Women Executives in Media 4th Meeting: Women and Politics

"I’m excited to be hosting WEM 2017 at Deutsche Welle in Berlin. I look forward to fruitful discussions about women and politics – between women who have achieved senior positions in media organizations and those in the realm of politics and the business world. The challenges we face are often quite similar. There are greater opportunities now in many parts of Europe for women to reach higher positions, but I’m excited to exchange our views on just what still needs to be done to ensure that more women have the opportunity to shape the future – of their country or of their organization."

“The first WEM was held in 2014 – 24 women executives working in public service broadcasters all over Europe met in Brussels. I was the only German colleague. I’ve never been to a media business meeting before that was so interesting, cheerful and inspiring as the first WEM. And I’ve never been to a high-class, high-standard media business meeting before where all the participants were women – top-level women. It felt wonderful.

Over 50 women met in London in 2016 – within three years the number of participants had doubled. We were two Germans this time. Within three years the group of female top-level executives in European PSB became more and more visible through this meeting. The strategic and inspiring mood of the conference is becoming stronger and stronger. Therefore to me it is more than just “professional interest” to host WEM 2017 in Berlin, the capital city in the heart of Europe, together with my colleague Gerda Meuer from Deutsche Welle – it is an honour and an affair of the heart.”

Special guest: Monika Grütters, Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media

Member of the German Bundestag since 2005 and since December 2013 Minister of State to the Federal Chancellor, Federal Government Commissioner for Culture & Media.

Since 1999 Monika Grütters has been honorary professor of Culture Management at the Hanns Eisler Music Conservatory in Berlin and since 2005 at the Freie Üniversität in Berlin.

Member of the CDU since 1980. Since 2009 Chairwoman of the Culture & Media Committee. Member of the Committee for Education, Research & Technology Impact Assessment.

Ingrid Deltenre, EBU Director General

Ingrid Deltenre took up the position of Director General of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) on 1 January 2010. The EBU is an association with 73 Member public service radio and TV broadcasters from 56 countries throughout Europe and neighbouring countries, as well as 35 Associates from the other continents. The association is more widely known as EUROVISION. The EBU has two types of activities: On behalf of its Members it acquires sports and music rights, enables content exchanges and co-productions, coordinates technical research and development, facilitates the exchanges of expertise and best practices and acts as the public voice of public broadcasting. The EBU business services range from providing host broadcasting services to providing highly reliable distribution services for prestigious news and sports live events. For this purpose the EBU operates the largest global satellite and fibre network connecting all relevant broadcasters world-wide. The EBU employs about 400 permanent staff from 44 different countries at its headquarters in Geneva and its subsidiaries around the world.

Prior to joining the EBU, Ingrid Deltenre was CEO of Schweizer Fernsehen (SF), the leading public TV broadcaster in the German-speaking region of Switzerland. During her tenure there she successfully redefined the broadcaster's profile, realigned it with its audience, and modernized the production and distribution infrastructure and launched a forward looking internet and mobile platform. Production facilities were modernized during this time with the introduction of high definition and file-based production. All sports production was converted to high definition in time for Euro 2008. The switch from analogue distribution to digital was accomplished by the end of 2007.

From 1999 to 2004 she was CEO of Publisuisse, the commercial unit of SRG SSR and the leading marketer of television in Switzerland.

Previously Ingrid Deltenre held a variety of executive positions, including at Swisscard AECS and as managing director at CASH, which at the time was Switzerland's leading business weekly. Ingrid Deltenre is a Dutch and Swiss National and speaks Dutch, German, English, French and Italian.

Gerda Meuer, Director of Programming, Deutsche Welle

Gerda Meuer, born in 1959, studied film and television, history and German language and literature at the University of Cologne. From 1985-1987 she worked as a correspondent for Inter Press Service, a news agency in Bonn focused on development issues. After spending six months in Chile with a scholarship from the Heinz Kühn Institute, she completed a traineeship at Deutsche Welle in 1987. As part of a partnership program between DW and NHK/Japan Radio, she moved to Tokyo in 1991, where she served as editor and foreign correspondent until 1996.

After her return to Germany, Meuer became Senior Editor of DW's German-language service, and then its Deputy Editor-in-Chief in 1999. Starting in 2000, she served as foreign correspondent in DW's Brussels studio. Four years later she became head of the newly established DW Akademie. In 2008 she was appointed Director.

Gerda Meuer has been Director of Programming since November 2013.

Birgitta Nickelsen, Director of Business Development & Operations , Directorate, Radio Bremen, Germany

Since May 2010 Brigitta Nickelsen has been a member of the managing board of Radio Bremen as the director for business development, human resources, finances and production.  She came to Radio Bremen (public-service broadcaster in the City State of Bremen) in 1990, where she worked, among other challenges, as editor and anchor woman for the daily TV news-journal “buten un binnen”. At that time she was also responsible for the job training of the young journalists in the team and worked nation-wide as a trainer for TV-journalists working in front of the camera. From 2003 to 2008 she was head of the project team “New Radio Bremen” – developing the workflows, technical systems and the building of the stations’s new headquarter. From 2008 until 2010 she was responsible for the multimedia section of Radio Bremen.

Melinda Crane, Deutsche Welle's Chief Political Correspondent

Dr Melinda Crane is a frequent guest and commentator on German television and radio and regularly analyses US policy for the news broadcaster n-tv. An experienced TV anchor, she is chief political correspondent at DW TV and also hosts the DW talk show Quadriga as well as the political magazine People & Politics.

As international affairs consultant to the discussion show Sabine Christiansen she produced interviews with Kofi Annan, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, and George Bush, among others. Her journalistic experience includes work for the New York Times Magazine, The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, The Boston Globe, the Christian Science Monitor and German newspapers and magazines. Areas of expertise include: transatlantic politics; energy, climate and environment; transport and communication; development, globalization, finance and trade; science and medicine (including pharma); migration, integration and urbanization; women, youth and education; new media and the internet.

Ursula Von Der Leyen, German Defence minister

Ursula Von Der Leyen is a German politician who has been the Minister of Defence since 2013, and is the first woman in German history to hold that office. A doctor by profession, she previously also served as the Minister for Labour & Social Affairs from 2009 to 2013 and as the Minister for Senior Citizens, Women & Youth from 2005 to 2009.

Prof. Dr. Karola Wille, ARD Chairwoman

Karola Wille was born in Chemnitz in 1959. She joined the German public broadcaster MDR (Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk) in 1991 as first consultant in the Legal Management Department progressing to deputy to the Legal director of MDR before being made Legal director of MDR in 1996. In the following years Karola Wille ran the Legal Commission of ARD and ZDF. In 2002 she was awarded a post-doctoral lecture qualification in Media Law (honorary professorship) at Leipzig University.

In 2003 Prof. Dr Karola Wille became deputy to the Director General of MDR before being elected Director General in October 2011.

Karola Wille represents ARD within the German Film Producers' Alliance managing cooperation between the largest German public broadcaster and the film industry.

Since January 2016 Prof. Dr Karola Wille has been chairwoman of ARD.

Antje Homburger, Deputy editor-in-chief, head of news with the German press agency, dpa

Born in 1963 in Bassum, Lower Saxony, Antje Homburger began her career working as a freelancer in Bremen for the Associated Press, the vwd group, Weser Kurier and Welt, after completing her studies in applied business languages. From 1998 until 2010, she worked for the Associated Press in Frankfurt. She spent 11 of these 12 years as head of the economics division. In 2010 she started the same position with dpa. She was also recently a member of the dpa next lab in Berlin Beta House. Since 2016, she has worked as deputy editor in chief. In her current role, she is responsible for daily management, quality control and further development of the agency.

Ines Pohl, Executive Editor, Deutsche Welle, Germany

Upon completing one year as a senior correspondent at DW in Washington, Ines will be moving back to Germany, where she will be the executive editor of Deutsche Welle as of March 2017. Through covering the election year in the United States, she travelled the country extensively while working on her web video project - „#WhatAmerica do you want?“

Before Ines Pohl joined Deutsche Welle in 2015, she was the editor-in-chief of Die Tageszeitung for six years. Under her leadership, the national daily German newspaper has launched a new weekend edition and restructured its website www.taz.de, now one of Germany's most popular news sites. She has promoted the use of social media to enhance the connection between the digital audience and journalists. Pohl strengthened her paper's commitment to coverage of Eastern Europe and supports the education of young journalists in that region.

As a 2005 Nieman fellow at Harvard University, Pohl focused her work on immigration, and the impact of religion and leadership. She is also a published author of two books: „50 einfache Dinge, die Sie tun können, um die Gesellschaft zu verändern” and „Schluss mit Lobbyismus!“. In addition, Ines serves as a member of the board of trustees for “Reporters without Borders” and for “Youth against Aids”.

Pohl is particularly in interested in questions of democratic legitimacy and transition. She is passionate about human rights and understanding the role of democratic structures in developing countries. She has embraced opportunities to participate as a panelist and moderator for events across the European Union.

Anna Alex, Founder and Managing Director, Outfittery GmbH   

In 2012, Anna together with her co-founder Julia launched the personal shopping service OUTFITTERY with the vision to create a shopping experience for men that is convenient, fun and inspiring. Today, OUTFITTERY serves individual outfits to over 400k men in eight countries and Anna is one of the most famous female entrepreneurs in Europe. In 2016, she was voted amongst Europe’s “Inspiring Fifty”, the 50 most inspirational women in tech. Prior to OUTFITTERY Anna lead the IT of the Swiss group buying platform DeinDeal in Zurich. She studied economic sociology in Freiburg and Paris.

Monika Schulz-Strelow, President, FidAR – Frauen in die Aufsichtsräte e.V.

Throughout Monika’s longstanding affiliation with the BAO BERLIN International GmbH, where she spent nine years on the board, she intensified the international relations for the Berlin business community and built business networks in Europe. She was member of several European networks and with her own office in Brussels she became a door opener to the European Commission. As business consultant with her own company b.international group, she helps national and international investors to enter the markets in Berlin, Germany and Austria successfully. Besides business advice Monika is very active in the field of public affairs and political lobbying.

In 2012 Monika Schulz-Strelow became member of the administrative board of the Deutsche Klassenlotterie Berlin. In 2015 she became Member of the Board of Trustees of the RAG Foundation. In 2006 Monika Schulz-Strelow founded FidAR – Frauen in die Aufsichtsräte e.V. (Women on the boards) which is a non-partisan initiative, campaigning for an increase of female board members in Germany. FidAR is the leading association in the field of more women on boards in Germany. FidAR developed a ranking that shows the number of women working in the supervisory boards in each of the 160 German quoted companies – the so-called WoB-Index (Women on Board Index). In 2013 she received the Federal Cross of Merit from Federal President Joachim Gauck.

In 2016 she was elected as one of the 50 most influential women in Germany by The Manager magazine.

Tamara Weinert, Senior VP of Sales South Europe & Overseas, Outokumpu

Tamara Weinert is responsible for managing the sales activities and Service Centers in Southern Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australia and all European exports to the Americas. This followed her being the CFO for Europe for 3 years from mid-2013 till mid-2016.

Tamara has been with Outokumpu since 2012 and originally joined the company as Director for Treasury and Risk Management in Germany and Head of Investor Relations in Finland. Previously, she was with Nuon and Vattenfall, two major utilities and energy traders: The first years since 2001 she acted as Head of Credit Risk Management and since 2008 as Director of Treasury and Head of Corporate & Structured Finance for Vattenfall. During two years at Mirant Energy in the Netherlands, an American asset backed trader headquartered in Atlanta, Tamara gained further experience as Head of Credit Risk and Contract Management. She started her career in 1984 with Deutsche Bank, where she held various positions over seventeen years. During that time she was based in Germany, India, Pakistan, Singapore and Russia.

As SVP for Sales Southern Europe & Overseas, Tamara Weinert is responsible for managing the sales activities and service centres in southern Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australia and all European exports to the Americas. This followed her being the CFO for Europe for 3 years from mid-2013 to mid-2016. Tamara has been with Outokumpu since 2012 and originally joined the company as Director for Treasury & Risk Management in Germany and Head of Investor Relations in Finland. Previously, she was with Nuon and Vattenfall, two major utilities and energy traders: From 2001 she was head of Credit Risk Management and from 2008 director of Treasury and head of Corporate & Structured Finance for Vattenfall. During two years at Mirant Energy in the Netherlands, Tamara gained further experience as head of Credit Risk & Contract Management. She started her career in 1984 with Deutsche Bank, where she held various positions over seventeen years. During that time she was based in Germany, India, Pakistan, Singapore and Russia.