Who are Europe´s visionaries, experts, thinkers & doers?
We are looking forward to welcoming high-ranking experts from business, civil-society and academics to the Transcultural Leadership Summit.
Dr Afridi holds the Chair of Equally Ours and previously the Co-Chair of the English Regions Equality and Human Rights Network. He is working for brap, a national equality charity and has developed a strong grasp of the political, social and economic landscape and the challenges that the UK faces in promoting equality and human rights. He has a BA (hons) from Cambridge University, a Masters Degree from the European Institute of Human Rights and Democratisation and a PhD from University of Birmingham. He also holds a postgraduate certificate in advanced research.
Over the last 20 years, Dr Afridi has managed a wide range of large-scale national research projects on topics of equality, human rights, civil society, poverty and social cohesion. He has been asked to contribute to ministerial roundtables on these issues in the UK too. He represented the UK in their delegation to the European Union Equality Summit in Poland (2011) and was asked to contribute to a conference about the future of civil society in Turkey (2019). Between 2016 and 2018 Dr Afridi was a panel member on the Independent Inquiry into the Future of Civil Society in England. In 2019, he has been coordinating efforts to implement the Inquiry’s recommendations.
At the Transcultural Leadership Summit 2019, Dr Asif Afridi will co-lead the workshop “The changing space for civil society in Europe”, together with Dr Rupert Graf Strachwitz.
Dr Diana Beech has recently become the Head of Government Affairs at the University of War-wick. Before she worked as Policy Adviser to the Rt. Hon. Jo Johnson MP, UK Minister of State for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation. She also served the previous two UK Universities Ministers, Sam Gyimah MP and Chris Skidmore MP.
Prior to this, Diana was the first Director of Policy and Advocacy at the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) – the UK’s only independent think tank exclusively devoted to higher education. During her time at HEPI, Diana published several policy reports on topics as wide ranging as the Teaching Excellence Framework, future demand for higher education, free speech on campus, and widening access and participation. As a former academic, Diana is keen to improve the research career path and employment conditions for researchers and has served as an Independent Adviser to the European Commission to improve the open, transparent and merit-based recruitment of researchers across Europe. She was also a founding member of the European Commission’s ‘Voice of the Re-searchers’ network, giving researchers a seat at the European policy-making table. Diana holds a PhD in German Studies from the University of Cambridge and has been a post-doctoral re-searcher at universities in Canada, Germany and the UK.
At the Transcultural Leadership Summit, Dr Beech will give a keynote on “The future of European education”.
In his role as Manager Director of SAP Labs Germany, effective January 1, 2012, Mr Bevoli oversees all aspects of the Labs' operations and activities in Germany. He reports directly to Clas Neumann, global head of the SAP Labs Network. He joined SAP in January 2011 when SAP acquired Technidata AG and his primary task during the post-merger-integration (PMI) phase was acting as the local managing director to coordinate the PMI activities.
Carlo Bevoli started his time at TechniData GmbH focusing on business innovation and busi-ness incubator initiatives and went on to serve as chief executive officer (CEO) of TechniData BCS from 2006 to 2009. During his time as CEO he established the business model for the Environment Health and Safety Management business process outsourcing. At the time of the SAP acquisition, Bevoli was Executive Vice President for Business Strategy and Innovation and member of the extended Technidata AG Board. Carlo holds a degree from the University of Applied Sciences in Ulm (Diplom-Ingenieur FH) for Electro technology and Informatics.
At the Transcultural Leadership Summit, Mr Bevoli will hold the dinner speech “Reflections on Transcultural Leadership” and lead a workshop on the topic of “Europe – A hub for sustainability?”.
Dr Brand pursued a career in the aviation industry before taking his D.Phil. at the University of Oxford (St. John’s College). He joined Zeppelin University in 2012 and was appointed Managing Director of the LEIZ in 2015. Lennart Brand serves on the Oxford University Alumni Board and the Academic Board (DACH) of SAP SE. He (co-)represents Zeppelin University at the global G20 network of private universities which places a strong emphasis on liberal-arts education worldwide. A literary historian by trade, his research interests focus on German literature of the early 20th century, in particular Ernst Jünger and Karl Kraus.
At the Transcultural Leadership Summit 2019, Dr Lennart Brand will chair the panel discussion on “Europe – Creating transculturality through (liberal) arts?”.
Working for UNITAR, Mr Julian Caletti is an aspiring international civil servant from Germany who is based in Geneva since 2013. Prior to his current post, he worked for three years at the Information Service of the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG).
Mr Caletti holds a master’s degree in international affairs from the Graduate Institute Geneva and a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts from the University College Maastricht. He spent a total of four years working, studying and travelling in Latin America and China and is fluent in German, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Mandarin Chinese.
At this year’s summit Mr Caletti will hold a workshop on “Europe in the world – a geopolitical approach”. His main focus will be the current changes in the geopolitical power balance between Europe and China.
Dr Clemens Daeschle is Vice President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the SAP Labs Network (SLN). As a member of the management team, he is responsible for the alignment of operations across the Labs, ensuring that corporate governance and standards are met in each of these locations. Sharing best-practices within the management team and driving strategic processes, such as SAP’s globally distributed development strategy (R&D set-up, new locations, etc.), are also key aspects of his role.
Before taking on his current position, Dr Daeschle led a development team working on the “SAP By Design” product, with team members located in Bangalore and Germany. Before joining SAP in 1997, He worked for “DCWGmbH”, a mid-size software company, as a developer. Dr Daeschle holds a diploma and doctorate in Mathematics from the University of Freiburg.
At the Transcultural Leadership Summit, Dr Daeschle will give a keynote on “Cross-border-experiences in the business context”.
Prof Dr David Engels (*1979), born in Belgium, studied History, Philosophy and Economics at the RWTH-Aachen where he completed his PhD in 2005 thanks to a scholarship of the “Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes”. In addition to that, he worked as assistant professor at the RWTH-Achen.
In 2008, he took over the Chair of Roman History at the “Université libre de Bruxelles” and, at the same time, worked as director of the publication house “Latomus”. Since 2018, he has been President of the Oswald Spengler Society and Senior Analyst at the “Instytut Zachodni” in Poznań. Engels is specialised in the field of Classical Antiquity, Comparative and Global His-tory as well as the Philosophy of History.
His book publications include: D. Engels, Le déclin. La crise de l'Union européenne et la chute de la République romaine. Quelques analogies, Paris 2013 (also transl. in German, Hungarian, Croatian and Dutch). – D. Engels (ed.), Von Platon bis Fukuyama. Biologistische und zyklische Konzepte in der Geschichtsphilosophie der Antike und des Abendlandes, Brussels 2015. – D. Engels et al. (eds.), Der lange Schatten Oswald Spenglers. Einhundert Jahre Untergang des Abendlandes, Berlin 2018. - D. Engels (ed.), Renovatio Europae. Plädoyer für einen hesperia-listischen Neubau Europas, Berlin 2019. – D. Engels, Que faire? Vivre avec le déclin de l’Europe, Groningen 2019.
Prof Dr David Engels will give a keynote on “What is Europe?”.
Dr Franz Fischler, who was born Austria, obtained his doctorate in agriculture at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna in 1978. Between 1989 and 1994, during his time as Federal Minister of Agriculture and Forestry in Austria, he played an important role in the negotiations for Austria’s accession to the European Union.
As a Member of the European Commission, Fischler was responsible for Agriculture and Rural Development from 1995 until 1999, and in addition to that, for Fisheries between 1999 and 2004. After his work for the European Commission, he shared his expertise with several governments and works now as chairman of various organisations, such as European Forum Alpbach, IAS or Pro Scientia.
Dr. Franz Fischler will give a keynote on “Europe - its role in global value creation”.
While pursuing a career as lawyer, Marie-Isabelle Heiss contributed to building the German branch of the pan-European political movement Volt Europa. By now, Volt is represented in a variety of EU member states and participated in this year’s European Parliament elections in eight countries with the same program, eventually winning one seat in the European Parliament. As activist, founder of the local Volt team in Munich and Germany’s female lead candidate in the elections 2019, Heiss aspires to innovate today’s politics and enthuse people with a strong, federal Europe. Her main focus is improving European democracy and fostering gender equality.
Marie-Isabelle Heiss studied law in Passau and Berlin and, during her education, focused on Criminology, International Law and European Law. Today she is working for a Munich-based law firm and is looking back on extensive experiences working in multiple countries outside and inside Europe. Her social engagement, for example mentoring and teaching refugees or providing free legal advice in the field of social law, accompanied her through all her life.
Marie-Isabelle Heiss is a European enthusiast and inspiring political activist. At this year’s Transcultural Leadership Summit, she will share with us her visions for and experiences in European Politics in the panel discussion on “Europe - Distinct identities, shared values or a community of practice?”.
The former CEO of Mitsubishi-FUSO Truck & Bus Asia and former CFO of Daimler-Trucks global started his career as management assistant at Daimler Benz in 1984, after obtaining his doctorate at the University of Karlsruhe in Industrial Science.
By having more than 30 years of experience in leading management positions, Dr. Kirchmann may well be called a true expert for finance, controlling, business development and growth in the worldwide automotive industry.
On top of his regular work at Daimler, he became Chief Representative Officer for Daimler Japan and Vice President of the German Chamber of Commerce in Japan. Nowadays
Dr Kirchmann is a member of the Board of Directors Mitsubishi-Bank Germany and has been working as Chief Executive Advisor since 2017.
Dr. Albert X. Kirchmann will lead the workshop on “Successful mobility strategies and transcultural leadership in the European automotive industry” together with Ms Claudia Schickel and Mr Frithjof Punke.
Prior to her position as Head of Engineering, she served as Head of Programmes Customer Services: a responsibility that she had previously taken more specifically for the A330/A340 programmes since 2015. Dr Klauke joined Airbus in 2002, where she has developed her professional career by holding numerous management and executive positions linked to Manufacturing Engineering, Production, Product Development Programs, Development Processes and Change and Innovation Projects within the Airbus Commercial Aircraft division.
From 1998 to 2002 Dr Klauke worked at DELMIA, a brand of the French software company Dassault Systèmes, where she carried the digital manufacturing software deployment and the implementation of consulting and services department with customers in the automotive and the aerospace industries.
Dr Sabine Klauke is a graduate in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Technology (TU) in Dresden and the École Nationale Supérieure d’Ingénieurs en Mécanique Énergétique (ENSI) de Valenciennes. She also holds a PhD from the TU of Dresden.
At the Transcultural Leadership Summit, Dr Klauke will share her experience on “Transcultural Leadership in practice – Insights from a European Company”.
Prof Dr Alexander Kritikos is Research Director at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin), Professor for Industrial and Institutional Economics at the University of Potsdam, and Research Fellow of the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn as well as of the Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg. His research interests are Entrepreneurship Re-search and Innovation, Behavioral Economics, as well as the Design of Institutions at the European level.
He studied Economics and Political Sciences at the University of Munich where he received in 1989 his degree as Diplom-Volkswirt. After a scholarship with the doctorate programme for for Applied Microeconomics of the Free University of Berlin he received his doctoral degree in Economics at the Humboldt-University of Berlin in 1996 to be followed by his habili-tation in Economics at the European University Viadrina in 2003.
His research articles were published by Economics Letters, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Journal of Business Venturing, Research Policy und Small Business Economics. He also wrote OpEds, published by the European issues of Süddeutsche Zeitung, Handelsblatt, Cicero, Die Zeit, Frankfurter Allgemeine, Focus, and Harvard Business Review.
At the Transcultural Leadership Summit, Prof Dr Alexander Kritikos will give an introductory keynote on “Europe – Facts & Figures”.
After 14 years at Siemens, lastly working as CEO and President of Siemens Venture Capital, as well as CFO of Siemens Shanghai Mobile Communications Ltd. from 1994-1997, Mr Lupberger became a Managing Partner of PolyTechnos VenturePartners, Munich, focusing on innovative communications and medical technology investments. From 2009 to 2011, Mr Lupberger spent another three years’ period in China, being the Executive Chairman of Kistler China Ltd..
With a special focus on start-ups and moderating so-called Alternative Boards, a monthly reunion of entrepreneurs, Dr Lupberger has been working as an independent strategy, finance and legal consultant since 2011, sometimes taking over CFO functions on a temporary basis for foreign-owned companies such as French Zapf GmbH in Bayreuth.
Furthermore, he is engaged in several non-profit organisations and foundations and was as Vice President of the German-French Society Munich.
At this year’s Transcultural Leadership Summit Mr Lupberger will share his experience in the automotive, communications and medical engineering industries in Europe and Asia. Together with a representative of a French cultural institution, he will lead the workshop “Salut Kultur! – Transcultural cooperations in Germany in France in the cultural sector”.
Dr Samuel Martín-Barbero has a humanistic and modernizing global vision plus solid leadership experience in the areas of curriculum reform and values, organisational and cultural transformation, talent development, international learning and civic engagement.
Until September 2019, he has been Rector of University Camilo José Cela in Madrid, Spain. Previous to this role, he served as Dean and Associate Professor of IE University-School of Communication, Associate Dean and Adjunct Professor of IE Business School as well as Project Manager in Education and Technology at Telefónica Group. He has been an active member of the Global Agenda Council on Informed Societies and of the Knowledge Advisory Board, both at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Switzerland. He is currently a member of the International Editorial Advisory Board of the scientific publication Journalism & Mass Communication Educator (USA).
He holds a Ph.D. in Communication (Outstanding Doctoral Award) from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid; an M.A. in Journalism El País-Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) and a Certificate in History, Politics and Management from Lunds Universitet in Sweden.
At the Transcultural Leadership Summit, Dr Martín-Barbero will engage in the panel discussion on “Europe – Creating transculturality through (liberal) arts?”.
Ann Cathrin Riedel is chairwoman of LOAD e.V. - an association for liberal Internet policy. With her agency UP DIGITAL MEDIA she develops strategies for digital political communication. She was a lecturer at the HS Fresenius in Düsseldorf and was included in the list of 65 "Faces of the Future" under the 35th place by the magazine "Politik & Kommunikation".
She is a member of the working groups "Ethics in Digitalization" and "Algorithm Monitoring" of Initiative D21. In her functions she publishes and speaks regularly about ethics and civil rights, freedom of expression and communication in the digital space, as well as digital sovereignty.
Ms Riedel will give a keynote on “A vision for Europe”.
Fotocredits: Hendrik Wieduwilt
Andreas Schell has held the position of President of the Rolls- Royce Power Systems business unit, Chief Executive Officer of Rolls-Royce Power Systems AG and Chairman of the Board of Directors of its subsidiary MTU in Friedrichshafen since 1 January 2017. He is also responsible for the Technology division, Operations and Sales. Andreas Schell came to Rolls-Royce from United Technologies Corporation (UTC) Aerospace Systems in the United States, where he was Vice President Digital Strategy, having previously held the position of President of the Actuation & Propeller Systems business unit and President of the Electric Systems. Born in 1969, Andreas Schell has a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Clausthal University of Technology in Germany and an executive MBA from Michigan State University in the United States. He is committed to cutting-edge technology, technical innovation and is passionate about professional management responsibility. Embracing change in a global business environment that is constantly changing is absolutely essential, in Andreas Schell’s view, if companies wish to remain competitive.
Andreas Schell will open the Transcultural Leadership Summit with a welcome address and will participate in the panel discussion on “Europe – Distinct identities, shared values or a community of practice?“.
Mrs Schickel started her career as international trainee at Mercedes-Benz in 1996, after fin-ishing her studies of “Business Administration and Mechanical Engineering” at the Technical University of Darmstadt. She then became an expert in International Project Management and Project Controlling with more than 20 years of work experience in different Management po-sitions in the automotive and solar industry in Germany (10 years), Spain (2 years), Switzerland (5 years) and England (5 years).
For the last 3 years Mrs Schickel has been working as Head of Project Management Office for serial development projects with MAN Truck & Bus in Munich. Within this position she is also working across TRATON brands located in Sweden and Brazil.
At the Transcultural Leadership Summit, Mrs Claudia Schickel will hold the workshop “Successful mobility strategies and transcultural leadership in the European automotive industry”, in cooperation with Dr Albert X. Kirchmann and Mr Frithjof Punke.
Dr Graf Strachwitz is a political scientist and historian, Ph.D. and has been the director of the Maecenata Institute, an independent research and policy centre in Berlin since 1997, and the Executive Director of the Maecenata Foundation since 2010. The Maecenata Foundation is a think tank that focusses on international civil society and philanthropy issues.
Previous posts included serving at World Headquarters of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta in Rome and as regional director of the Order of Malta Relief Service in Bavaria. Dr Graf Strachwitz was Vice-President of German Caritas, member of the German Federal Parliament Commission on Civic Action and the board of the Fondazione Cariplo, Milan, and chaired the European Policy Working Group of Europa Nostra.
He has approximately 600 publications to his name, teaches regularly at universities, and lectures at home and abroad.
At the Transcultural Leadership Summit, Dr Rupert Graf Strachwitz will hold a keynote on the topic of “European civil society as a common good?" and lead a workshop on "The changing space for civil society in Europe”, together with Dr Asif Afridi.
Valerio Vincenzo was born in Naples, Italy in 1973. He lives and works in the Netherlands as well as in Paris and Milan. Before becoming a photographer in 2004, he worked as a strategy consultant in France and then as administrator for the French NGO Action Against Hunger in Indonesia. Today, he closely works together with the International press and furthermore heads a number of art projects. He is a member of the French creative platform Hans Lucas and he is represented by DeBeeldunie in the Netherlands.
The Borderline project, that has been started in 2007, was awarded the 2nd prize of the 2016 Canon Silver Camera in the Netherlands and the 2013 Prix Louise Weiss of European journalism, first time that such an award was granted to a photo project. It was shown at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris in 2015 as well as at the Street Art Museum in St. Petersburg in 2016. In 2017 and 2018, the Borderline project was exhibited in various cities, including Strasbourg, Clermont-Ferrand, Amiens, Sarajevo and Zagreb. In 2019, the exhibition was shown for six months at the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin.
We are very happy to exhibit this renowned project Borderline - Frontiers of Peace in November for one month at Zeppelin University and that Valerio Vincenzo will, in addition to that, share his experience with us in the panel discussion “Europe – Creating transculturality through (liberal) arts?”.
Dr Hannah White has a PhD in social policy from the University of Bristol and over 15 years of experience campaigning against, and writing about inequality, racism, and the migrant experience.
In 2017, a few months after Article 50 was triggered, she started her blog “Outsider – Journey through a changing Europe”. It is a journey towards greater understanding of Europe, told through the words and pictures of the people who live there. As a keen amateur cyclist she travels by bike, in order to explore the question ‘What is Europe?’ from the perspective of those she meets, often by chance, along the way.
Ms White first set off from Roscoff and crossed France to Switzerland in June 2017. Since then she has cycled from Rome to Athens, Belfast to Dublin, Strasbourg to Cologne and most recently Paris to London. Next year she plans to cycle across Romania. As she explains, she wanted to know more about the EU, and given the hardening of divisions, to explore and write about common experience across Europe in order to emphasise our shared humanity. In her photography she does this by capturing the interaction between the subject, the camera and herself at the moment of their meeting.
Dr. Hannah White will share her experience at the panel discussion “Distinct identities, shared values or a community of practice?”
Prof Josef Wieland holds the Chair of Institutional Economics, Organizational Governance, Integrity Management and Transcultural Leadership and is the Director of the Leadership Excellence Institute Zeppelin | LEIZ. An expert in the field of compliance and business ethics for more than 20 years, he initiated the Forum Compliance & Integrity (FCI) and chairs the Advisory Board of the German Network of Business Ethics (DNWE). He is a member of, inter alia, the national CSR Forum, the jury for the German government’s CSR Award, and the Advisory Council for Sustainability of the government of the federal state of Baden-Württemberg. Since 2017, Josef Wieland has been Vice-President (Research) of Zeppelin University.
Prof Josef Wieland will give the opening address on “Europe – A network of relations”, lead a panel discussion on “Europe - Distinct identities, shared values or a community of practice?” and conclude the Summit.