Executive Board

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 Executive Board on an honorary basis by secret ballot, for a term of two years. The following also have voting rights on the Executive Board in addition to the Board members: A representative of the coordination team, the Director, and one staff representative from each of the Institute’s three offices – Freiburg, Darmstadt and Berlin.

The Executive Board appoints the Director and the Deputy Directors, the divisional coordinators and the chairperson of the Board. The Board heads the association, transferring tasks to the Directors and the coordination team.

The current Executive Board members are

Helmfried Meinel
First Spokesperson
is head of the construction, energy, health, 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 Board since 2002, Helmfried Meinel took on the post of first spokesperson in June 2005. He is responsible for the Nuclear Engineering & Plant Safety Division.

Anja Köhne
Second Spokesperson
works as a freelance policy consultant and is preparing her doctoral thesis on the EU constitution and environment/sustainability issues. A member of the Board since May 2003, Anja Köhne took on the post of second spokesperson in June 2005. She is responsible for the Energy & Climate Protection Division. Before she was a researcher at the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) in Bonn from 1991 onwards, where she coordinated the Environmental Fellowship Programme from 1992 to 1998. She also worked from 1994 onwards for the German League for Nature and Environment (Deutscher Naturschutzring, DNR), where she headed the European Union coordination branch from 1998 to 2001. She then joined the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Berlin, where she was responsible for international issues until the end of 2002. Dr. Wolfgang Brühl works as a freelance consultant, focusing on business and environmental policy.

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

Dr. Wolfgang Brühl
has been a member of the Board since May 2006. He was chief economist of the Hoechst AG corporation from the early 1980s until 1999. He went on to work as a freelance consultant for economic and environmental policy until his retirement. During the 14th legislative period of the Bundestag he was a member of the study commission "Globalization of the world economy - challenges and answers". He is responsible for the Products and Material Flows Division.

Regine Barth
represents since 2007 the management team on the Executive Board (since 2003 as a deputy member). The jurist has been coordinator of the Environmental Law & Governance Division since 2001.

Jakob Graichen
sits on the Board as staff representative of the Berlin office. He is a scientist working in the Energy & Climate Protection Division.

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

Dr. Joachim Lohse
was appointed Director of Öko-Institut in 2003. He co-founded in 1989 Ökopol, Institute for Environmental Strategies, in Hamburg. He was a member of Ökopol’s management team from the outset, and finally deputy director and “Prokurist” (the holder of “procura”, i.e. full power of attorney). A doctor of chemistry, Joachim Lohse has worked particularly on material flow management, pollution control in industrial facilities, environmental policy issues and communication themes.

Dorothea Michaelsen-Friedlieb
works as a business consultant for non-profit organizations and has been a member of the Institute’s Executive Board since 1996. She has a particular commitment to personnel issues, and is the Executive Board’s women’s officer. She is responsible for the Environmental Law & Governance Division.

Nicola Moczek
is executive director of the youth wing (BUNDjugend) of Friends of the Earth Germany (Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland, BUND), and works as a freelance environmental psychologist. Nicola Moczek joined the Öko-Institut Board in June 2005 and is responsible fort he cross-divisional issue of „Young scientists“. After graduating in psychology in Frankfurt, she founded PSY:PLAN, a consultancy and research institute for architectural and environmental psychology, together with a partner in 1997. She has been working for BUNDjugend since 2004.

Dr. Christoph Pistner
sits on the Board as staff representative of the Darmstadt office. He is a scientist working in the Nuclear Engineering & Plant Safety Division.

Dominik Seebach
sits on the Board as staff representative of the Freiburg Head Office. He is a scientist working in the Energy & Climate Protection Division. 

Hanne Tügel
has worked for the past twelve years as an editor at the GEO journal in Hamburg. She joined Öko-Institut’s Board in June 2005, where she is responsible for the Department of Public Relations & Communication and is involved in the cross-divisional issue of genetic engineering. Following an apprenticeship as publishing manager, graduating in educational theory, and a teacher training period, she completed her editorial training in Hamburg’s Gruner + Jahr journalism school. She went on to specialize in environmental and science journalism, working as freelance author for Natur + Kosmos, Greenpeace-Magazin, Stern and GEO. She held an editorial post with the “Woche” from 1993 to 1995, before joining GEO as a full-time member of staff. At GEO, she has concentrated on topics at the interface of environment, science, economy and society.

Franz Untersteller
was elected a member of the Parliament of Baden-Württemberg in March 2006. Before he has been a consultant for environmental and energy policy issues to the Alliance 90/The Greens (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen) parliamentary group in the Parliament of the German regional state of Baden-Württemberg for many years. He joined the Institute’s Executive Board in May 2003, where he is responsible for the Infrastructure & Enterprises Division. Franz Untersteller has lectured at Nürtingen university of applied sciences and was a Heinrich Böll scholar for two years at the Washington Center for Clean Air Policy (CCAP).

Stéphanie Zangl
sits on the Board as staff representative of the Freiburg Head Office. She is a scientist working in the Sustainable Products & Material Flows Division.

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