials in several other African countries. Before APRI, he worked at the CONNEX Support Unit, a GIZ-hosted G7 initiative funded by the German government and the European Commission. Before that, he worked on trade and regional integration at the African Development Bank, working on continental projects such as the Africa Visa Openness Index and the Africa Regional Integration Index, a collaboration between the AfDB, African Union and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.
Katrin Bennhold is a senior writer and podcast host for The New York Times. A native German who ran the New York Times Berlin bureau until last year, Ms. Bennhold intermittently hosts The Daily podcast. She has been particularly interested in exploring the rise of the far right. Previously Ms. Bennhold has reported from Berlin, London and Paris, writing about a range of topics from migration to gender. She covered a string of terrorist attacks in France and Britain and wrote a series of features on the fallout from the 2016 Brexit referendum. Ms. Bennhold has been at The Times since 2004. She has an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics and was a Nieman fellow at Harvard University in 2012 - 2013.
Nana Brink is moderator of the country report of the Deutschlandfunk Kultur since 2017 and a member of the editorial team at Table.Media's Security.Table since 2022. Previously, Brink had already gone through many different stages in Deutschlandfunk. Among other things, she has worked as a reporter and presenter on security policy since 1998 and, between December 2013 and January 2014, deputized the US correspondent in Washington. In addition to her work for Deutschlandfunk, she works as a moderator for parties, foundations and ministries. As a freelance author, she deals with the topics of security and foreign policy as well as the USA. Nana Brink has been deputy chairwoman of Women in International Security Deutschland e.V. (WIIS) from 2005 to 2011 and since 2021.
Dr Sabine Fandrych studied political science, ethnology and Portuguese linguistics at the LMU Munich. She completed her doctorate at the Institute for Political Science at the University of Hamburg in 2000. Between 2000 and 2007, she was head of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) office in Angola and consultant for organisational development and reintegration policy at GIZ. From 2007 to 2010, Ms Fandrych headed the FES office in Ethiopia and at the African Union. In 2010, she joined the FES in Germany as head of the FES office in Baden-Württemberg. From 2017 to 2021, she headed the department of the FES Political Academy in Bonn. She has been a member of the Executive Board and Secretary General of the FES since July 2021.
Nicole Cardoch Ramos is the state secretary for communications and social participation at the Ministry of the General Secretariat of the Chilean Government. She studied journalism at the Universidad de Chile and has worked as a communications consultant in various public agencies, developing internal and external communication strategies for different institutions and organizations. Her fields of expertise lie in digital development, marketing and press, as well as in liaison with communities and organizations on the ground. Prior to her appointment as state secretary, Cardoch Ramos served as the Vice President of the Socialist Party of Chile.
H.E. Arif Havas Oegroseno currently serves as Ambassador Plenipotentiary and Extraordinary of Indonesia to the Federal Republic of Germany. He was also officially inaugurated as the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia on October 21, 2024, by President Prabowo Subianto as a part of the Red and White Cabinet. Previously, he held the office of Vice Minister of the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs from 2015 – 2018 after serving as Ambassador of Indonesia to the Kingdom of Belgium, Grand Duchy of Luxemburg and the European Union from 2010 to 2015.
Lars Klingbeil has been leader of the SPD since December 2021. Previously, he was Secretary General of his party from 2017 to 2021. During this time, Klingbeil organized the coalition negotiations and initiated all renewal processes. He has been a member of the German Bundestag since 2009 and is a deputy member of the Defense Committee, in which he primarily supports the soldiers and the modernization of the bases in his region. From 2014 to 2018, Lars Klingbeil was chairman of all Lower Saxony and Bremen MPs in the SPD parliamentary group. Before that, he was shaped by a long and intensive period in local politics. Lars Klingbeil studied political science, sociology and history in Hanover.
Sanae Abdi has been the directly elected member of the Bundestag for the constituency 93/Cologne I since 2021. She previously worked as a project manager at the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). As part of her mandate, she is committed to social justice, effective climate action and equitable international cooperation. Sanae Abdi is the development policy spokesperson for the SPD parliamentary group in the German Bundestag and heads the Middle East dialogue group.
Niels Annen is a German politician who has been serving as Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development since 2021. He was Minister of State in the Federal Foreign Office from 2018 to 2021. Mr. Annen has served as member of the German Bundestag (foreign affairs committee) from 2005 to 2009 and since 2013 Mr. Annen has also served on the Subcommittee for Arms Control and Non Proliferation as well as the Subcommittee for the United Nations.Mr. Annen was a Senior Transatlantic Resident at the German Marshall Fund in Washington between 2010 and 2011. From 2011 until 2013 he worked for the department for International Policy Analysis of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Berlin. He holds a Master Degree in International Public Policy of the Johns Hopkins University, Washington D.C., USA. Mr. Annen is an expert on the Middle East, Afghanistan and Latin and Central America.
Niklas Balbon is a research associate with the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi) in Berlin, where he contributes to the institute’s work on peace and security. His current research explores feminist perspectives for supporting Ukraine amid the ongoing Russian invasion. His research interests include the intersection of gender and conflict, post-war development and feminist analyses of (post-) war economies. Niklas holds a master’s degree in conflict, security and development from the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, where he received the director’s award for best student in his program. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in political science from Freie Universität Berlin.
Konstantin Bärwaldt is Head of the Department for Global and European Policy of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. Previously, he coordinated the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung's global peace and security policy programme and represented the FES in the Working Group on Peace and Development (FriEnt). From 2013 to 2016, he was head of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung's office in Myanmar. His main interests are international processes, changes in the global system and strengthening peace and security.
Ivan Briscoe is senior director for policy at International Crisis Group. He works with regional and cross-cutting programs to develop and promote the organisation’s analysis and prescriptions. Briscoe previously worked from 2016 to 2024 as the program director for Latin America and the Caribbean and has worked on Latin American politics, conflict and crime since 1996. Before joining Crisis Group, Ivan worked as a senior research fellow in the Clingendael Institute of the Netherlands and in the Foundation for International Relations and Foreign Dialogue (FRIDE) in Spain, where he specialised in the study of illicit networks in Latin America, the political economy of fragile states and new forms of armed violence.He graduated from Oxford University with a First Class Honour’s Degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, studied as a Frank Knox Fellow at Harvard University, and also holds a Master’s Degree in Development from the Complutense University of Madrid.
Adi Ćerimagić is a Senior Analyst for the Western Balkans at the think tank European Stability Initiative (ESI) where he is researching EU policy towards the region. Before joining ESI in August 2013, Adnan has worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo and Brussels. He also did a traineeship in the Secretariat of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee and worked for the European Training and Research Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (ETC) in Graz. He studied law at the University of Graz and EU international relations and diplomacy at the College of Europe in Bruges. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the International Institute for Peace in Vienna and the International Advisory Board of the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy.
Harun Cero is a Bosnian political scientist and journalist with extensive experience in foreign policy and democratization. He currently serves as a member of the Foreign Affairs Council for the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, advising Dr. Denis Bećirović, and as Regional Project Manager at the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, leading projects on Euro-Atlantic integration and governance in Southeast Europe. Previously, he worked as a political journalist at Al Jazeera Balkans and as a consultant in the German Bundestag. Cero holds a Master's in International Relations and Diplomacy.
Thomas Claes is advisor for western Africa and just economy/decent work as well as peace and security in the Africa Department of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) in Berlin, Germany. He previously served as a regional director for projects on economic rights, social justice and Trade Unions in Tunis, Tunisia and as country director for Libya. He studied Middle Eastern Studies and History in Berlin, Tours and Cairo.
Karamba Diaby has been a Member of the German Bundestag since 2018. In the 20th German Bundestag, he is a full member of the Committee on Economic Cooperation and Development, the Foreign Affairs Committee, the Subcommittee on Global Health and the Franco-German Parliamentary Assembly. He also chairs the Parliamentary Group on West Africa and is a substitute member of the Subcommittee on International Climate and Energy Policy. Since 2021, he has chaired the Africa discussion group of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in the German Bundestag.
Ehud (Udi) Eiran is a senior lecturer of International Relations at the University of Haifa, a board member of Mitvim - the Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies, and a member of Diplomeds, the Council for Mediterranean Diplomacy. Eiran held research appointments at Harvard Law School, Harvard’s Kennedy School, Stanford’s Department of Political Science and the UC - Berkeley’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Prior to his academic career Eiran held a number of positions in the Israeli civil service including as Assistant to the Prime Minister’s Foreign Policy Advisor.
Mirco Günther is Head of the Asia-Pacific Department of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. He was previously Director of the regional office of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Singapore and of the former country office in Afghanistan. He has worked in leading positions for the OSCE in Eastern Ukraine and Central Asia. He studied political science in Berlin, Moscow, St Andrews and Harvard.
Martin Güttler is heads of the office of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Ghana. He previously worked for the FES in various roles, most recently as project manager of the FES-wide project ‘For a Just Future’, which dealt with issues of fairer financial policy. In 2020, he worked as a speechwriter for the Mayor of Berlin.
Lisa Gürth is advisor for the Eastern Europe Department at the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) covering Russia, Belarus and the Southern Caucasus. From 2019 until the closure of the FES Office in Russia in April 2022, she worked in Moscow and then helped to establish the FES's Russia programme in Berlin. Prior to that, she gained professional experience at the Committee of the Regions in Brussels and was a postgraduate fellow at the German Institute of Development and Sustainability/IDOS, where she worked on projects in South Africa and Botswana, among others. She obtained her Master of Science in Economics at the University of Heidelberg.
Amr Hamzawy is senior fellow and the director of the Carnegie Middle East Program. His research and writing focus on governance in the Middle East and North Africa, social vulnerability, and the different roles of governments and civil societies in the region. He was previously an associate professor of political science at Cairo University and a public policy professor of practice at the American University in Cairo.
Felix Hett has been the Representative of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung for Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova since October 2022. He has been with the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung since 2009, first in Moscow, then for 5 years as a desk officer for Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine in Berlin. From January 2017 to September 2022, he headed the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung's Office for the South Caucasus, based in Tbilisi, Georgia. Felix Hett studied political sciences in Leipzig, Vilnius and Minsk.
Christos Katsioulis heads the Regional Office for Cooperation and Peace of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Vienna. Previously, he was Resident Representative of the FES offices in London, Athens and Brussels.
Michael Kimmage is a Professor in the History Department at The Catholic University of America, where he has held various positions since 2005, including Department Chair from 2018 to August 2024. His expertise includes U.S. foreign policy, particularly regarding Russia and Ukraine. Kimmage has held significant roles in government and think tanks, including as a member of the Office of Policy Planning at the U.S. Department of State (2014-2017) and as a Non-Resident Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He is a prolific author, with notable publications like Collisions: The War in Ukraine and the Origins of the New Global Instability (2024). Kimmage holds degrees from Harvard University and Oxford University.
Charmaine Misalucha-Willoughby is an Associate Professor in the Department of International Studies at De La Salle University. She received her PhD from the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University in 2009. Her engagements outside academia include membership in the Board of Trustees of the Foundation for the National Interest, a newly established think tank in Manila, Philippines, and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Asia-Pacific’s Asia Strategic Foresight Group. Willoughby’s areas of specialization are alliances, maritime security, security cooperation, and critical international relations theory. Her current research focuses on the narratives that emerge from information campaigns about the South China Sea.
Thitinan Pongsudhirak is Professor of International Relations at Chulalongkorn University’s faculty of political science and Senior Fellow at its Institute of Security and International Studies in Bangkok. Pongsudhirak has held visiting positions at Johns Hopkins University, Stanford University, University of Victoria in New Zealand, and Yangon University, and currently serves on several editorial boards of academic journals, including the Journal of Democracy. As an analyst on Southeast Asia, his comments and views have appeared regularly in international media, including Aljazeera, BBC, CNN, Financial Times, New York Times, DW, among others. Prior to his academic career, Pongsudhirak worked for the BBC World Service and the Economist Intelligence Unit. His current work focuses on the comparative politics and geoeconomics of ASEAN and the Indo-Pacific in view of the US-China rivalry. Since 2021, he has been a senior advisor to the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.
Jana Puglierin has been the Head of ECFR’s Berlin office and a Senior Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations since January 2020. She also directs ECFR’s Re:shape Global Europe project. Before joining ECFR, Puglierin headed the Alfred von Oppenheim Center for European Policy Studies at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP). Prior to this, she was an advisor on disarmament, arms control, and non-proliferation in the German Bundestag. In November 2017, Puglierin was a visiting fellow at the American-German Situation Room, a joint initiative of the AICGS and GMF. She is a board member of the German Atlantic Society and a member of the extended board of Women in International Security.
Philipp Rotmann is director of the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi) in Berlin, where he leads the work on peace and security. Rotmann served as a senior political adviser with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, worked in the German Federal Foreign Office on the Afghanistan-Pakistan task force, contributed as a consultant to the UN Department for Peacekeeping Operations, and collaborated with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Rotmann studied economics, political science, law and public administration in Erfurt, Essex, Berlin, Potsdam and at Harvard.
René Schlee is the Regional Coordinator for South East Europe at the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, based in Sarajevo. He has extensive experience in international relations and security, having previously led the Foundation's initiatives in Kosovo and North Macedonia. René has also contributed to global security efforts as an international civil servant at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. His academic background is in strategic studies, political science and psychology, with postgraduate degrees from Aberystwyth University and the University of Heidelberg.
Christoph Schmid has been a member of the German Bundestag for the Social Democratic Party (SPD) since 2021. He is a member of the Parliamentary Defence Committee. From 2008 to 2021 he was mayor of Alerheim (Bavaria). Schmid studied political science, intercultural communication and market and advertising psychology at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. Before entering politics, he worked as a sales and personnel manager and as an employment agent.
Nils Schmid has been a Member of the German Bundestag for the Social Democratic Party (SPD) since 2017. He is a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee. Since 2018, he has been the spokesperson on foreign affairs for the SPD parliamentary group. Additionally, he has been acting as the German co-chair of the board of the Franco-German Parliamentary Assembly. Previously, he served as Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs and Deputy Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg. Nils Schmid studied law at the University of Tübingen. In 2006, he completed his doctoral thesis on “Public Facility Management, Public Debt, and Public Property”.
Marie Schröter is head of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung's office in the Philippines and responsible for the regional Asia-Pacific programmes on social democracy and the future of work. She previously worked for the FES in Tel Aviv, Israel. Prior to that, she worked on the role of AI in counter-terrorism as a Mercator Fellow at the United Nations Office on Counter-Terrorism in New York, the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) at Kings College London and AlgorithmWatch in Berlin. Her research has been included in UNICRI reports. She is co-founder of Codetekt - a civil society organisation against disinformation on the internet in 2020, which she initially led as managing director. Marie studied political science at the FU Berlin, the University of Canterbury and the University of Haifa, Israel. Before completing her Master's degree, she worked for three years at the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung London.
Svenja Schulze has been German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development since December 2021; since September of the same year, she has served as a member of the German Bundestag. From March 2018 to December 2021, she held the office of Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety and from 2017 to 2018 served as Secretary General of the SPD North Rhine-Westphalia. Her parliamentary career began in 2004 when she became a member of the Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia, a post she retained until 2018. From 2010 to 2017, Svenja Schulze was Minister of Innovation, Science and Research for the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Radmila Shekerinska has served as Minister of Defence of North Macedonia, becoming the first woman in that role and overseeing North Macedonia’s accession to NATO. She also held the position of Deputy Prime Minister twice, where she played a pivotal role in securing EU candidate status for the country. A four-term Member of the Parliament, she chaired the National Council for European Integration. She is a member of the European Council for Foreign Relations, the Munich Young Leaders Group, the Task Force on Building a European Pillar within the Transatlantic Relationship of the Belfer Center at Harvard’s Kennedy School and the Group of Experts of LSE IDEAS project on non-nuclear deterrence. Ms Shekerinska holds an MA in International Relations from Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.
Lisa Tschörner has been working as a researcher at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) in the Megatrends Africa project since 2022. Her research examines non-state armed groups and political systems in the Sahel, with a focus on Niger. Previously, Tschörner worked as a researcher at the University of Bremen, where she investigated the effects of international interventions in conflicts. Tschörner studied social sciences (HU Berlin) and international conflict research (King's College London) and subsequently worked for several years in the field of peacebuilding in the Sahel and the Great Lakes region.
Alexey Yusupov is head of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung's Russia Programme, which has been working in various locations following the closure of the Foundation's presence within the Russian Federation. He previously headed the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung's offices in Kazakhstan, Afghanistan and Myanmar, focussing on the nexus between security policy and regime stability. Born in Moscow, he studied in Heidelberg and Manchester. His work and commentaries have recently been featured on TV and in print by ARD/ZDF, the BBC, The New York Times and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
