Anne has been executive director of GSO since 2016. She studied Social and Business Communication in Berlin and Chinese language and culture in Nanjing. After completing her PhD in Organizational Sociology at the University of St. Gallen, she spent a year working on research at UC Berkeley. It was there that she was asked the decisive career question.

Anne is active on the Advisory Boards of the Planck Academy, the science blog Elephant in the Lab, the Science Management Network as well as Junge Menschen und Stiftungen.

Birte has been supporting the GSO since September 2022. She supervises the Klaus Tschira Boost Fund and the Carl Zeiss Foundation Fund and helps to further develop our programs. Trained as a systemic coach, she heads our advisory services for researchers.

Birte studied Sinology, Political Science and Education in Berlin and the People’s Republic of China. After receiving her PhD, Birte build an academic cooperation with China at RWTH Aaachen, coordinated PhD programs at BTU Cottbus, and advanced services for entrepreneurs in science at Falling Walls gGmbH.

Karina has an eye on our numbers and makes sure that they add up perfectly. She supports us in our funding programs and fundraising activities. Karina studied „International Business“ at EPSCI in Paris and has been living in Berlin for 30 years. After 15 years in marketing in different companies, she decided that the nonprofit sector is for her and has been using her skills in raising funds and connecting people.

Saskia has been working at the GSO as a project and community manager since November 2022. She manages the Leadership Academy and is in charge of the alumni platform AlumNode.

Saskia studied sociology and educational science in Dresden and continued her education in the areas of (agile) project management and leadership. At the Falling Walls Foundation she was a project manager for the partner network Young Entrepreneurs in Science.