Board of Trustees

Carola Lentz is President of the Goethe-Institut and Senior Research Professor at the Department of Anthropology and African Studies at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz. Her research interests include ethnicity and nationalism, colonialism and decolonisation, the politics of memory, middle classes in the global South and educational biographies. She initially conducted research in South America and since 1987 regularly in West Africa. Carola Lentz is, among other things, a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, a member of the Advisory Committee of the German Federal Cultural Foundation, the Deutsche Sprachrat and the Board of Trustees of the Anne Frank Education Centre.

• Biography, career and publications

Gesche Joost is a professor of design research at the Berlin University of the Arts and works at the interfaces between science, politics and digital companies. Her work is about digital transformation in society and business. She heads the Design Research Lab and designs new forms of human-technology interaction at the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence. She is a member of the supervisory boards of SAP, ING Deutschland and ottobock and in 2016 co-founded the non-profit startup Calliope gGmbH, which gives children access to digital education. She has been on the presidium of the Goethe-Institut since January 2022 and 1st Vice President since January 2023.

• KI für den Menschen – Intelligente Lösungen für die Wissensgesellschaft

• Design Research Lab - Berlin University of the Arts

Tessen von Heydebreck is a former German bank manager. After studying law, he joined Deutsche Bank in 1974, where he took over the management in 1991. From 1994 to 2007, he was a member of the bank’s executive board. From 2009 to 2017, Tessen von Heydebreck was a member of the supervisory board of Dussmann Verwaltungs-AG in Berlin and, since January 2011, a member of the board of trustees of the Peter Dussmann Stiftung. He is committed to cultural causes in various places. For example, he is honorary chairman of the board of trustees of the IJP Internationale Journalisten-Programme e.V.. Since January 2018, he has been a member of the presidium and 2nd vice president of the Goethe-Institut.

Saba-Nur Cheema is a political scientist and anti-racism trainer. From 2015-2021, she was the educational director of the Anne Frank Educational Centre in Frankfurt. She is currently a researcher on Anti-Semitism in educational contexts at Goethe University. Cheema is a member of the German government's Independent Expert Group on Muslimophobia, which was appointed in 2020. She is co-editor of the book "Frenemies. Antisemitismus, Rassismus und ihre Kritiker*innen" (2022) and designed the new online dossier "Jewish Life in the Past & Present" for the Federal Agency for Civic Education in 2021. She has been a member of the Goethe-Institut since July 2022.

• Startseite - Saba-Nur Cheema (sabanurcheema.com)

Thomas Oberender is an author, curator and dramaturge. He studied theatre studies and scenic writing in Berlin and wrote his doctorate on Botho Strauß. Oberender was a co-founder of the authors’ theatre association Theater neuen Typs in Berlin. In 1999 he became head dramaturge at the Schauspielhaus Bochum and then co-director at the Schauspielhaus Zurich. He was theatre director of the Salzburg Festival, then artistic director and managing director of the Berlin Festivals. He publishes plays, reviews and essays on contemporary artists and political and aesthetic transformation processes. Since January 2022 he has been on the board of the Goethe-Institut.

• https://www.thomas-oberender.de/

Oliver Scheytt is the owner of the personnel and strategy consultancy KULTUREXPERTEN GmbH. He was head of the cultural department of the city of Essen from 1993 to 2009 and managing director of the European Capital of Culture RUHR.2010 from 2006 to 2012. From 1997-2018 he was president of the Kulturpolitische Gesellschaft e.V. and since 2007 professor of cultural policy at the Hamburg University of Music and Theatre. His publications include the 2008 book “Kulturstaat Deutschland. Plädoyer für eine aktivierende Kulturpolitik”. Oliver Scheytt has been on the presidium of the Goethe-Institut since January 2018.

• Kulturexperten

Michael Schwarz studied administrative science in Konstanz and in the USA. He has been working in the foundation sector since 2005, when he joined the Robert Bosch Stiftung after a stint as a consultant at CNC AG, an international strategic communications consultancy. There, he first worked as a project manager in the field of science, then as an assistant to the executive board and most recently as head of communications. In 2014, Michael Schwarz switched to Stiftung Mercator, where he was Managing Director until 2022. Since March 2022, he has been Managing Director of the Baden-Baden Entrepreneurial Talks.

• BBUG - Baden-Baden Entrepreneur Talks

Ralf Beste has been head of the department for Culture and Society at the Federal Foreign Office since February 2022. Born in Witten in 1966, he studied history in Bochum, Bielefeld and Baltimore. After a traineeship at the Ruhr Nachrichten, Ralf Beste worked as an editor for 20 years, for example at SPIEGEL, Berlin. In 2014, he moved to the Federal Foreign Office, where he held the positions of Commissioner for Strategic Communication and Head of the Planning Staff, among others. From 2019 to 2022, he was Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Republic of Austria.

• Department of Culture and Society - Federal Foreign Office (auswaertiges-amt.de)

Sophie Engel grew up in East Berlin and in the district of Neubrandenburg (Vorpommern), where she discovered her love of languages and language acquisition at an early age. She studied Slavic studies in France and German, French and work teaching in Bremen to become a teacher. Sophie Engel describes herself as a person with a migration background and has lived in many countries before being seconded by the Goethe-Institut. Her focus is on networking, creating new things as a community and overcoming crises. It is especially important to her not to forget the fun, joy and positive motivation despite all the problems. She has been working for the Goethe-Institut since 2008, first as a PASCH ExU and since 2014 as head of the language department, and since 2021 she has represented employees abroad on the presidium.

Anja Geissel, born in Duisburg, studied Russian and German at the University of Cologne. After her traineeship at the Studienseminar Siegburg, she taught German as a foreign language at various educational institutions and worked freelance for the WDR. She also worked for the German Central Agency for German Schools Abroad as a German teacher in Jelenia Góra (PL) for two years. Anja Geissel has worked for the Goethe-Institut since 2000. She worked in Bonn (Inter Nationes) and at the locations in Prague, Shanghai and Singapore and most recently at the head office in Munich. In 2021 she was elected to the presidium as an employee representative of the head office.

Bettina Lantz-Okoye has been working in client management, accounting and business organisation at the Goethe-Institut Düsseldorf since 2002. Before that, she studied literary translation at the HHU Düsseldorf after a one-year stay in London and Paris. She then trained as a bookseller and worked in this profession until 2002. She also obtained an additional qualification in German as a foreign language in 2012. Since 2010 she has been involved in the Goethe-Institut’s Hausgewerkschaft GEW, in the local works council and as a delegate in the Goethe-Institut’s general works council. In 2021 she was elected to the presidium as the employee representative for Germany.