Board of Directors

Marlehn Thieme has been Chair of the Board of Deutsche Welthungerhilfe e. V. since 2018. She chairs the supervisory board of a co-operative bank (Bank for Church and Diaconia) and she chaired the ZDF German Public Service Television Council for 8 years until July 2024. As a lawyer who has been involved in various foundations, Marlehn Thieme held a number of senior positions at Deutsche Bank until 2013. She also advised the German government for 15 years as a member and chair of the German Council for Sustainable Development. In 2024, she was honoured with the Medal of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for her commitment to democracy.

An agricultural economist, Prof. Dr Joachim von Braun is a former Director of the Centre for Development Research (ZEF) at the University of Bonn and a distinguished Professor of Economic and Technological Change. He has been appointed to several national and international academies of science and was Director General of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). Since 2012 he has been Vice-Chairman of Welthungerhilfe’s Board of Directors. He is also President of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in the Vatican and is a member of the Scientific Group of the UN Food Systems process.

Dr. Bernd Widera has been a member of Welthungerhilfe’s board of directors since 2019 and the chair of its finance committee since 2016. A lawyer by training, he sat on the board of the energy company RWE Deutschland AG for many years. He is also a member of the AMOS Business Club (based at Kommende Dortmund, the social institute of the archdiocese of Paderborn), a member of the advisory board of the energy supply company Lechwerke AG, and the chair of the supervisory board of the utility company AVU Aktiengesellschaft.

Prof. Dr. Kaosar Afsana earned her Master of Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health, Massachusetts, USA, in 1997, and her PhD in Public Health from Edith Cowan University, Western Australia, in 2003. During her tenure at the Bangladeshi NGO BRAC, she successfully led large-scale health, nutrition, and population programs for many years. Since 2011, she has been a professor at the BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health (JPGSPH), where she spearheads research in critical areas such as nutrition, sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), early childhood development, and Covid-19-related challenges. In 2024, she joined the Welthungerhilfe Board of Directors.

Carl-Albrecht Bartmer was appointed to the Welthungerhilfe Board of Directors in 2020. He has been Chairman of the DLG (German Agricultural Society) Supervisory Board since 2018. Before that, the agricultural scientist and farmer was President of the DLG from 2006 to 2018. Since 1991, Carl-Albrecht Bartmer has been running his own arable farm in the Province of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. He has been a member of the Welthungerhilfe Board of Directors since 2020.

Dr. Annette Niederfranke, former State Secretary, has been a member of the Welthungerhilfe Board of Directors since 2020. Until 2014, she served as State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS) and as Director of the International Labour Organization (ILO) office in Germany. A trained psychologist, she worked on career development topics at the University of Heidelberg before holding various leadership positions in the German government, including as Ministerial Director at the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, and at the BMAS. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of the ifo Institute in Munich and is also actively involved in the Evangelical Church of Berlin in various voluntary roles.

As Dean of the School of Engineering at Makerere University, Uganda, and a researcher at netLabs!UG, Dr. Dorothy Okello has been at the forefront of advancing technology for development. After earning her PhD in Electrical Engineering from McGill University, Canada, through the prestigious Canadian Commonwealth Scholarship, she took on pivotal roles at the ResilientAfrica Network (RAN), serving first as Director and later as Director of Innovation at the Makerere University School of Public Health. Her outstanding contributions to ICT were recognized when she was named "Top ICT Woman" at the Uganda ICT Excellence Awards in 2009. She was appointed to the Welthungerhilfe Board of Directors in 2024.

Prof. Dr. habil. Conrad Justus Schetter is Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Bonn and Research Director at the Bonn International Center for Conflict Studies (BICC). Previously, he was Deputy Director of the Center for Development Research (ZEF) at the University of Bonn. In 2016, he joined the Welthungerhilfe Board of Directors.

Klaus Straub, a member of Welthungerhilfe’s Board of Directors since 2024 and part of the Finance Committee since 2021, serves as a supervisory board member, managing director, and executive advisor. He brings extensive leadership experience as a Chief Information Officer and IT director in DAX-listed companies such as BMW AG. His expertise spans a wide range of areas, including strategy, organization, and future programs in technology and digital transformation, providing WHH with vital insights to enhance efficiency and drive innovation. Klaus Straub is highly connected within the global blue-chip and tech industries. In 2018, he was honored with the prestigious "CIO of the Year" Innovation Award.