Dr. Anna Athanasopoulou

EU Commission, Head of Unit “Proximity, social economy and creative industries” in DG GROW, Brussels, Belgium

She is Head of Unit, ‘Proximity, Social Economy and Creative Industries’, at the European Commission.  An EU official since 2002, she has held different positions at services and Cabinet-level, relating to tourism and textiles, culture and creative industries, and external relations. Before joining the EU civil service, Anna worked as Adviser to two Ministers of Culture in Greece and as Director of Programme Planning for the Athens 2004 Cultural Olympiad. In parallel, she lectured on History of Art and Cultural Management. Anna studied Archaeology and specialised in History of Art where she holds an M.A. and a Ph.D.

Dr. Peter Kurz

has been the Mayor of the City of Mannheim since 2007. He has numerous functions in municipal subsidiaries and various honorary posts in European and international committees. From 1999 to 2007 Peter Kurz was Mayor of Education, Culture, Sports and City Marketing in Mannheim. He studied law and completed his legal clerkship in Mannheim, Speyer, Heidelberg and in San Diego, USA.  His political career began during his studies. He became a member of the District Advisory Council and worked as an assistant to a member of the state parliament. He was a member of the Mannheimer city councils and various supervisory boards, deputy district chairman of SPD, chairman of Mannheim’s SPD municipal council faction and member of the SPD state executive committee in Baden-Württemberg. From April 2018 to January 2020, Peter Kurz, represented the German Association of Cities and Towns at the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) and since January of 2020 he has actively continued his work as substitute member.

Sven Giegold

Member of European Parliament from North-Rhine-Westphalia / Germany, is spokesperson for the German Greens in the European parliament and coordinator of the Greens / EFA group in the ECON (economy and monetary affairs) committee. As a studied political economist Sven has been active in the environmental movement and altermondialism for more than 20 years. He is a member of the executive committee of the German Evangelical Church Assembly.

Christiane Ram

is head of the Economic and Structural Development Department of the City of Mannheim. She is a co-initiator of the Social Economy Roadmap Mannheim and played a key role in bringing the European Social Economy Summit 2021 to Mannheim. With her team, she coordinates Mannheim’s emerging social economy scene.

Helmut Augustin

is CFO and deputy CEO of Sparkasse Rhein Neckar Nord, with its headquarter located in Mannheim. His previous experience includes a similar position at Sparkasse Neckartal-Odenwald. Furthermore, he has expertise working as a financial auditor and tax consultant at Sparkassenverband Baden-Württemberg as well as head of the audit office at Sparkassen- und Giroverband Saar. From the very beginning, he has been an active supporter of our event series Future of Fair Finance. He sees the financial industry as a major contributor towards a more sustainable future. Together with more than half of all member savings banks of the Sparkasse group in Germany, the credit institute lead by him has set itself the goal of aiming for carbon neutrality by 2035 and is continuously reducing its CO2 footprint.

Nils Bormann

is an expert for energy-efficient buildings at the German Energy Agency (“dena”) and advises building and housing companies on the development and implementation of initial refurbishment projects based on the Energiesprong principle.

As an environmental engineer, he draws on his interdisciplinary knowledge in the fields of energy technology, environmentally sound and resource-efficient construction, and the supply and waste management industries.

Markus Duscha

looks back on 30 years of political-strategic consulting and research work for sustainable development. From 1991 to 2015, he worked at ifeu – Institut für Energie- und Umweltforschung Heidelberg gGmbH, most recently as managing director for five and a half years and previously as head of the department for energy issues for thirteen years. Since 2014, he has been focusing on the necessary restructuring of the financial system and founded the Fair Finance Institute in Heidelberg in 2016. Here he contributes his experience from accompanying the energy transition to a social-ecological restructuring of the financial system.

Caroline Gebauer

looks back on 30 years of political-strategic consulting and research work for sustainable development. From 1991 to 2015, he worked at ifeu – Institut für Energie- und Umweltforschung Heidelberg gGmbH, most recently as managing director for five and a half years and previously as head of the department for energy issues for thirteen years. Since 2014, he has been focusing on the necessary restructuring of the financial system and founded the Fair Finance Institute in Heidelberg in 2016. Here he contributes his experience from accompanying the energy transition to a social-ecological restructuring of the financial system.

Knut Höller

Knut Höller is a founding member of the German NGO Housing Initiative for Eastern Europe (IWO) e.V. The aim of the association is to provide German experiences from the housing transition in the former GDR and actual know-how from German housing sector to Central and Eastern European neighbors.

He is an Economics and MBA graduate with profound knowledge of housing policy in Germany, Eastern Europe and Central Asia. He is a founding member of the first European housing cooperative LiM Living in Metropolises SCE, based in Berlin. He has been a member of the LiM board since 2019.

Christian Loy

is a freelance social ecologist and economist, author of various studies and analyses on the social responsibility of the financial sector (e.g. Spargutbuch) and a content contributor to the common good economy. Despite or because of his early studies in business administration, the question of how the economy affects society and the environment has always been on his mind. Participation in various community projects increasingly nourished his desire for the practical, collective implementation of alternatives.

Peter Mellwig

is senior project manager at ifeu – Institute for Energy and Environmental Research Heidelberg in Berlin. His main topics are renewable energies and energy efficiency in the building sector. He is also a long-standing guest author for the journal “Gebäude-Energieberater” (Building Energy Advisor) and a guest lecturer at the Beuth University of Applied Sciences Berlin in the Department of Architecture.  He worked as a freelance energy consultant for over 13 years.

Christian Röser

is a graduate engineer (FH) and acquired systemic thinking through his studies in ecological agricultural sciences. In 2006 he founded the NGO Starkmacher e.V. and since then has created a worldwide network for social and ecological impact. Addressing challenges systemically and using a collective impact approach is the direct transfer of this approach from ecological agriculture to educational and project development activities.

He is also a trainer in the Heidelberg Competence Training, a method for acquiring mental strength. In this role, he is, among other things, an advisor and co-founder of 2 start-ups in the engineering and coffee sectors.

Alexis Versele

is MSc in Architecture (Ghent, Belgium) and MSc in Industrial Design (Milan, Italy).

He is affiliated with Department  of  Building  Physics and Sustainable Design  at KU  Leuven Technology campus Ghent and is lecturer “Socio-ecological Construction”.

His research interest is focused on “Community scale sustainability and social sustainable development” with a focus on assessment and certification of social sustainability and zero carbon emissions on community and regional scale.

Alexis runs his own Green Building architectural practice “BAST architects & engineers” in Gent and has expertise in design and construction of new building and neighbourhood typologies based on green/blue networks and the design of technical-constructural solutions for rain water management and for improved summer thermal comfort.

Alexis is chairman of the social-profit organization Domus Mundi with the mission “Sustainable building and living with and for vulnerable groups”, co-founder of the social real estate company “het Pandschap”, the social contractor “Rewind” and the social profit company RenoseeC for collective renovation of disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Gesa Vögele

has been a member of the management team at CRIC, an association for the promotion of ethics and sustainability in investment, since July 2017. Previously, she worked for almost eight years for a professional association for sustainable investments active in the German-speaking region. Other professional positions include the editorial office of a publishing house as well as working in research institutions. As early as 2004, she was working on socially responsible investments for a scientific institute. Gesa Vögele holds a degree in economics and is a trained editor.