Non-resident Fellows

Shakuntala Banerjee is currently the deputy head of the ZDF capital bureau and a presenter of the weekly political magazine ‘Berlin direkt’. The ZDF is a public-service television broadcaster and ‘Berlin direkt’ the most successful political magazine on German television. Ms. Banerjee started her career freelancing at the ZDF after her studies in Philosophy, German Philology, Indology, Political Science and Public Law. She was a reporter for the daily current affairs program ‘Drehscheibe Deutschland’ and worked as an assistant to the ZDF editor-in-chief Nikolaus Brender and Peter Frey. In 2015 she was awarded the Heinrich Mörtl media prize for her report ‘Drug metropolis Frankfurt - The long road against addiction’ and became a ZDF-correspondent in Brussels. Since 2019 she is at the ZDF bureau in Berlin.

Picture © ZDF

Dr. Atif Ikram Butt is a 2006 graduate of the Willy Brandt School of Public Policy. Dr. Atif has over 20 years of leadership experience in social and behavior change communication. He has worked with several international organizations, including the UK's Department for International Development, GIZ, Johns Hopkins University, ILO, UNDP, and UNICEF. Currently, he serves as Section Chief for Public Advocacy and Communication at the United Nations Environment Programme's headquarters in Nairobi, leading global efforts to address environmental challenges and promote sustainable development. His expertise includes strategy development, media utilization, partnership building, and communication research. Dr. Atif has pioneered ICT-driven initiatives for children's rights, engagement of faith communities in development projects, application of human-rights approach to journalism, and introduced entertainment-education to graduate curricula. He holds a doctorate in International Development Studies, where his research explored the influence of ideation on policymaking.

Henning Gloystein is Eurasia Group’s Practice Head for Energy, Climate, and Natural Resources, based in London. He covers geopolitical risk in energy and raw material supplies, the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, as well as green industrial trends. Prior to returning to London in 2021, Henning was based in Singapore for seven years, covering the rise of the Indo-Pacific region to become the world’s biggest consuming region of natural resources. Before joining Eurasia Group in 2019 as a Director, Henning was Editor in Charge for Energy in Asia at Reuters news agency. Henning started his career in energy analysis at commodity pricing agency Platts in 2007, where he was responsible for pricing European wholesale power, natural gas, coal, and carbon markets. Henning has a dual Master’s Degree in History, Politics, and Science & Technology from Humboldt and Technical University in Berlin. Half British/German, he lives near Oxford with his family.

Eurasia Group is the world’s leading political research and advisory firm, helping companies across the world manage the risks and opportunities that flow from politics.

Achim von Heynitz is an International Organizations Consultant based in Berlin. His work is focused on public finance and budgeting, results-based management and strategy implementation, risk management, and organizational change. Before his consulting work, Mr. von Heynitz was Director of the Budget and Resource Management Department at the World Bank, and prior to that Director of EBRD’s Operations Department Front Office. These assignments followed his role as policy advisor in various think tanks, including the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), and the RAND Corporation. Mr. von Heynitz has been teaching classes for 12 years at the University of Geneva’s IOMBA program on Results- and Resource Management for Non-profit organizations. He has graduated in Economics from the University of Munich and from the Harvard Business School Executive Program.

Dr. Rüya Perincek is a political scientist and policy expert specialised in minerals and energy policy, as well as development and trade policy. She is currently the Press Officer in the Spokespersons' Service at the European Commission.

In her previous role as Energy and Climate Policy Lead at FleishmanHillard, one of the most renowned public affairs consultancies, she lead a team of consultants, providing bespoke advice to multinational companies on EU policies and legislation.

During her tenure at the OECD, she advised the Governing Board of the OECD Development Centre on the low-carbon transition in developing and emerging economies. She also contributed to the management of a multi-stakeholder platform on sustainable minerals-based development and in-country value creation by leading policy and technology dialogues among OECD members and developing countries.

She previously served as Policy Advisor in the European Parliament, reviewing, shaping, and negotiating EU legislative proposals on energy and industrial policies. 

Dr Perincek holds a PhD in Sustainable Resources from University College London. As part of her research, she spent time in Chile and Australia, reviewing their regulatory and policy frameworks and the implications for the extractive industries’ sustainability practices and corporate reporting. She has published in academic journals, including on International Relations and Raw Materials, discussing the geopolitical challenges arising from increased global competition over access.

As a fellow at the Willy Brandt School of Public Policy, Dr Perincek is interested in exploring how to best implement the EU’s Critical Raw Materials Policy, and how to underpin the EU’s Raw Material Partnerships with developing countries with concrete projects, creating win-win outcomes. 

Jalale Getachew Birru is a Senior Analysis Coordinator for East Africa at Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED). Her research interests are peace, conflict, elections in post-conflict countries, and democratization. She completed her doctoral study at the Willy Brandt School of Public Policy, University of Erfurt, under the DAAD Graduate School Scholarship Program (GSSP): Managing Fragility- Critical Perspectives on Good Governance. Her doctoral research titled “Replacing the Breaking of Heads with Counting of Heads": Managing the Conflict Triggering Elements of Liberal Peace Theory” was supervised by Prof. Dr. Solveig Richter.  She earned a Master of Public Policy (M.P.P) from Willy Brandt School of Public Policy, University of Erfurt and a Bachelor of Laws (L.L.B) from Haramaya University, Ethiopia. She has worked as a public prosecutor, an attaché, and a peacebuilding officer in Ethiopia. Additionally, she has conducted research at various institutions in Germany and the US, including serving as a guest researcher at the Leibniz-sponsored Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF) in Germany.

Dr. Tobias Ernst, a German jurist with a doctorate from the University of Hamburg, is the Chairman of the Board of the Stiftung Kinder forschen (Little Scientists Foundation) in Berlin since March 1, 2024. Prior to this role, he served as CEO of Kiron Open Higher Education gGmbH from 2018 to 2024, a non-profit organization providing digital educational access to refugees. Ernst's career includes positions as a project manager and project leader at the Bertelsmann Stiftung (2004–2009), and as an authorized officer at PricewaterhouseCoopers. He also held leadership roles at Teach First Deutschland gGmbH, focusing on educational equity. In his current position, Ernst is responsible for the strategic direction of the Stiftung Kinder forschen, representing the foundation publicly, and advancing its educational and scientific initiatives.

Jochen Hauff is an energy, corporate strategy, policy, and sustainability leader with over 25 years of experience. He is a faculty member of the Renewable Energy Management Program at St. Gallen University, a regular lecturer at TU Munich and has held lectures at various schools and numerous conferences.

Jochen held long-term tenures as Director of Corporate Strategy, Energy Policy & Sustainability for BayWa r.e. AG, a global renewable energy group, which is also represented as Vice President of SolarPower Europe. Prior to that, he supported energy sector clients at the consultancy Kearney. He holds a master’s degree in economics from Tübingen University and a MSc in Environmental Science and Policy from Central European University, Budapest.

He now focuses on climate resilience, particularly soil health, regenerative agriculture, and sustainable forestry, which he sees as crucial for increasing resilience to climate change impacts on land, life and livelihoods.

Carmen Niethammer has a B.A. in Economics and International Studies from the American University and a M.A. in International Economics from Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Her career with the United Nations, the World Bank and IFC includes long-term assignments in Brazil, Egypt, Sri Lanka, the United States, and Yemen. Carmen currently is the Senior Gender Specialist at the European Investment Bank in Luxembourg where she helps EIB promote gender equality throughout their investment portfolio. 

Dr Andreas Rickert has been consistently committed to an open, social and sustainable world for years. With unique expertise in philanthropy, social impact and private equity as well as a large network in business, politics and civil society, he is a committed bridge builder, a convinced impact ambassador and a passionate lobbyist for a better world. His path from PhD in molecular biologist to engagement manager at McKinsey to a philanthropy and social impact expert is unusual. International studies in Davis (USA) and doctoral work in Stanford, Palo Alto and Cologne were followed by leadership and management positions in the foundation sector, in business and - after founding the think-&-do-tank PHINEO - in the non-profit world. Beyond his work as CEO of PHINEO Dr Andreas Rickert is active as Co-CEO of Nixdorf Kapital AG as well as a business angel in the startup and impact investing world. Whether as a founder, board member, investor, publisher, author or lecturer: together with the PHINEO team and many others Dr Andreas Rickert develops and realises ideas with impact – for an open, sustainable and peaceful society in which doing good with impact guides collective action.