Board of Directors

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, born in 1962 in Völklingen, was elected Chairwoman of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung by the Board of Directors in December 2025. She served as Chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) from December 2018 to January 2021 and as Federal Minister of Defence from July 2019 to December 2021. Prior to that, she was a State Minister in various portfolios from 2000 to 2011 and subsequently Minister-President of Saarland until 2018. In 1998, Kramp-Karrenbauer was a member of the German Bundestag, and from 1999 to 2018 she was a member of the Saarland State Parliament. She also served as Chairwoman of the CDU Saar from 2011 to 2018 and as Secretary General of the CDU Germany from February to December 2018.

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Verena Blechinger-Talcott, born in 1966 in Deggendorf, has been a Professor of Japanese Politics and Economy in the Department of History and Cultural Studies at Freie Universität Berlin since 2004; since 2018, she has served as Vice President of the university. Her research focuses on Japanese and East Asian politics in comparative perspective, particularly the relationship between politics and the economy, social policy, party financing, corruption, and Japan’s foreign relations.

Hermann Gröhe, born in 1961 in Uedem, served as Federal Minister of Health from 2013 to 2018. From late March 2018 to March 2025, he was Deputy Chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the German Bundestag, responsible for the policy areas of labour and social affairs as well as economic cooperation and development. From 1989 to 1994, Hermann Gröhe was Federal Chairman of the Junge Union. He was first elected to the German Bundestag in 1994 and remained a member until 2025. From 2009 to 2013, he served as Secretary General of the CDU Germany. Since November 2025, he has been President of the German Red Cross.

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Tamara Zieschang, born in 1970 in Saarlouis and raised in Lingen (Ems), has been Minister of the Interior and Sport of the State of Saxony-Anhalt since 2021. Previously, she served, among other roles, as State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure, as State Secretary in the Ministry of the Interior and Sport of Saxony-Anhalt, and as State Secretary in the Ministry of Science and Economic Affairs. She passed her Second State Examination in Law in 2000 and earned her doctorate at the University of Bonn the following year.

Norbert Lammert, born in 1948 in Bochum, served as Chairman of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung from 2018 to 2025. For nearly four decades, he actively accompanied and helped shape politics in Germany while holding significant public offices. He served for twelve years as President of the German Bundestag, of which he was a member from 1980 to 2017. In the governments of Helmut Kohl, he held the position of Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministries of Education and Science, of Economic Affairs, and finally of Transport, as well as serving as the Federal Government’s Coordinator for Aerospace Policy. In 2003, Lammert received a lectureship in political science at Ruhr University Bochum, which appointed him honorary professor in 2008. His numerous publications address social, economic, and cultural policy issues.

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Christoph Brand is International Advisor at Goldman Sachs. From 1994 to 2014, he worked for Goldman Sachs in Frankfurt, most recently as Partner and Chairman of Investment Banking Germany, and was involved in numerous transactions in the fields of corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, equity and bond issuance, as well as privatizations. Since 1999, he has served as a shareholder and Deputy Chairman of the supervisory body (Family Council) of the household appliance manufacturer Miele & Cie. KG. From 1985 to 1987, Christoph Brand was Federal Chairman of the Ring of Christian Democratic Students (RCDS) and a co-opted member of the National Executive Committee of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

Mark Speich, born in 1970 in Bonn, has been Secretary General of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung since 2025. From 2017 to 2025, he served as State Secretary for Federal and European Affairs and International Relations of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (from 2022 to 2025 also responsible for media). In 1995, he worked as a policy advisor in the Office for Political Consultation of CDU Secretary General Peter Hintze. After serving from 1997 to 1998 as personal assistant to the Rector of the University of Bonn, Klaus Borchard, he became Head of the Society and Politics division of the Herbert Quandt Foundation in 1999. From 2006 to 2008, Speich headed the planning group of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the German Bundestag, before being appointed Managing Director of the Vodafone Foundation Germany and the Vodafone Institute for Society and Communication.