Chairman of the Munich Security Conference (MSC), who also served as President of the MSC Foundation until 2026.
His career in diplomacy includes serving as State Secretary of the Federal Foreign Office, as well as holding ambassadorial appointments in Washington, D.C., and London. He teaches at the Hertie School in Berlin and serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Tübingen. He provides strategic advisory services to corporations, international organizations, and governments, and is a co-founder and shareholder of Agora Strategy Group AG, a geopolitical consultancy based in Munich.