Committee

Öko-Institut (Institut für angewandte Ökologie – Institute for Applied Ecology) is a registered non-profit association. The General Assembly is the Institute’s key decision-making body. It comprises all active members, whereby staff automatically receive the status of an active member. The General Assembly elects the seven members of the Committee on an honorary basis by secret ballot, for a term of two years. The following also have voting rights on the Committee in addition to the Committee members: A representative of the coordination team, the CEO, and one staff representative from each of the Institute’s three offices – Freiburg, Darmstadt and Berlin.

The Committee appoints the CEO and the Members of the Executive Board, the divisional heads and the chair of the Committee. The Committee heads the association, transferring tasks to the Executive Board and the coordination team.

The current members of the Committee are

Helmfried Meinel
First Chair of the Committee
is head of the construction, energy, nutrition, environment, care and housing activity areas at the consumer advocacy centre of the German region of North-Rhine/Westphalia, and a member of the centre’s management team. A member of the Committee since 2002, Helmfried Meinel took on the post of first Chair of the Committee in June 2005.

Dorothea Michaelsen-Friedlieb
Second Chair of the Committee
works as a business consultant for non-profit organizations and has been a member of the Committee since 1996. She has a particular commitment to personnel issues, and is the Committee’s women’s officer.

Stefan Alt
is a member of the Committee as staff representative of the Darmstadt office. He is a scientist working in the Nuclear Engineering & Plant Safety Division.

Ralph Harthan
is the staff representative of the Berlin office, where he works in the Energy and Climate Division.

Rita Kappeler-Keller
is member of the Committee as staff representative of the Freiburg Head Office. She is working in the Accounting Department.

Nicola Moczek
is executive director of the German Geothermal Association (Geothermische Vereinigung – Bundesverband Geothermie, GtV-BV). For the previous five years she was executive director of the youth wing (BUNDjugend) of Friends of the Earth Germany (Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland, BUND). She has served on the Öko-Institut Committee since June 2005, where she has particularly supported implementation of the “Members” and “Advisory Board” elements of the Institute’s mission. As an environmental psychologist, she aims to continue as a strong advocate of consumer advice and communication with the public, particularly in the areas of risk perception and everyday behaviour, and to contribute her experience from the field of organizational development.

Dr. Barbara Praetorius
works for the German Association of Local Utilities (Verband kommunaler Unternehmen, VKU), where she is responsible for the Strategy & Energy Sector Policy Division. An economist and political scientist, she previously spent many years working in climate and energy research and in policy consulting at the German Institute for Economic Research (Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, DIW). Dr. Praetorius undertakes regular adjunct lecturing at Freie Universität Berlin and at Humboldt University, Berlin. She became a member of the Öko-Institut Committee in June 2009.

Michael Sailer
is CEO of the Öko-Institute. His main fields of work include reactor safety and waste management. A chemical engineer, he is a member of several commissions and committees, including (since 1999) the German Environment Ministry's Reactor Safety Commission, (since 2005) the Euratom Scientific and Technical Committee and (since June 2008) the newly established Nuclear Waste Management Commission.

Nadia vom Scheidt
has worked for nine years at national, European and international level in public administration, with a particular interest in the issues surrounding the information society, improved administration, and emergency preparedness. With a degree in history and qualifications as a mediator, Nadia vom Scheidt was seconded to the European Commission from 2005 to 2008 as a national expert on human resources policy. She has further completed the Robert Bosch Foundation’s Postgraduate Program in International Affairs for international young executives. She became a member of the Öko-Institut Committee in June 2009.

Kathleen Spilok
is a freelance science journalist covering environment and energy. She further works as project coordinator for the environment and technology division of the Baden-Württemberg Chamber of Crafts. A chemical engineer, she previously worked as technical assistant at the German Federal Environment Agency UBA, where, among other things, she contributed to the Enquete Commission of the German Bundestag on the "Protection of Humanity and the Environment" and headed a range of projects. She became a member of the Öko-Institut Committee in April 2010.

Christof Timpe
represents since 2009 the management team on the Committee. He is Head of the Energy & Climate Division.

Franz Untersteller
has been an elected member of the Baden-Württemberg Landtag (regional state parliament) since March 2006. He is deputy leader of the Baden-Württemberg parliamentary Green party and its spokesperson on energy policy. Franz Untersteller was previously a long-time parliamentary consultant to the Baden-Württemberg Landtag. A qualified landscape planner by training, he has been a member of the Öko-Institut Committee since May 2003. Franz Untersteller was an adjunct lecturer at Nürtingen University of Applied Sciences, and as a Heinrich Böll Foundation scholarship holder he took part in a two-year exchange programme with the Washington Center for Clean Air Policy (CCAP).

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