 | Professor Hanspeter Kriesi teaches political science at the University of Zurich. From 1984 to 1988 Kriesi held the chair for political behavioural research at the University of Amsterdam. In the following years he taught at the University of Geneva comparative politics and swiss politics at the “Département de Science Politique”, whose head he was from 1995 to 1998. From 2001 to 2002 he worked at the Social Science Research Centre, Berlin. Professor Kriesi is chairman of the expert group of the social-scientific research program “Zukunft Schweiz”. Since 2005 he is also director of the NCCR-Democracy research programme of the Swiss National Funds. In his research he focuses on direct democracy, social movements, public opinion and opinion making, political parties, elections and polls. |
 | Professor Jürgen W. Falter, born in 1944, studied political science and modern history at the Universities of Heidelberg and Berlin as well as in Ann Arbor/Michigan and Berkeley/California. Since 1993 Falter is Professor of political science at the Johannes-Guttenberg-Universität in Mainz. Jürgen Falter is one of the most renowned researchers on political parties in Germany. For his merits as a scientist Jürgen Falter has been awarded with the Federal Cross of Merit with Ribbon of the Federal Republic of Germany. |
 | Sarah Simmons is a Senior Research Director at Harris Interactive – one of the largest market research and consulting firms in the world and the global leader in Internet based research methods. She served as the Director of Strategy for John McCain’s campaign for President in 2008 and was the Deputy Strategist for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s successful gubernatorial re-election campaign (2006). Prior Sarah served as an Associate Director in the Office of Strategic Initiatives in the Bush White House and as a Senior Project Director for Public Opinion Strategies where she managed survey research. In addition to her extensive experience in American politics, Sarah has done in-depth survey research and focus group projects in Australia, New Zealand, Albania, Malaysia and Mongolia. Sarah holds a Master's Degree in Political Science from American University in Washington D.C., where she also earned her Bachelor's degree in Political Science. She was named one of Campaigns & Elections magazine’s Rising Stars in 2007. |
 | Nathalie Etzenbach-Huguenin is Deputy Treasurer of the French party Union pour un Mouvement Polulaire (UMP), in charge of fundraising. She is also the Director of the new division in charge of Client Relationship Management. She is a town councillor in the city of Neuilly-Sur-Seine. She entered the political sphere in 2006, after 12 years in investment banking. She first joined the presidential campaign staff of Nicolas Sarkozy as a member of the team in charge of budget and became CFO of the party. In her previous professional career, she worked for several investment banks such as Citigroup, Credit Suisse First Boston or Societe Generale in equity capital markets and mergers and acquisitions all other Europe. She graduated in 1994 from the French business school ESCP Europe. She was selected in 2009 to represent France for the US Marshall Memorial Fellowship program of the German Marshall Fund. |
 | Sabine Heimbach is deputy spokeswoman of the German federal government since January 2010. During her studies in Münster and Bonn she received a scholarship of the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation. Her journalistic career began in 1981, when she was working as a freelance journalist for several media productions. After a traineeship and an editor job at the RIAS in Washington, D.C. she worked as the spokeswoman for the President of the Bundestag Rita Süßmuth. In 1995 she became head of the public relations department at the Ministry of Transport. After a parental leave of 4 years she worked as a spokeswoman for the Member of the European Parliament, Dr. Angelika Niebler. |
 | Christoph Freiherr Marschall von Bieberstein studied Eastern European History and Political Science in Freiburg, Mainz and Krakau and earned his doctorate in 1988 in Freiburg. From 1989 to 1991 he worked for the Süddeutsche Zeitung and was reporting on the mass exodus of GDR citizens through Hungary into Western. Since 2005 Christoph von Marshall is working in Washington, D.C. He is considered to be a renowned German-speaking expert on Barack and Michelle Obama. For two years he accompanied the Obamas during his presidential campaign. After Barack Obama was elected President of the USA he continued reporting on the President and the First Lady. In 2007 he published “Barack Obama. The Black Kennedy”, which was translated in five languages. In 2009 he published the book „Michelle Obama. An American Dream“, describing her role as First Lady, mother and manager. |
 | Julia Klöckner, born in 1972, is chairwoman of the CDU Rhineland-Palatinate and since 2011 head of the CDU’s parliamentary group in this state. Her state election campaign 2011 was judged a success. Before her election into the parliament of Rhineland-Palatinate, she was parliamentary state secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture. Since 2010 she is a member of the national board of the CDU. |
 | Peter Radunski, former Senator and long-time general manager of the CDU, is Senior Advisor and member of the scientific council of Publicis Consultants Germany. Globally respected as an expert for political campaigning, Radunski was responsible for numerous campaigns on regional and national levels and he has been an advisor for politicians and parties worldwide. As a Senator (comparable to Minister) in the state of Berlin from 1991 to 1999 he was in charge of federal and European matters and later science and arts. He teaches at the Otto-Suhr-Institut at the FU Berlin and at the institute for political science in Innsbruck. |
 | Hildegard Müller, born in 1967, is head of the German Association for Energy and Water Industry in Berlin. Müller started her career at the Dresdner Bank. After being trained as a banking clerk she studied business at the Heinrich-Heine-University in Düsseldorf. Back at the Dresdner Bank AG she became department head. From 2002 Müller represented her hometown Düsseldorf in the German Bundestag. In 2005 she became a state secretary for Angela Merkel. She was responsible for the coordination between federal government and the states as well as for the topic of bureaucracy reduction. |
 | Dr. Florian Hartleb, born in 1979, is a research fellow for European Studies in Brussels. He was a scholar at the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation and the Hans-Seidel-Foundation. After his PhD at the TU Chemnitz he worked in the German Bundestag and as a research assistant at the TU Chemnitz. In 2010 he took the chair for political management at the International University of Executive Management in Berlin. Hartleb’s field of research is populism, political parties and extremism in the European Union as well as on political leadership. |
 | Sebastian Lange, born 1975, is editor in chief of “politik & kommunikation”, a well known periodical on political communication. After studying law at the university of Cologne, Lange started his career as a journalist at the “Saarbrücker Zeitung”. After that he was editor at the “Braunschweiger Zeitung”. |
 | Nikolai Astrup was born 1978 in Oslo.Since 1998 he is member of the Norwegian Parliament (Storting) for the Conservative Party, Hoyre. Astrup is member of the Standing Committee on Energy and the Environment. From 2008 he was Deputy Chair of the Conservative Party, Oslo. From 2002 to 2004 Astrup was Chair of the Norwegian Young Conservatives, Oslo. From 2006-2008 he served as Political Adviser for the Conservative Party Parliamentary Party Group. |
 | Sara Fagen is Partner at DDC Advocacy. Fagen helps fortune 500 companies and trade associations with strategic planning and crisis management. One of the nation’s leading political and issue campaign strategists, she served as a senior aide and White House Political Director for President George W. Bush. She has been hailed as a leading champion of micro-targeting by the media. The Wall Street Journal called her a “data whiz” and went on to say, “As a top strategist for the 2004 Bush-Cheney re-election efforts Fagen helped perfect political micro-targeting.”. After leaving the White House in 2007, Fagen founded BlueFront Strategies, a strategic consulting and issue advocacy firm, focused on providing the business community with results-oriented and cutting edge issue advocacy solutions. In 2009, Fagen teamed up with public affairs expert John Brady and together they founded Resonate Networks, a leading online advertising platform. |
 | Roger Pedersen is Communications Manager at The Norwegian Oil Industry Association. From 2008 to 2010 he served as Manager of Advocacy at “Save the Children”, Norway. Prior to that he was Political Adviser for The standing Committee on Local Government and The standing Committee on Education, Research and Church Affairs, The Social Left Party Parliamentary Group, the Norwegian Parliament. In 2000 he was Project Assistant at the Norwegian Resource Bank for Democracy and Human Rights (NORDEM) and the Norwegian Institute of Human Rights. |
 | Olivier Ubeda, 40 years old, was responsible for European Affairs of the UMP. He was National coordinator of Young Republicans in 1994, entered the cabinet of François Léotard, Ministry of Defense. In 1998, he was counsellor in charge of public relations and political affairs of president of Burgundy Jean-Pierre Soisson and in 2000, in the cabinet of president of Poitou-Charentes Jean-Pierre Raffarin, future French prime minister. In 2005, Nicolas Sarkozy, new president of the UMP, promoted him deputy director of Communication, in charge of public relations. He was also in charge of marketing, events and campaigning. In 2008, he created the Delegation of European Affairs for the UMP and he managed the successful UMP European campaign of 2009. In 2010 he founded Ubéda & Partners, consulting firm in public affairs, lobbying, image and public events. He advises politicians, public personalities, states, cities, regions, political parties and private firms' CEOs. |
| Per Schlingmann, born in 1970, is the state secretary to the Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt. Schlingmann studied Economics at the University of Gothenburg. From 1992 to 1995 he was Press and International Secretary of the Young Moderates. In 1995 he managed the campaign of Gunilla Carlsson in the elections of the European parliament. In the following years Schlingmann worked as a consultant for private agencies. Since 1999 he is CEO of Audumbla Communication Group/ Spider relations in Stockholm. In 2003 Schlingmann became head of communications of the Moderate Party and in 2006 was voted its General Secretary. |
| Joachim Koschnicke, born in 1972, is CEO of forsa. He studied law and business in Bonn and Heidenheim. Koschnicke started his professional career at the corporate planning department of Bosch and Siemens Hausgeräte. In 1999 Koschnicke started working at the CDU headquarters. In 2000 he transferred to the office of the General Secretary of the CDU. From 2006 to 2011 Koschnicke was head of the party’s department for strategic planning. |
