Klaus Wowereit is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and was the Governing Mayor of Berlin from 21 October 2001 to 11 December 2014. In 2001 state elections his party won a plurality of the votes,29.7%. He served as President of the Bundesrat in 2001/02. His SPD-led coalition was re-elected in the 2006 elections;after the 2011 elections the SPD's coalition partner changed from the Left to the Christian Democratic Union. He was also sometimes mentioned as a possible SPD candidate for the Chancellorship of Germany (Kanzlerkandidatur),but that never materialized.
Hans-Jochen Vogel was a German lawyer and a politician for the Social Democratic Party (SPD). He served as Mayor of Munich from 1960 to 1972,winning the 1972 Summer Olympics for the city and Governing Mayor of West Berlin in 1981,the only German ever to lead two cities with a million+ inhabitants. He was Federal Minister of Regional Planning,Construction and Urban Development from 1972 to 1974,and Federal Minister of Justice from 1974 to 1981. He served as leader of the SPD in the Bundestag from 1983 to 1991,and as Leader of the Social Democratic Party from 1987 to 1991. In 1993,he co-founded the organisation Gegen Vergessen –Für Demokratie. He was a member of the National Ethics Council of Germany from its beginning in 2001.
Kurt Beck is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD),who served as the 7th Minister President of Rhineland-Palatinate from 1994 to 2013 and as the 55th President of the Bundesrat in 2000/01. In May 2006,he succeeded Matthias Platzeck as chairman of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD). He resigned from that post in September 2008.
Friedbert Pflüger is a former German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He was a Member of the German Bundestag (1990–2006). He was Secretary of State in the Federal Ministry of Defence (2005–2006),and the CDU's candidate for Governing Mayor of Berlin in the 2006 Berlin state election. He was a member of the Berlin House of Representatives (2006–2011) and a member of the executive board of the CDU (2000–2010). Today,he is a businessman and teaches Energy and Climate Security at the Center for Advanced Security,Strategic and Integration Studies (CASSIS),University of Bonn. He is Visiting Professor at King’s College London.
Matthias Platzeck is a German politician. He was Minister President of Brandenburg from 2002 to 2013 and party chairman of the SPD from November 2005 to April 2006.
Giovanni di Lorenzo is an Italian-German journalist. Editor-in-chief of German nationwide weekly newspaper Die Zeit and former editor-in-chief of Berlin's liberal daily newspaper Der Tagesspiegel. Additionally di Lorenzo is a prominent talk show host for the Radio Bremen show 3 nach 9 airing monthly on NDR.
Hans-Ulrich Klose is a German politician from the Social Democratic Party and a former member of the German Federal parliament. Klose was the First Mayor of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg from 1974 up to 1981,serving as President of the Bundesrat in 1979/80.
The Bertelsmann Stiftung is an independent foundation under private law,based in Gütersloh,Germany. It was founded in 1977 by Reinhard Mohn as the result of social,corporate and fiscal considerations. As the Bertelsmann Stiftung itself has put it,the foundation promotes "reform processes" and "the principles of entrepreneurial activity" to build a "future-oriented society."
Jürgen Stark is a German economist who served as a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank from 2006 to 2011 and concurrently as ECB chief economist. Within the Executive Board,he was responsible for Economics and for Monetary Analysis and resigned before expiration of his term in opposition to ECB's bond-buying programme.
Philipp Rösler is a German physician and former politician who served as federal minister of health from 2009–2011 and federal minister of economics and technology as well as vice-chancellor of Germany from 2011 to 2013.
Manfred Lahnstein is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). In 1982 he was German Federal Minister of Finance as well as Federal Minister of Economics and until 2004 worked for the media conglomerate Bertelsmann.
Herlind Gundelach,is a German politician of the German Christian Democratic Union.
Elisabeth Mohn is a German billionaire businesswoman and philanthropist. She was married to Reinhard Mohn until his death in 2009.
Marie-Luise "Malu" Dreyer is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has served as the 8th and current Minister President of Rhineland-Palatinate since 13 January 2013. She is the first woman to hold this office. She served a one-year-term as the President of the Bundesrat from 1 November 2016 –2017,which made her the deputy to the President of Germany while in office. She was the second female President of the Bundesrat and the sixth woman holding one of the five highest federal offices in Germany.
Aydan Özoğuz is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD),who has been serving as a Vice-president of the German Bundestag since October 2021. She has been a member of the Bundestag since 2009 and served as deputy chairperson of the party from 2011 until 2017. She also served as Commissioner for Immigration,Refugees and Integration at the rank of Minister of State in the third government of Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2013 until 2018.
Katharina Fegebank is a German politician for the Alliance '90/The Greens,who has served as Second Mayor of Hamburg and Senator for Science,Research and Equality since 2015. She briefly served as acting First Mayor in March 2018.
Nicola Leibinger-Kammüller is a German businesswoman. She is the president and chairwoman of the Managing Board of the Trumpf GmbH + Co. KG,of which she has been a member since 2003,after having joined the company in 1985 as a public relations and branding specialist.
Dagmar Enkelmann is a German politician.
Jörg Dräger is a German physicist,politician and manager. From 2001 to 2008 he served as a senator in the Hamburg state government. From 2008 to 2021 he has been a member of the Bertelsmann Stiftung Executive Board where he is responsible for the areas of education and integration. Dräger is considered a leading education expert and is the author of numerous books on education policy,including the impacts of digitization.
Brigitte Mohn is a German businesswoman and a member of the Mohn family that has a significant influence on Bertelsmann group and the Bertelsmann Stiftung. Mohn is also chair of the German Stroke Foundation's executive board.
