Prof Dr Gesine Schwan is co-founder, partner and president of the Berlin Governance Platform.

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

She has been a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) since 1972. She has been Chairwoman of the SPD Basic Values Commission and since 2015 Co-Chairwoman of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network Germany.

She taught political science from 1977 to 1999 and was Dean of the Department of Political Science at the Free University of Berlin from 1992 to 1994. In 1999 she became President of the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder) and has contributed significantly to its development.

Between 2005 and 2009, she was also the German government's coordinator for cross-border and civil society cooperation with Poland. She was nominated as a candidate for the office of Federal President by the SPD and Alliance 90/The Greens in 2004 and by the SPD in 2009.

In March 2009, she founded the Humboldt-Viadrina School of Governance together with other academics. This later gave rise to the Berlin Governance Platform.

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

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Prof. Dr. Gesine Schwan