Dr. Mareike Ohlberg is a senior fellow in the Indo-Pacific Program and leads the Stockholm China Forum. She is based at GMF’s Berlin Office. Before joining GMF, Mareike worked as an analyst at the Mercator Institute for China Studies, where she focused on China’s media and digital policies as well as the Chinese Communist Party’s influence campaigns in Europe. Prior to that, she was an An Wang postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University’s Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and a postdoctoral fellow at Shih-Hsin University in Taipei. She spent several years living and working in Greater China. She is co-author of the book Hidden Hand: How the Communist Party of China is Reshaping the World (2020). Mareike has a doctoral degree in Chinese studies from the University of Heidelberg and a master’s degree in East Asian regional studies from Columbia University. She is a frequent commentator in the media on the global implications of China’s rise.

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Henrik Braun has taken over the management of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation’s office in Seoul with effect from 1 September 2025. Prior to this, he was Head of Finance of the Foundation in Berlin for more than 19 years. After graduating from high school, he completed a banking apprenticeship at Commerzbank AG in Berlin and then studied business administration at the Technical University of Berlin (Dipl. Kfm.). Henrik Braun initially worked in commercial functions in the oil trading business in Hamburg. He then worked in a management consultancy for reorganisation cases.

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Dr. Almut Besold heads the Philippine office of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF), a German political foundation that has been active in the Philippines since 1986. She holds a doctorate in Arabic studies and previously worked for the FNF in Indonesia/Malaysia and Pakistan.

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Clara Schröder is a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism student at Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences. She has taken on the role of Communications Intern at Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) Philippines for the period of September to December 2025.

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Sandra Kreuzberger is a Master of Arts student at the University of Rostock, majoring in Political Science with a focus on Area Studies. She has assumed the position of Programs Intern at the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) Philippines for the period of September to December 2025.

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Julius Elstermann is Advisor to the Secretary General, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS)

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Dr. Denis Suarsana has been the Director of the Indonesia office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) in Jakarta since 2022. From March to August 2025, he acted as the Interim Director of the KAS Australia and the Pacific office in Canberra. Previously, Mr. Suarsana was Deputy Director Strategy and Digitalization at the German Employers’ Association (BDA) in Berlin. From 2016 to 2018, he worked as a Policy Advisor at the German Federal Foreign Office. He holds a doctorate in economics and studied political science and European studies in Germany, Poland and the United Kingdom. His most recent publications include International Perceptions of Germany’s and Europe’s Competitiveness (2025), De-Risking, but where to? The Emerging ASEAN countries as an alternative to China (2024) as well as The Economic Race in Southeast Asia – and why Europe is falling behind (2024).

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Dr. Mark Speich is the Secretary General of the Konrad-Adenauer Foundation (KAS). From September 2017 to May 2025, he served as the State Secretary for Federal, European and International Affairs of the State of North-Rhine Westphalia (since 2022 also for Media Politics) as well as the State’s Plenipotentiary to the Federal Government. Prior to this role, he was CEO of Vodafone Foundation and the Vodafone Institute for Society and Communications, Vodafone’s corporate think tank, respectively from 2008 to 2017. Before joining Vodafone, he served as Director of Policy Planning to the CDU/CSU-Parliamentary Party in the German Bundestag and as Director of Programs for the Herbert-Quandt Foundation. In the years 1997 and 1998, he was Personal Advisor to the President of Bonn University. He started his career in the political advisory staff of CDU’s Secretary General in 1995. He was educated at Pembroke College, University of Cambridge (MPhil), and the University of Bonn (Ph.D.) where he read Modern History, Political Science, and Constitutional Law.

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Ambassador Dr. Andreas Michael Pfaffernoschke is Ambassador of Germany to the Philippines

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Georgi Engelbrecht joined International Crisis Group (crisisgroup.org for more information on our work) early 2020 and has since worked on a variety of issues related to the Mindanao peace process and conflict prevention in the South China Sea. Before that he was assigned with the International Monitoring Team (IMT) in Mindanao as European Union representative and Head of the Southcentral Mindanao office of Nonviolent Peaceforce in Maguindanao and Sarangani. He served as focal point for International Humanitarian Law in the IMT under five Heads of Mission with Major General rank. He is a German national and studied international relations/international law with a Master’s degree in International Law from the University of Turin, Italy and Diplomatic Studies from the University of Malta, and Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from the School of International Studies, University of Dresden.

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