ZEIT meets G20

Top UN executive Anne-Birgitte Albrectsen took over as the CEO of Plan International on 1 September 2015.

Ms Albrectsen is the former UN Assistant Secretary General and Deputy Executive Director for Management at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). She replaced Nigel Chapman who served as Plan International’s CEO for six years.

A renowned leader in the sector, Ms Albrectsen has worked for over 25 years in international development, human rights, change management and diplomacy. She has held senior leadership positions in times of significant change in the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Danish government, and most recently at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

Ms Albrectsen is Danish and holds a law degree from the University of Copenhagen. She has a strong background in development and humanitarian work. She served with the UNDP from 1997 to 2004, in Indonesia and later as Director of the Administrator’s Office at UNDP Headquarters. She led country operations for UNFPA in Turkey, Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan from 2004-2006.

From 2007-2009, she led the Danish government’s humanitarian and civil society affairs work as the director of the relevant division in the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Roberto Azevêdo is the sixth Director-General of the WTO. His appointment took effect on 1 September 2013 for a four-year term. Ambassador Azevêdo holds degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Brasilia and in international relations from the “Instituto Rio Branco”, the graduate school of international relations and diplomacy run by the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Relations. He joined the Brazilian Foreign Service in 1984.
His first diplomatic posting was to Washington in 1988. He subsequently served in the Brazilian embassy in Montevideo before being assigned to the Permanent Mission of Brazil in Geneva in 1997.
In 2001 Roberto Carvalho de Azevêdo was named head of the Brazilian Foreign Ministry’s Dispute Settlement Unit where he remained until 2005. During his tenure he acted as chief litigator in many disputes at the WTO and served on WTO dispute settlement panels.
From 2006 to 2008 he was Vice-Minister for Economic and Technological Affairs at the Foreign Ministry in Brasilia. In that capacity he was Brazil’s chief trade negotiator for the Doha Round and represented Brazil in MERCOSUR negotiations.
In 2008 he was appointed Permanent Representative of Brazil to the WTO and other International Economic Organisations in Geneva.

David Beasley is the Executive Director of the U.N. World Food Programme. For the past 10 years he has worked on projects to foster peace, reconciliation and economic progress. He served one term as the 113th Governor of South Carolina from 1995 until 1999.

Bild©Photo: WFP / Rein Skullerud

Charles-Édouard Bouée is the Chief Executive Officer of Roland Berger, also responsible for the firm’s Asian business. He specializes in disruptive innovation, new technologies and digital transformation. He is a successful author of nonfiction books on modern management and China, as well fiction.

Natalie Blyth is the Global Head of Trade and Receivables Finance, the HSBC business which provides financing and risk mitigation solutions to meet clients’ international and domestic trade requirements.
Natalie has over 20 years’ investment banking experience. She joined the Global Commercial Banking business in 2015 as the Global Head of Large Corporates before becoming Global Head of Client Coverage.
Before moving to Global Commercial Banking, Natalie spent eight years with Global Banking and Markets as Global Head of the Consumer Group and as Co-Head of UK Banking.
Natalie joined HSBC in 2007 from Deutsche Bank, where she spent three years as Head of Consumer. Prior to this, she spent 11 years at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein.
Before her move into banking, Natalie worked as a solicitor at Stephenson Harwood, focused on corporate law. Natalie has a BSc in Biochemistry from St Andrew’s University.

Dr. Uwe Jean Heuser ist Leiter des Ressorts Green der Wochenzeitung DIE ZEIT.

Er studierte Volkswirtschaft in Bonn und Berkeley (USA), promovierte in Köln und erwarb einen Master-Titel in Harvard. Er ist einer der renommiertesten Wirtschaftsjournalisten Deutschlands und erfolgreicher Sachbuchautor.

Bei der ZEIT war er Mitgründer der Reformwerkstatt, die von 1997 bis 2000 weltweit nach neuen Reformideen suchte und auch intern die Öffnung der Zeitung betrieb. Seither leitet er das Wirtschaftsressort. 2015 leitete er die Entwicklung des Magazins ZEIT Geld und gibt das Finanzblatt seitdem auch heraus. 2004 erhielt er den Herbert Quandt Medien-Preis für die Artikelsammlung „Schöpfer und Zerstörer“. 2011 wurde er mit dem Dietrich-Oppenberg-Medienpreis der Stiftung Lesen ausgezeichnet.

Sein Buch „Humanomics“, in dem er die Revolution des ökonomischen Denkens beschreibt, gewann den getAbstract International Book Award als Deutsches Wirtschaftsbuch des Jahres 2008. „Anders Denken“, einem Buch für mehr Gerechtigkeit zwischen den Geschlechtern, war 2013 auf der Shortlist für den deutschen Wirtschaftsbuchpreis. Sein neuestes Buch „Kapitalismus inklusive“ erschien im Oktober 2017 und beschreibt, wie wir den Kampf gegen die Populisten bestehen.

Zusätzlich zu seiner Tätigkeit in der ZEIT-Redaktion ist Uwe Jean Heuser Honorarprofessor für Ökonomie an der Leuphana-Universität in Lüneburg und engagiert sich unter anderem im Kuratorium der Studienstiftung.

Bild©Nicole Sturz

Dr. Josef Joffe ist seit 2000 Herausgeber der ZEIT und war von 2001 bis 2004 auch ihr Chefredakteur. Seine Laufbahn begann er 1976 ebenfalls bei der ZEIT als politischer Redakteur. Neben seiner journalistischen Karriere – unter anderem war er von 1985 bis 2000 Ressortchef bei der »Süddeutschen Zeitung« – machte er auch eine akademische. In den USA unterrichtete er in Harvard, Princeton und Stanford, in Europa lehrte er an der Universität München und am Salzburg Seminar. Sein jüngstes Buch »The Myth of American Decline« erschien 2014 bei W. W. Norton, New York.

Bild©Vera Tammen

Born in Paris in 1956, Christine Lagarde completed high school in Le Havre and attended Holton Arms School in Bethesda (Maryland, USA). She then graduated from law school at University Paris X, and obtained a Master’s degree from the Political Science Institute in Aix en Provence.

After being admitted as a lawyer to the Paris Bar, Christine Lagarde joined the international law firm of Baker & McKenzie as an associate, specializing in Labor, Anti-trust, and Mergers & Acquisitions. A member of the Executive Committee of the Firm in 1995, Christine Lagarde became the Chairman of the Global Executive Committee of Baker & McKenzie in 1999, and subsequently Chairman of the Global Strategic Committee in 2004.

Christine Lagarde joined the French government in June 2005 as Minister for Foreign Trade. After a brief stint as Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries, in June 2007 she became the first woman to hold the post of Finance and Economy Minister of a G-7 country. From July to December 2008, she also chaired the ECOFIN Council, which brings together Economics and Finance Ministers of the European Union, and helped foster international policies related to financial supervision, regulation, and strengthening global economic governance. As Chairman of the G-20 when France took over its presidency for the year 2011, she set in motion a wide-ranging work agenda on the reform of the international monetary system.

On July 5, 2011, Christine Lagarde became the eleventh Managing Director of the IMF, and the first woman to hold that position. On February 19, 2016, the IMF Executive Board selected her to serve as IMF Managing Director for a second five-year term starting on July 5, 2016.

Christine Lagarde was named Officier in the Légion d’honneur in April 2012.

In 2016 after 20 years with Egon Zehnder International Magnus Graf Lambsdorff joined the Hitfox Group and Finleap, the leading Berlin based company builders as a Partner. Just recently he has moved to their advisory board and joined Lakestar – a leading European Venture Capital Fund as a Partner.  At Lakestar, Magnus is advising the fast-growing portfolio companies in optimising their organisations and developing the management teams.

Carlos Lopes is Professor at the University of Cape Town and Visiting Fellow at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford. He is a former UN Under-Secretary General and has occupied several leadership positions within the organization, including Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, from which he stepped down in November 2016.

Jennifer Morgan, together with Bunny McDiarmid, became Executive Director of Greenpeace International as of 4 April 2016. She was the former Global Director of the Climate Program at the World Resources Institute, Global Climate Change Director at Third Generation Environmentalism (E3G), and led the Global Climate Change Program of Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF). Jennifer holds a Bachelor of Arts from Indiana University in Political Science and Germanic Studies, and a Master of Arts from the School of International Service at The American University in International Affairs. Jennifer is a member of Germany’s Council for Sustainable Development. Jennifer is based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

René Obermann ist Co-Head der europäischen Investmentaktivitäten von Warburg Pincus und Geschäftsführer der Warburg Pincus Deutschland GmbH in Berlin. Als Aufsichtsratsvorsitzender des führenden europäischen Webhosting Anbieters IONOS sowie als Aufsichtsratsmitglied beim Satelliten-Netzbetreiber Inmarsat begleitet er aktiv zwei der großen Investments der Warburg Pincus Fonds. Seit April 2020 ist er außerdem Aufsichtsratsvorsitzender der Airbus SE. Zuvor war René Obermann in verschiedenen Aufsichtsräten tätig, unter anderem bei E.ON, Spotify, und Telenor. Bevor er Anfang 2015 als Investmentpartner zu Warburg Pincus kam, war er CEO von Ziggo BV in den Niederlanden (2014) und davor (2006 – 2013) CEO der Deutschen Telekom AG. Dort hatte er 1998 als Geschäftsführer von T-Mobile Deutschland begonnen und zwischen 2002 und 2006 die weltweiten Mobilfunkaktivitäten (T-Mobile International) der Deutschen Telekom als Konzernvorstand verantwortet. Zwischen 2007 und 2013 war er zusätzlich Vizepräsident des Bitkom, des deutschen Verbands der IT Unternehmen. René Obermann begann seine Karriere 1986 noch während des Studiums an der Universität Münster, als er ein Distributionsunternehmen für Telekommunikationstechnik- und services gründete, das 1991 von Hutchison Whampoa übernommen wurde. René Obermann arbeitete als geschäftsführender Gesellschafter und zwischen 1993 und 1998 als Vorsitzender der Geschäftsführung. Unter seiner Führung wurde das Unternehmen zu einem der ersten virtuellen Mobilfunknetzbetreiber (MVNO) in Deutschland. 2013 wurde René Obermann zum Offizier der französischen Ehrenlegion ernannt.

Pflüger is Managing Partner of Bingmann Pflüger International GmbH, Berlin and Chairman of the Internet Economy Foundation (IEF)and a member of the board of European netID Foundation. He is Director of the European Cluster of Climate, Energy and Resource Security (EUCERS) at Center for Advanced Security, Strategic and Integration Studies (CASSIS), Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn and visiting Professor at the Department of War Studies at King’s College London (KCL). He serves as Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Centre, Washington D.C. and Member of the Advisory Board of the Institute for Climate Protection, Energy and Mobility (IKEM). He has previously served as personal assistant and press secretary to former German President Richard von Weizsäcker (1981 – 89). He was a Member of the German Bundestag from 1990-2006, Chairman of the Bundestag Committee on the Affairs of the European Union (1998-2002) and Deputy Minister of Defence (“Parlamentarischer Staatssekretär”) in the first Merkel Government (2005/06). Friedbert Pflüger studied Political Science, Economics and Constitutional Law in Göttingen, Bonn and at Harvard, where he also taught at the Center for International Affairs under the supervision of Samuel Huntington. In 1982, he received his PhD at the Department of Philosophy, University of Bonn under the supervision of Karl Dietrich Bracher with a thesis on American foreign policy. In the fall of 1989 Pflüger worked as a Senior Fellow at the Hoover – Institution, Stanford.

Petra Pinzler ist Hauptstadtkorrespondentin der ZEIT und schreibt über ökonomische und politische Themen. Sie studierte Wirtschafts- und Politikwissenschaft an der Universität zu Köln und besuchte die Kölner Journalistenschule. 1994 begann sie in der Wirtschaftsredaktion der ZEIT. Von 1998 bis 2001 war sie für die ZEIT Korrespondentin in den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika und bis 2007 Europakorrespondentin in Brüssel. Seither arbeitet Frau Pinzler im Berliner Büro. In ihrem jüngsten Buch »Der Unfreihandel« setzt sie sich kritisch mit der globalen Handelspolitik auseinander.

Bild©Moritz Küstner

Dani Rodrik is Ford Foundation Professor of International Political Economy at the Harvard Kennedy School. He has published widely in the areas of economic development, international economics, and political economy. His current research focuses on the political economy of liberal democracy and economic growth in developing countries. He is the recipient of the inaugural Albert O. Hirschman Prize of the Social Sciences Research Council and of the Leontief Award for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought. His newest book is Straight Talk on Trade: Ideas for a Sane World Economy (2017, forthcoming). He is also the author of Economics Rules: The Rights and Wrongs of the Dismal Science (2015), The Globalization Paradox: Democracy and the Future of the World Economy (2011) and One Economics, Many Recipes: Globalization, Institutions, and Economic Growth (2007).

Wolfgang Schäuble wurde am 18. September 1942 in Freiburg geboren. Er ist evangelisch, verheiratet und hat vier Kinder. Schäuble studierte Rechts- und Wirtschaftswissenschaften und promovierte 1971 zum Dr. jur. Seit 1972 ist Schäuble Mitglied des Deutschen Bundestages, von 1981 bis 1984 als Parlamentarischer Geschäftsführer der CDU/CSU-Bundestagsfraktion.
Anschließend war er Bundesminister für besondere Aufgaben und Chef des Bundeskanzleramtes, bevor er von 1989 bis 1991 Bundesminister des Innern wurde. Seit 1989 ist Schäuble Mitglied im Bundesvorstand der CDU. Von 1991 bis 2000 war er Vorsitzender der CDU/CSU-Bundestagsfraktion, ab 1998 zudem Bundesvorsitzender der CDU.
Seither ist er Mitglied im Präsidium der CDU Deutschlands. Ab 2002 war Schäuble stellvertretender Vorsitzender der CDU/CSU-Bundestagsfraktion für Außen-, Sicherheits- und Europapolitik, bevor er 2005 erneut zum Bundesminister des Innern ernannt wurde. Von 2009 bis 2017 war er Bundesminister der Finanzen. Am 24.10.2017 wurde Dr. Schäuble als Nachfolger von Dr. Norbert Lammert zum Präsidenten des Deutschen Bundestages gewählt.

Bild©Deutscher Bundestag/Achim Melde

Mark Schieritz ist seit Januar 2008 Finanzmarktkorrespondent der ZEIT. Er studierte Volkswirtschaftslehre und Politikwissenschaften an der Universität Freiburg
sowie an der London School of Economics, wo er seinen Master of Science mit Auszeichnung erwarb. Er war Redakteur bei der »Financial Times Deutschland«
(»FTD«) und im Anschluss in leitender Funktion bei der FTD, bevor er zur ZEIT wechselte.

Bild©Nicole Sturz

Dennis J. Snower is President of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy and of the Global Economic Symposium (GES). He is also a Professor of Economics at the Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel. He is Co-Chair of the Think20-Group (T20) during the German G20 presidency in 2017.
He earned a BA and MA from New College, Oxford University, an MA and a PhD at Princeton University. Prior to becoming President of the Kiel Institute, he was Professor of Economics at Birkbeck College, University of London. Dennis Snower is an international expert on labor economics, public policy as well as monetary and fiscal policies and social and behavioral economy.

Bild©IfW / Christina Kloodt

Jan Walliser is the Vice President for the World Bank’s Global Practices covering Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions.  His Vice Presidency is a “one-stop-shop” for finance ministers, central bank governors and other senior policymakers, offering clients a wide set of options to: make their economies more productive, competitive, and attractive for private investment; increase access to finance and ensure safe banking; manage their fiscal deficits and debt; get new facts on poverty; or grow their public sector management capacity. Previously, Mr. Walliser was the Director of Strategy and Operations in the Bank’s Africa Region. In this capacity, he supported the Regional Vice President in providing strategic leadership and operational guidance to staff operating in 48 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Previously, he managed a team of economists for Central Africa and Nigeria, and provided advice to staff and senior management on issues related to budget support, aid effectiveness and conditionality in one of the World Bank’s central units. Before joining the World Bank, Mr. Walliser was an economist at the International Monetary Fund and a Principal Analyst at the U.S. Congressional Budget Office where he focused on the analysis of Social Security reform and tax reform.