Rainer Neske has been Chairman of the Management Board at Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW) since 2016.
After studies in computer science, he began his career at Deutsche Bank in 1990. He has held various management posts there, most recently serving as a member of the Management Board from 2009 to 2015.
In addition to his work at LBBW, Rainer Neske is also Chairman of the Risk Committee at Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) and a member of the mechanical engineering company Trumpf’s Board of Directors. He has also served as Chairman of the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management’s Board of Trustees since 2006.
Rainer Neske has been a member of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation’s Board of Trustees since 2018, its Deputy Chairman since 2022 and its Chairman since February 2026.

Werner Gatzer has been Chairman of the Supervisory Board at Deutsche Bahn AG since September 2022. He was Chairman of the DB Station & Service AG Management Board from January to March 2018.
He studied law at the University of Cologne. After completing his legal clerkship (Referendariat), he worked as a specialist at regional fiscal offices in Nuremberg and Cologne. In 1990, he began his work at the Federal Ministry of Finance, where he worked in various functions: in 1998, he became Head of Division in the Budget Department, from 1998 to 2000 he served as Head of the Parliamentary and Cabinet Affairs Department, then Director of a Sub-Department in the Budget Department until 2002, subsequently becoming Director of Political Staff at the Federal Ministry of Finance until 2005, before being appointed State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Finance in 2005, holding this office with only a brief interruption until the end of 2023.
Werner Gatzer has been a member of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation’s Board of Trustees since January 2023 and its Deputy Chairman since February 2026.

Ayla Busch is co-owner and since 1997 has been the Co-CEO of the globally operating family-owned business Busch Vacuum Solutions and since 2017 Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board of publicly listed Pfeiffer Vacuum Technology AG.
She is also Co-Chair of the Global Champions Advisory Board at the European School of Management and Technology Berlin as well as Co-Chair of the Development Board of Somerville College at Oxford University. She is also on the Board of Trustees at the TUM University Foundation for Promotion of the Technical University of Munich. She obtained an interdisciplinary degree in Philosophy, Political Science and Economics (PPE) at the University of Oxford, and thereafter a Master’s degree in Regional Studies at Harvard University and an MBA at Harvard Business School.
Her inspiring work as a leader and her eminence as a role model for young female talent were recognised by manager magazin in 2021-2024, which placed her on its list of the “100 most influential women in German business”. In 2022, she received the German Leadership Award.
Ayla Busch has been a member of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation’s Board of Trustees since June 2021.

Carola Gräfin von Schmettow studied mathematics at Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf and music at Robert Schumann University in Düsseldorf. After graduating, she joined HSBC in the Capital Markets and Asset Management division, becoming a member of the bank’s Management Board in 2004. From 2015 to 2021, she acted as Spokeswoman of the Management Board of HSBC Germany. She has been a member of the Executive Board and the Presidium of the Association of German Banks, and served as Deputy Chairwoman of the Exchange Council of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and Chairwoman of the Exchange Council of Eurex Deutschland. She is a member of several supervisory boards and is Chairwoman of the University Council at Heinrich Heine University of Düsseldorf. She is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the ZEIT Foundation as well as Kaiserswerther Diakonie.
Carola von Schmettow has been a member of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation’s Board of Trustees since June 2021.

 

Johannes Teyssen studied economics and law in Freiburg and Göttingen, obtaining his doctorate with a comparative law dissertation on criminal procedure law in Germany and the US. His career in management then led him to the energy sector. From 2010 to 2021, he was CEO of the E.ON Group, a European energy company specialising in network infrastructure and serving almost fifty million customers in over ten countries between Ankara and Stockholm. He has also served on the supervisory boards of companies in the German financial and steel sectors. At present, Johannes Teyssen holds various supervisory and board offices at English, Swiss and German companies.
Johannes Teyssen has been a member of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation’s Board of Trustees since June 2022.

 

Ulrich Wilhelm has been Chairman of the Board of Trustees and Co-Managing Director of FAZIT-STIFTUNG Gemeinnützige Verlagsgesellschaft mbH since 2022.
A graduate of the German School of Journalism and a lawyer, he worked as a reporter for newspapers, radio and television from 1983 to 1990. Ulrich Wilhelm served in the Bavarian civil service from 1991 to 2005, most recently as head of the State Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts. From 2005 to 2010, he was a civil servant state secretary and acted as spokesman for the federal government. From 2011 to 2021, he served as Director General of Bayerischer Rundfunk, and in the years 2018 and 2019 as Chairman of the public broadcaster ARD.
Ulrich Wilhelm was co-opted onto the Fritz Thyssen Foundation’s Board of Trustees in February 2023.

Oliver Zipse has been CEO of the Board of Management at BMW AG since August 2019.
He began his career at BMW AG in 1991 and in the following period held various posts and management positions in development, production and production planning in Munich and South Africa.
He was Managing Director of the BMW Group plant for MINI production in Oxford, UK, from 2007 to 2008. From 2009 to 2012, he headed Technical Planning before becoming Head of Group Planning and Product Strategy in 2012. He was appointed to the Board of Management of BMW AG in charge of the Production Division in May 2015.
Oliver Zipse holds an engineering degree (TU Darmstadt) and has received an Executive MBA from WHU Koblenz and Kellogg School of Management, Evanston, USA. He is also Vice-Chairman of the Senate of Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and served as President of the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) in 2021 and 2022. Oliver Zipse was awarded an Honorary Professorship at Technical University of Munich (TUM) in 2022.
In February 2026 Oliver Zipse was co-opted onto the Board of Trustees of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation.