I am retired - After 45 years for Social Protection

In my active Times, my areas of activity were Consulting, System Design, Implementation, Teaching

Born 1954 in Cologne, Germany, I have studied economics and social protection at Cologne University and Pennsylvania State University (US). I hold a PhD in Economics, and completed a thesis on public goods. I am married and have two children

I have about 45 years experience in Social Protection and Social Security, 25 of these in over 30 developing and middle income countries. My focus is social security and social development, but I also have expertise in other areas, such as actuarial work, monitoring and evaluation. I can work, present and write in German, English, French and Spanish.

I started my career in 1979 as assistant and lecturer at Cologne University, teaching about social security in Germany. After this, I was desk officer in the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, followed by a position as head of section in AOK federation (German social health insurance), National Expert in the EU Commission in Brussels, and finally Social Protection Specialist at the Asian Development Bank in Manila.

I worked in national and international organizations and as an independent advisor in fields like development of institutions, building consensus and initializing processes. 

I have broad experience as teacher at Universities (Cologne, Maastricht, Trier, Bonn) and as trainer in professional environments and institutions like the International Training Center of the ILO in Turin. I am honorary professor at the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences. Teaching is my current professional focus. However, today on a quite reduced level.

I believe in consensus building and in the potential to reform bureaucracies and apparently inflexible systems in a constructive way. I believe in the contribution of entrepreneurs and workers, and in the combination of innovation, social protection, democracy and market economy. 

My motto: "Economically there is no need for hunger, fear and poverty in the world". "Institutions are there for people and not for themselves".