Walter Ernst Paul Ulbricht was a German communist politician. Ulbricht played a leading role in the creation of the Weimar-era Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and later in the early development and establishment of the German Democratic Republic. As the First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party from 1950 to 1971, he was the chief decision-maker in East Germany. From President Wilhelm Pieck's death in 1960 on, he was also the East German head of state until his own death in 1973. As the leader of a significant Communist satellite, Ulbricht had a degree of bargaining power with the Kremlin that he used effectively. For example, he demanded the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961 when the Kremlin was reluctant.
Wolfgang Friedrich Ischinger is a German diplomat who served as chairman of the Munich Security Conference from 2008 to 2022.
The Atlantic Council is an American think tank in the field of international affairs, favoring Atlanticism, founded in 1961. It manages sixteen regional centers and functional programs related to international security and global economic prosperity. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C. It is a member of the Atlantic Treaty Association.
Klaus-Christian Kleinfeld is a German businessman. He worked as the CEO of businesses including Siemens AG, Alcoa Inc, and Arconic.
John K. Defterios is an American journalist best known for his work at CNN. He was CNN Business Emerging Markets Editor on CNN International. He left the company in May 2021, after 35 years.
The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) is a non-partisan American public policy think tank that seeks to promote cooperation and understanding between North America and the European Union.
The Vienna summit was a summit meeting held on June 4, 1961, in Vienna, Austria, between President of the United States John F. Kennedy and the leader of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev. The leaders of the two superpowers of the Cold War era discussed many issues in the relationship between their countries.
John Christian Kornblum was an American diplomat and businessman. He entered the American Foreign Service in 1964. Over the next 35 years, he served at the State Department in Washington D.C. and in Europe, eventually becoming Ambassador to Germany. From 2001 onward, he established himself as an investment banker and international business consultant.
Jeffrey Gedmin is an American scholar and author. He is a senior fellow at Georgetown University and at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. He was president and CEO of the Legatum Institute in London from 2011 to 2014 and the former president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty from 2007 to 2011.
Mohamed Abdullah El-Erian is an Egyptian-American economist and businessman. He is President of Queens' College, Cambridge, and chief economic adviser at Allianz, the corporate parent of PIMCO where he was CEO and co-chief investment officer (2007–14). He was chair of President Obama's Global Development Council (2012–17), and is a columnist for Bloomberg View, and a contributing editor to the Financial Times.
Membership in the Council on Foreign Relations comes in two types: Individual and Corporate. Individual memberships are further subdivided into two types: Life Membership and Term Membership, the latter of which is for a single period of five years and is available to those between the ages of 30 and 36 at the time of their application. Only U.S. citizens and permanent residents who have applied for U.S. citizenship are eligible. A candidate for life membership must be nominated in writing by one Council member and seconded by a minimum of three others.
The European Institute is a nonpartisan public policy organization dedicated to Transatlantic relations. The Institute was founded in 1989 and is based in Washington, D.C. It regularly hosts forums, roundtable discussions, and programs with political and business leaders from the U.S. and Europe. Additionally, the Institute publishes the e-journal European Affairs.
The Berlin Crisis of 1961 was the last major European political and military incident of the Cold War concerning the status of the German capital city, Berlin, and of post–World War II Germany. The crisis culminated in the city's de facto partition with the East German erection of the Berlin Wall.
Zachary Karabell is the founder of the Progress Network at New America, president of River Twice Capital, an author, and a columnist. In 2003, the World Economic Forum designated him a "Global Leader for Tomorrow."
The AJC Transatlantic Institute is the Brussels-based office of the American Jewish Committee, a global advocacy organization. It was founded in February 2004 to strengthen ties between Europe and the United States.
Atlantik-Brücke is a leading private non-profit association to promote German-American understanding and Atlanticism. Founded in Hamburg in 1952, it was located in Bonn between 1983 and 1999 and is now located in Berlin.
Professor Alexander Mirtchev, LL.M., Ph.D. is an American academic, executive, author and philanthropist, working in the areas of geopolitics, geoeconomics, global economic security, and political risk analysis and mitigation. He is a vice chair of the Atlantic Council of the United States, where he is also a member of the executive and strategy committees and the advisory council of the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. Dr. Mirtchev is a distinguished visiting professor at George Mason University's Schar School of Government and Policy. Dr. Mirtchev is a founding council member of the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, where he served as a senior fellow and member of the Wilson National Cabinet. He served as vice president of the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies (RUSI), UK, as well as executive chairman of RUSI International. Dr. Mirtchev is also the president and founder of Krull Corp., a macro-economic geopolitical consultancy.His new book, "The Prologue: The Alternative Energy Megatrend in the Age of Great Power Competition," is published in English, German, Spanish, and Russian.
Mark A. Weinberger is an American businessman. He is the former global chairman and CEO of EY. Weinberger currently sits on several boards of directors, including those of Metlife, Johnson & Johnson Saudi Aramco. and JPMorgan Chase. Earlier in his career he has also held several posts in the public sector in Washington, D.C., including time as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Tax Policy.
The German American Conference at Harvard (GAC) is a student-led conference organized on a yearly basis since 2008. The conference brings together American and German leaders from business, politics, and academia with students. By building a community of aspiring and established leaders in the United States and Germany, the conference aims at bettering transatlantic relations.
According to the German newspaper Handelsblatt the German American conference has developed into an important "transatlantic summit".
