As a virtual think tank and a global network of authors and analysts, the Global Ideas Center works each year with a set of GIC Fellows who are the principal authors of our publications. Their contributions are coordinated by Stephan-Götz Richter, the Director of the Global Ideas Center, and supported by the GIC’s editorial team.
Stephan-Götz Richter is the publisher and editor-in-chief of The Globalist, the daily online magazine on the global economy, politics and culture, which he founded and launched in January 2000.
Mr. Richter is a frequent guest on leading radio and television programs, including Germany’s “Meet the Press” program on ARD and ZDF’s Morning Show. While based in the U.S., he frequently appeared on National Public Radio as well as on the PBS Newshour and CNN.
A sought after and thought-provoking keynote speaker at executive conferences and retreats, he has moderated more than 150 policy events during his time in Washington, D.C., featuring prime ministers, CEOs, Nobel laureates and heads of international organizations.
His articles and views have appeared in such publications as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Financial Times, Harvard Business Review, Fortune, Salon, Japan Times, Le Monde, Les Echos, Die Welt, Der Spiegel, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Die Zeit, Handelsblatt, Manager Magazin,Cicero, NZZ and Foreign Affairs.
He has been a keynote speaker on geopolitical and geoeconomic issues and trends at major international conferences organized by asset managers, investment banks and public policy institutions in Europe, the United States and Asia.
He served as North American advisor to the German Economics Ministry and Vice Chancellor in the early 1990s, when he successfully shaped the “New Federal States” campaign, designed to create a dynamic brand image for the former Communist East Germany.
In the fall of 1990, at the request of the U.S. Senator Bill Bradley, he drafted the Sense of the U.S. Senate resolution calling for forgiveness of Poland’s Communist-era public debt. It proved a crucial step in the successful conclusion of the April 1991 Debt Agreement in the Paris Club.
For those activities, he was awarded the Cross of the Order of Merit by the President of Poland in June 2014, as part of the country’s celebrations for the 25th anniversary of the arrival of freedom.
Mr. Richter received his J.D. from the University of Bonn, Germany in 1984, was a Rotary Foundation Award recipient in 1980-81 and a Congressional Fellow of the American Political Science Association in 1986-87.
2021 GIC Fellows and authors include:
Holger Schmieding is chief economist at Berenberg Bank. Before joining Germany’s oldest private bank in October 2010, he was chief economist for Europe at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch in London.
Mr. Schmieding holds a doctorate in economics from the University of Kiel. Before working as a financial markets economist, he was a journalist at Germany’s Westfälische Nachrichten, head of a research group on East and Central Europe at the Kiel Institute of World Economics, and a desk economist at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C.
In 1992, Mr. Schmieding co-authored the book “The Fading Miracle” on Germany’s post-war economic history in 1992 and in 2014, he published a book on the Euro “Unser gutes Geld – warum wir den Euro brauchen”.
Fabio de Masi was a member of the European Parliament from 2014 to 2017 and a member of the German Bundestag from 2017-2021, representing the Left Party (Die Linke).
Mr. de Masi’s focused his work on tax policy, monetary policy and transparency. Mr. de Masi was recognized as one of the world’s 50 most influential individuals and organizations in global tax policy by International Tax Review.
Thomas Hanke is a publicist and author of the recently published book “Can we trust France? German Clichés and French Reality” as well as two other book publications: “The New German Capitalism” and “The Euro – Course for the Future” (with Norbert Walter).
From January 2012 to June 2021, Mr. Hanke was correspondent for the daily newspaper Handelsblatt in Paris. Prior to his time in Paris, Mr. Hanke headed the newspaper’s opinion department from Berlin and worked as head of the politics department at the Financial Times Deutschland and as a correspondent and editor of Die Zeit in Bonn, Hamburg and Brussels.
Stephen Green spent most of his career as an international banker, including service as Group Chairman of HSBC from 2006 to 2010. From 2011 to 2013, he was Minister for Trade and Investment in the British Government.
Mr. Green now pursues a range of international advisory activities focusing on international trade, financial and professional services as well as child poverty and development programs. He chairs the Natural History Museum of London and is an ordained priest of the Church of England.
A regular contributor to the debate on business ethics and values, he is the author of Good Value: Money, Morality and an Uncertain World (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2010). Mr. Green is the also the author of Reluctant Meister: How Germany’s Past is Shaping Its European Future (Haus Publishing, 2014), a book about Germany’s complex identity.
Adair Turner is a British businessman and academic. Lord Turner currently chairs the Energy Transitions Commission, a global coalition of major power and industrial companies, investors, environmental NGOs and experts working out achievable pathways to limit global warming to well below 2˚C by 2040 while stimulating economic development and social progress.
He was the Chairman of the Committee on Climate Change from its establishment in 2008 until 2012 and was also Chairman of the Financial Services Authority and the UK’s Pension Commission.
Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker is Honorary President of the Club of Rome and former Dean of the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara. From 1998 to 2005, he was a member of the German Bundestag and chaired its Environment Committee (2002-2005).
Mr. von Weizsäcker graduated in physics in Hamburg and got his PhD in biology from the University of Freiburg in 1968. During the 1970s, he was professor of biology at Essen University and president of the University in Kassel, before taking up the post of Director at the UN Centre for Science and Technology in New York.
From 1984 to 1991 he was the Director of the Institute for European Environment Policy in Bonn, Paris and London. And from 1991 to 2000, Prof. von Weizsäcker was the President of the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy.
He is the author of many books including Factor Five and was honoured with the German Environment Prize in 2008. He is a member of the World Future Council.
Martin R. Stuchtey is a professor for Resource Strategy and Management at the University of Innsbruck. He is also the Co-founder and Managing Partner of SYSTEMIQ, where he focuses on accelerating and shaping the transition towards circular industrial systems. He is also
Prior to founding SYSTEMIQ, Martin worked at McKinsey for 20 years, most recently as Director of the Center for Business and Environment. In 2006, Martin Stuchtey co-founded McKinsey’s Sustainability Practice. He initiated the 2030 Water Resources Group and has been a long-time strategic advisor to the World Economic Forum.
He served as a company commander in the German Alpine forces and worked as geologist in Southern Africa. He holds a BSc. Hons.-degree in economic geology/mineralogy from Rhodes University (South Africa), a master’s degree in business economics from WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management (Germany), an MBA from Lancaster University (UK), and a PhD in regional economics from the Technical University of Dresden.
Markus Hilgert is the Secretary General and CEO of the Cultural Foundation of the German Federal States. A specialist in Ancient Near Eastern Studies, Hilgert served as Director of the Ancient Near East Museum at the Pergamonmuseum in Berlin from 2014 until 2018.
Hilgert is also the Director of the recently established German Contact Point for Collections from Colonial Contexts. In addition, he is a member of several governing bodies and advisory boards, including the Board of the German Commission for UNESCO, the Foundation Board of the International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage in Conflict Areas (ALIPH), the Advisory Group of the Cultural Protection Fund of the British Council, and the Finance and Resources Committee of the International Council of Museums (ICOM).
Hilgert received several awards for his academic achievements and holds honorary professorships at Heidelberg University, Marburg University, and Berlin University (Freie Universität).
Strategy and Communications Consultant, Managing Director, Sieber Advisors, Munich, Germany.
Rainer Ohler is an independent strategy and communications consultant. He first experienced the power and success of international cooperation as a young soldier at NATO’s SHAPE headquarters.
Mr. Ohler studied law and earned a doctorate in European law, subsequently beginning his professional career in Bonn, Germany. From 1992 to 1995, he was a civil servant in the Chancellor’s Office under Helmut Kohl.
He then moved to Daimler-Benz Aerospace, which later merged into Airbus. At Airbus, he was responsible for corporate communications from 2006 to 2019, and for many years also for Airbus’s political affairs, environmental policy and corporate security.
Since leaving the company, he has worked as an independent strategy and communications consultant in Munich. He initiated the international network of “Senior Strategists” and is Managing Partner of Sieber Advisors GmbH.