Andreas Babler has been party chairman of the Austrian Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) and a member of the Federal Council since 2023. He completed a university course in political communication at Danube University Krems. Babler began his political career as federal secretary of Socialist Youth Austria (from 1996 to 2001). He later headed the mayor's office in the municipality of Traiskirchen from 2006 to 2014. He has been the mayor of Traiskirchen since 2014.
Dr Dominika Biegon is Head of Division for European and International Economic Policy at the Federal Executive Committee of the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB). Prior to this, she was a consultant for European economic and social policy at the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. Her publications include Hegemonies of Legitimation. Discourse Dynamics in the European Commission.
Peter Bofinger PhD is Senior Professor of Economics at the University of Würzburg. He served as a member of the German Council of Economic Experts from 2004 to 2019.
Andrew Cumbers is an economic geographer and is Professor of Political Economy at the Adam Smith Business School at the University of Glasgow. In 2024, he will be researching and teaching at the University of Bonn as part of an ERC Advanced Grant project. His research interests include economic democracy, urban and regional development, and alternative and progressive perspectives on public and collective property. He publishes on these and other topics in renowned journals and has published several award-winning monographs, most recently "The Case for Economic Democracy" (2020).
Robert Drewnicki, born in Berlin in 1962, graduated in political science from the Otto Suhr Institute of the Free University of Berlin. He has been project manager at a Berlin communications and advertising agency; he has also been involved in Strategic Communications at the Senate Department for Urban Development, Transport and the Environment; he was Head of Department for Policy Issues under Governing Mayor of Berlin Michael Müller, where he was responsible – among other things – for the Industrial Policy Steering Committee (currently on leave in the Senate Chancellery). Since summer 2022 he has been project manager in the Regional Transformation Network for the Automotive and Supplier Industry Berlin-Brandenburg for the consortium partner IG Metall Berlin-Brandenburg-Saxony/vocational training organisation of the DGB.
Sebastian Dullien is Academic Director of the Macroeconomic Policy Institute (IMK) at the Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, Düsseldorf and Professor of International Economics at HTW Berlin – University of Applied Sciences, Berlin.
Yasmin Fahimi is Chairwoman of the German Trade Union Confederation and Chairwoman of the Hans Böcker Foundation. Previously, she was General Secretary of the SPD, Permanent State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and a member of the German Bundestag.
Sven Giegold has been State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection since 2021. Previously, he was a Member of the European Parliament from 2009 to 2021, where he was, among other things, spokesperson for the German Greens and chair of the Green Group in the Committee on Economic and Financial Policy. He studied economics, politics and adult education and worked for many years in various civil society organisations such as Attac, Finance Watch and the ecological housing cooperative AllerWohnen e.G.
Lisa Göldner is lead campaigner for Greenpeace's Fossil Free Revolution campaign, which is campaigning for a rapid phase-out of fossil fuels and against new fossil fuel infrastructure in Europe. Lisa Göldner is an expert on German, EU and international climate and energy policy and is exploring new legal approaches to hold fossil fuel companies accountable.
Alexander Hagelüken is a senior editor at the Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), in which he writes about economic policy, labour and social affairs. He previously headed the Süddeutsche Zeitung's Money section and was European correspondent in Brussels and capital city correspondent in Berlin. He studied economics and has published several award-winning books on economic and monetary policy, most recently Schock-Zeiten – Wie Deutschland den wirtschaftlichen Abstieg verhindert (2023).
Prof. Dr. Christian Kellermann teaches and researches work and digitalisation at the University of Labour in Frankfurt/Main. His work focuses on digitalisation, artificial intelligence and the future of work. He is also a Senior Researcher at the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) in Berlin, where he is Deputy Scientific Director of the AI Campus.
Anna Kolesnichenko is an Economic Policy Analyst at the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS). She covers a wide spectrum of topics, with a focus on European fiscal and monetary policies and, more recently, industrial policy. She is also coordinating or contributing to multidisciplinary projects at the intersection of economy, democracy and international relations, such as the “Economic Democracy” project.
She started her career as an economist at the CASE think tank in Ukraine. Later she had short-term engagements in several international organizations and think tanks. From 2009 to 2020, Anna Kolesnichenko worked in different roles in the area of strategic analysis at UniCredit bank in Vienna.
Stefan Körzell started his professional career with an apprenticeship as a machinist at Rotenburger Metallwerke (RMW) in Rotenburg/Fulda. In 2002, Stefan Körzell was elected DGB Regional Chair for the Hesse region and Chair of the DGB District Hesse-Thuringia. He’s been a member of the Executive Committee since 2014, having been reappointed by the delegates at the 21st Ordinary Federal Congress in 2018.
Clara E. Mattei studied economics and philosophy and has been an assistant professor at the Department of Economics at the New School for Social Research (NYC) since 2016. She was a Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies at the Princeton School of Social Sciences and a Visiting Scholar at the European Institute at Columbia University. She publishes in significant journals and newspapers and in 2022 published The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism. Her political economy work combines economic history and the history of ideas, with a particular focus on the historical and contemporary significance of austerity policies.
Carel Mohn has headed Klimafakten.de since early 2011. Previously he worked for the European Climate Foundation as Communications Director Germany, headed the communications department of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin), and was spokesperson for the Federation of German Consumer Organisations. He has also worked for Transparency International and in the Office of former President of Germany Richard Weizsäcker. As a freelance journalist he has worked for, among others, Tagesspiegel, Deutschlandfunk, the BBC and the Times Higher Education Supplement.
Carl Mühlbach is the founder and chairman of the non-profit association Fiscal-Future e.V., which campaigns in the interest of young people by demanding sustainable fiscal policy. Previously, he studied economics in Heidelberg and Cambridge and worked at the Federal Ministry of Finance. During his time at the University of Cambridge, he was a member of the board of the Cambridge Society for Economic Pluralism.
Swiss-born Tobi Müller is a freelance journalist and author. He writes and talks mainly about pop music, theatre and all things digital (for Zeit Online, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, Die Wochenzeitung and republik.ch, among others). He also works as a debate moderator.
Karsten Neuhoff is Professor at the Institute of Economics and Business Law at Technical University Berlin and Head of the Climate Policy Department at DIW Berlin. His topic: How to design carbon pricing, power market design and further policies for an economically and socially successful transformation to climate neutrality?
Petra Pinzler works in the Berlin office of the weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT in Berlin. The graduate economist studied economics and political science, at the same time attending the Cologne School of Journalism. She then worked as an editor at DIE ZEIT, first in the economics department in Hamburg, then as a US correspondent in Washington, D.C. and as an EU correspondent in Brussels. Today, she oversees the Ministry of Economics and the Ministry of the Environment, focusing on economic, climate and environmental policy.
Dr Brigitte Preissl is an economist. From 2007 to 2019, she was editor-in-chief of the journals Wirtschaftsdienst – Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftspolitik and Intereconomics – Review of European Economic Policy. Prior to this, she worked as a researcher at the German Institute for Economic Research for 21 years, with some interruptions for research stays lasting several years in the United Kingdom, Italy and the United States. From 1998 to 2020, she advised the EU Commission on numerous projects. She has been a member of the jury for the Hans Matthöfer Prize since 2015.
Mohammad Abdur Razzaque is an economist, director of the Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh and chairman of the board of the organisation Research and Policy Integration for Development (RAPID) in Bangladesh. He studied in Dhaka and Sussex (PhD) and is an expert in applied analysis and research in the field of international trade and development policy. He has been consulting and publishing in this field for several decades, including as Head of the International Trade Policy Division at the Commonwealth Secretariat and as a Fellow at the London School of Business Management.
Nils Redeker is Deputy Director of the Jacques Delors Centre and is responsible for the Centre's think tank work in the field of European economic policy. His own work focuses primarily on European fiscal, economic and industrial policy. He studied political science and economics at the Free University of Berlin and the London School of Economics and did a PhD on macroeconomic imbalances within the Eurozone at the University of Zurich.
Carla Reemtsma, 24, grew up in Berlin and studied politics and economics in Münster. Carla organised the first climate strike in Münster inspired by her experiences at climate camps around the open cast mines in the Rhenish Mining Area (Rheinisches Braunkohlerevier) and Greta Thunberg’s school strikes. Since then Carla has been active in the climate justice movement, organising climate strikes, disrupting auto shows and open cast mines, and debating with everyone from grandparents to politicians about phasing out coal, capitalism and the effects of climate change.
Julia Reinhardt is a Fellow at the European New School of Digital Studies, European University Viadrina. She is currently working on issues around the EU’s AI Act and its implementation by small AI firms. She’s a member of the steering committee of the German AI Association and strategic consultant for the European AI & Society Fund. Previously she was Senior Mercator Fellow at the AI Campus Berlin, Mozilla Fellow in Residence, and data protection consultant and worked for many years in Germany’s diplomatic service.
Ralf Reinstädtler was elected to IG Metall’s Executive Board in October 2023. A trained toolmaker and labour lawyer he is responsible for trade union educational activities, education centres and IT. Prior to this, he was the first authorised representative and treasurer of IG Metall Homburg-Saarpfalz.
Katja Rietzler holds a doctorate in economics and has been a research assistant for tax and fiscal policy at the Hans Böckler Foundation's Institute for Macroeconomics and Business Cycle Research (IMK) since 2012. She previously worked for DIW Berlin and as a freelance economist and economic consultant in Hanover and Berlin. Her research focusses on economic policy and forecasting, as well as tax and fiscal policy.
Clair Siobhan Ruppert has been working for the Central Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT) (National Trade Union Confederation of Brazil) for more than 20 years, currently in the role of Coordinator of the International Relations Secretariat. There she deals with issues of international labour and trade union policy and coordinates cooperation with international organisations. She studied in Berlin and Kassel (MS.) and, in addition to her work at the CUT, is a deputy member of the Brazilian government's National Council for Migration.
Michael Schrodi has been a member of the German Bundestag since September 2017 and is the SPD parliamentary group’s financial policy spokesperson and a member of the Finance Committee. His main areas of focus include socially just and ecological finance and tax policy, as well as modern industrial policy.
Dr. Helene Schuberth is Chief Economist at the Austrian Trade Union Federation (ÖGB) in Vienna.
Martin Schulz has been Chairman of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung e.V. since 14 December 2020 and is a former MP. He has served as SPD Federal Chair, the party’s chancellor candidate and a long-serving member of the European Parliament, which he presided over for two terms from 2012 to 2017. Martin Schulz holds the Charlemagne Prize for his significant contributions to strengthening both the EU Parliament and democratic legitimacy in the Union.
Thomas Spencer has worked as an analyst and power sector modeller for the International Energy Agency (IEA) since 2021. Previously, he worked at the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI) in Paris from 2011 to 2017 and was a Fellow at the Terminal Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in New Delhi (2017–2021). He is an expert on energy, economic and climate policy and participated in the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris (COP21) as Director of IDDRI's Energy and Climate Change Programme (2013–2016).
Lavinia Steinfort is a political geographer at the Transnational Institute (TNI) in Amsterdam. There she coordinates the Public Alternatives project and, within this framework, works on alternative energy, economic and financial policy with a focus on feminist and eco-socialist perspectives. Her work focuses on the (re)municipalisation of public services and a socially just transformation to be developed in cooperation with social movements. To this end, she has been involved in numerous projects, including the mPOWER project from 2018 to 2022 and the Alliance for Energy Democracy.
Teniola Tayo is a Policy Advisor specializing in trade, security, and development in Nigeria and Africa. Her expertise extends to regional integration, particularly the African Continental Free Trade Area. She currently serves as the Trade Policy Fellow at the Africa Policy Research Institute. Teniola's previous roles include senior legislative aide with the Nigerian Senate and consultant roles with the UNDP and various think tanks. She holds a Master's degree from LSE and a Bachelor's from the University of Ghana.
Jens Tönnesmann has worked as an editor in the business section of the weekly newspaper “Die ZEIT” since 2015 and has been editor-in-chief for its magazine “ZEIT für Unternehmer” there since 2019. He is also co-host of the ZEIT and ZEIT Online economics podcast “Is this a bubble?”, which deals with current developments in the business world and economic issues.
Before Jens Tönnesmann joined ZEIT, he worked as a freelance journalist – for example for “WirtschaftsWoche” and the business magazine “brand eins”. In addition, from 2010 to 2015, he chaired the editorial teaching office and the digitisation projects of the Cologne School of Journalism for Politics and Business. The 43-year-old studied economics and politics in Cologne and Vancouver.
Achim Truger is Professor of Socioeconomics at the University of Duisburg-Essen, member of the German Council of Economic Experts, and Senior Research Fellow at the Macroeconomic Policy Institute (IMK) within the Hans-Böckler-Foundation, Duesseldorf.
Isabella M. Weber is an assistant professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, a Berggruen Fellow and a research associate at Harvard University’s Fairbank Center. In the wake of the high inflation rates caused by the Corona pandemic and the Ukraine war, Weber and Sebastian Dullien made a name for themselves with the idea of a “gas price brake” and acted as advisors within the government commission. In addition to her Bachelor’s degree at the Free University in Berlin, she completed language studies at the Chinese Language Centre of Peking University and subsequently obtained her Master’s degree at the New School for Social Research. She obtained her first PhD in 2018 at the Department of Development Studies at Peterhouse College, University of Cambridge, before returning to the New School for Social Research a year later to also complete her PhD in Economics.
She is recognised as a China expert for her research and has been awarded, among others, the Warren Samuel Prize for interdisciplinary research in the history and methodology of economic thought. Her book "How China Escaped Shock Therapy: The Market Reform Debate" was published in 2023 and will be awarded the Hans Matthöfer Prize for Economic Publications 2024.
Lucie Zmijanjac is a partner at Sattler & Partner AG, an international business consultancy for medium-sized and family-run enterprises. She supports and advises shareholders in the preparation and implementation of company sales and acquisitions. A graduate economist (international), before she joined Sattler & Partner she was a senior investment manager for several years at a major German investment company. Since the middle of 2023 she has engaged in voluntary work, for example as chair of the Economic Committee of the Association of German Women Entrepreneurs.
Armand Zorn is a member of the Bundestag, and member of the Digital Affairs committee and the Finance committee. He studied political and administrative science, European affairs, international economics and economic law. Before he entered the Bundestag he worked as, among other things, a business consultant and project leader in international development cooperation. In these positions he dealt primarily with issues of digital transformation and the sustainable and socially just transformation of the economy.