Prof. Manfred Lahnstein

Professor Manfred Lahnstein works internationally as a management consultant for companies and institutions in Europe, the USA and Japan. He is also a member of numerous supervisory and advisory boards. From 1983 to 2004, he was first a member of the Executive Board (responsible for building up the "New Media" division), then of the Supervisory Board and finally Special Representative of Bertelsmann AG. SPD member since 1959, the "liberal social democrat" was Federal Minister of Finance and Federal Minister of Economics. The media expert, manager and ex-politician is highly respected for his extraordinary social commitment and social achievements.

After studying economics and social sciences, Lahnstein was youth education officer at "Arbeit und Leben" (DGB/Volkshochschulen) in Düsseldorf from 1961 to 1964, secretary at the European Trade Union Confederation in Düsseldorf and Brussels from 1961 to 1967, deputy head of cabinet at the EC Commission from 1967 to 1973, 1973 to 1974 Head of Department for Economic/Social Affairs in the Federal Chancellery under Willy Brandt, 1974 to 1977 Head of Department for Policy Issues in the Federal Ministry of Finance under Hans Apel, 1977 to 1980 State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Finance under Hans Matthöfer, 1980 to 1982 Head of the Federal Chancellery under Helmut Schmidt and in 1982 Federal Minister of Finance.

From 1985 to 2015, he taught as a professor of cultural and media management at the Hamburg University of Music and Theater. In 1994, he founded his own consultancy "Lahnstein & Partner, International Consultants." Member of the German-Israeli Society since 1967, he first took over the office of treasurer there in the early 1990s and was subsequently president from 1993 to 2006. From 1993 to 2005 he was a member of the Trilateral Commission and from 1995 to 2019 Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the ZEIT Foundation.

He is committed to the Hamburg State Opera, the Hamburg University of Music and Theatre, Bucerius Law School, and especially the Autorentheatertage, an important theater festival in northern Germany. Lahnstein was the first German and non-Jewish Chairman of the Board of Governors of the University of Haifa, of which he had already been "Governor" since 1996. In addition, he is a member of the Board of Trustees of Forum Tiberius.

From 2009 to 2014, he was a member of the Supervisory Board of the investment company RiverRock European Capital Partners LLP (London).

As awards Lahnstein received - 2001: Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class - 2006: Moses Mendelssohn of the Moses Mendelssohn Center for European-Jewish Studies - 2007: Honorary Doctorate of the University of Haifa - 2007: Grand Federal Cross of Merit of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany - 2008: Honorary Doctorate of the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences of the University of Hamburg.

Professor Lahnstein - a consultant for the Saudi conglomerate Olayan Group and the investment bank Rothschild - speaks in German, English and French about changes in business, politics, society and the future: all analytical, captivating, actionable.