Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel is the new third Managing Director at GIZ

At its meeting today, the Supervisory Board of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH appointed a new managing director. The Board elected Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel to serve on the Management Board from 1 October 2019.

Schäfer-Gümbel will be responsible for managing the federal enterprise together with Tanja Gönner, Chair of the Management Board, and Christoph Beier, Vice-Chair of the Management Board. He will also serve as GIZ’s Labour Relations Director, which was likewise decided by the Supervisory Board at today’s meeting. The appointment of a third managing director became necessary following Hans-Joachim Preuß’s departure from GIZ’s Management Board in July 2018.

Martin Jäger, Chair of the GIZ Supervisory Board and State Secretary at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), welcomed the decision: ‘Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel’s experience and competence are an excellent fit for GIZ’s Management Board. I am very pleased to know that GIZ and its new Management Board will continue to support the German Federal Government as a strong implementation partner in the field of international cooperation for sustainable development.’

Tanja Gönner, Chair of the Management Board: ‘My colleague Christoph Beier and I welcome the Supervisory Board’s decision. We are extremely pleased that the Management Board will soon be complete again and that, from October onwards, there will be three of us to tackle the challenges faced by GIZ worldwide.’ 

Schäfer-Gümbel has been Regional Chair and Head of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) parliamentary group in Hesse since 2009 and Deputy Leader of the SPD at federal level since 2013. He will step down from his political offices successively over the course of the year. Schäfer-Gümbel studied agricultural and political science in Gießen, Germany, and served as the Development Policy Spokesperson of the SPD parliamentary group in Hesse from 2003 to 2008. ‘I would like to express my thanks for the trust that the Supervisory Board has placed in me and am delighted to be able to contribute my energy and ideas to GIZ’s work,’ said Schäfer-Gümbel. ‘As GIZ’s Labour Relations Director I will share responsibility with my colleagues on the Management Board for a company that employs more than 20,000 people. In doing so, I will be able to draw on the experience I’ve gained over the last ten years working in various management positions.’ 

* Pictured f.l.t.r.: Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel, Tanja Gönner, Christoph Beier