volunteer coordinator, Visioneers e.V.
Naomi Denny hails from Ireland and has been based in Berlin for several years. She has worked with several tech start up companies and has been most recently active as volunteer coordinator with Visioneers e.V., a Berlin based NGO with a focus on social projects assisting disadvantaged communities. Naomi completed her studies in Russian & Latin at Trinity College Dublin followed later by a Postgrad Diploma in Library and Information Studies at Strathclyde University in Glasgow.
PhD Researcher, Hertie Centre for International Security
Matthias Goedeking holds a Master’s Degree in International Relations and is currently working as a PhD researcher at the Hertie Centre for International Security in Berlin. He has previously worked in the field of political communication for national and international NGOs and spent time working at the OSCE Presence in Albania. His current research interests revolve around ethnic conflicts, rebel alliances and civil war dynamics. In addition, he has published on Turkish foreign policy in the Middle East and Northern Africa. He lives and works in Berlin.
Follow Matthias on Twitter @mgoedeking
journalist and author; former opinion editor, Die Welt
Born 1949 in London, Alan spent his childhood in Britain and Malaysia, and has lived in Germany since 1962.
As a student Alan was involved in radical politics, as a member of the Maoist KPD based in Dortmund. Later – after a short period of ‘Berufsverbot’ – he worked as a teacher in Berlin. Alan gave up teaching in 1990 and became a freelance writer, translator and rock singer.
Alan is author of about a dozen books, including Benedict’s Crusade: The Attack of the Vatican on Modern Society. He has worked for Die Welt in diverse functions, among them editor of the op-ed page, since 2000. He also writes regularly for Zeitonline and occasionally for The Guardian and is often heard on the BBC and seen on Deutsche Welle TV.
Alan has been involved with several blogs, most notably with the Achse des Guten, which threw him out several years ago. He is now a contributor to Starke Meinungen.
Follow Alan on Twitter @APosener
chair, Freiblickinstitut e.V; CEO, Sprachkunst36; author, Brexit-Demokratischer Aufbruch in Großbritannien; Germany correspondent, spiked
Sabine Beppler-Spahl is chair of the German liberal think tank Freiblickinstitut e.V., which organises the Berlin Salons, and she is the Germany correspondent for spiked.
Sabine studied economics at the University of Hamburg and went to school in Hong Kong and Germany. She is also a regular contributor to the German magazine Novo and has published articles in Die Welt, Berliner Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, Zeitschrift Merkur and other publications.
Her book Brexit-Demokratischer Aufbruch in Großbritannien (Brexit – the struggle for democracy in Great Britain) was published by Parodos Verlag in March 2019.
chief of staff, Katja Suding (FDP), Member of the German Parliament
Dr. Speer holds a degree in political science and history and a PhD in political science. He started his professional career as a scholar at the Cluster of Excellence ‘Religion and Politics’ at the University of Münster. Afterwards, he worked for several members of parliament in Berlin and Hanover and was managing director of an association of private schools.
Additionally, he founded the Open
Religious Policy Forum advocating freedom for religion and non-religion. In
this function, he gave speeches worldwide from Amman and Jerusalem to Salt Lake
City.
Besides his current position as chief of staff of Katja Suding, vice chair of the Liberals in the German parliament, he is founder of www.inteero.de, an online interior design company.
He held scholarships of the Friedrich
Naumann Foundation, the German Marshall Fund of the United State in Washington
DC, and the Rhenian Leadership College in Düsseldorf.
international programmes lead, Climate-KIC
Julia has worked at the intersection of education/culture/sustainability for several international organisations in Europe and other parts of the world. Her current focus is on urban climate solutions through a systems transformation approach. She has an MA in Literature & History and an MSc in Environmental Policy and is passionate about creating broader access to nature and wildlife in cities!
journalist and editorial manager, Cicero Online
Ingo Way is Editorial Manager for Cicero Online – Magazin für politische Kultur. Prior to this Ingo was the editor of the science/humanities and Israel pages at Jüdische Allgemeine, Germany’s leading Jewish newspaper. He has written for publications such as Merkur, Tagesspiegel and Internationale Politik. In 2013 he co-published the autobiography of Sonja Friedmann-Wolf, Im Roten Eis, a survivor of Nazi and Stalinist persecution. He studied Literature and Philosophy at Humboldt University, and his interests include film, photography and history.
Follow Ingo on Twitter @Ingoway
professor of economics, University of Applied Sciences Europe
Daniel Heuermann is professor of economics at the University of Applied Sciences Europe in Berlin. He studied economics at the University of Cambridge and holds a PhD from the University of Trier. He has worked as a policy consultant on behalf of the German Government and the European Commission in the fields of economic and social policies and has published extensively on these matters.
retired: programme quality director, District 95 Toastmasters
Elizabeth was born in the UK, lived in Denmark and has now lived in Berlin for the past 11 years. She is a world traveller and coach, with lots of talents and a passion for Toastmasters (toastmasters.org).
CEO, FORTSCHRITT GmbH
Daniel Brugger is co-founder and managing director of the think tank consultancy #FORTSCHRITT. He has degrees from BiTS Iserlohn, NUS Singapur and ESCE Paris. He is an expert in business models and corporate strategies. In this context, his focus is on the successful implementation of business models and the digitalisation of business processes.
