Prof. Dr. Gesine Schwan is co-founder, shareholder and president of the Berlin Governance Platform. Ms. Schwan heads the area of trialogues.

Gesine Schwan is a political scientist. She studied Romance languages, history, philosophy and political science in Berlin and Freiburg, with study visits to Warsaw and Krakow.

She has been a member of the SPD since 1972 and since 2014 Gesine Schwan has been Chair of the SPD's Commission on Fundamental Values and since December 2015 Co-Chair of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, SDSN Germany.

From 1977 - 1999 she was Professor of Political Science, and from 1992 - 1994 Dean of the Department of Political Science at the Free University of Berlin. In 1999 she became President of the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder) and contributed decisively to its development.

From 2005 -2009 Gesine Schwan was the Federal Government's coordinator for border and civil society cooperation with Poland. She ran for the office of Federal President in 2004 on the nomination of the SPD and Bündnis90/Die Grünen and in 2009 on the nomination of the SPD

Gesine Schwan, together with other scholars, founded the HUMBOLDT-VIADRINA School of Governance in March 2009 and served as its president from June 2010 - June 2014.

Gesine Schwan has received numerous awards, including the Marion Dönhoff Prize for International Understanding and Reconciliation in 2004 and an honorary doctorate from the European University Institute in Florence in 2006. She is a recipient of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Order "Bene merito" of the Republic of Poland and Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor of the Republic of France.

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Prof. Dr. Gesine Schwan