Home » About Us » The Team

The Team

Burkhard Gnärig
Executive Director

At the beginning of 2007, Burkhard founded the Berlin Civil Society Center together with Peter Eigen and shortly thereafter, became Executive Director of the Center. Burkhard has over 20 years experience of international cooperation and management of civil society organisations (CSOs). From 1998 to 2007 he was Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the International Save the Children Alliance, located in London. Before this, Burkhard was CEO of Greenpeace Germany and terre des hommes Germany. As a field director in Papua Neuguinea, Burkhard also worked for the German Development Service. Burkhard has been Board Chair and Board Member of various CSOs in Italy, Switzerland, India, Korea and Japan, and has actively participated in a number of major UN conferences, as well as at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Since 2004, Burkhard holds the voluntary position as Board Chair of Save the Children Germany.

Åsa Månsson
Personal Assistant to the Executive Director

Åsa joined the Center in April 2009 as PA to the Executive Director. Besides supporting the Executive Director in his daily work, Åsa is responsible for the Center’s office administration. Originally from Sweden, Åsa studied European Studies and Sociology at the universities in Gothenburg, Sweden and Berlin. She finished her studies in August 2008 with a master thesis focusing on the role of civil society organisations (CSOs) in European governance. Åsa gained her first work experience within a small consultancy, mainly focusing on the evaluation of social projects within the public and civil society sector.

Phone: +49 30 20 67 99 05 E-Mail: asa.mansson(at)berlin-civil-society-center.org

Jessica Sommer
Project Director

Jessica Sommer is Project Director of the Berlin Civil Society Center. She joined the Center in August 2007 as assistant to the Executive Director, helping to set up and scale up the organisation since its beginning. She has been promoted to lead the Center’s projects in April 2009. Jessica used to be a Fellow of the International Master Programme on Philanthropy and Social Entrepreneurship at the Universities of Bologna and Oxford. She also studied Intercultural Communication and French at the Universities of Bayreuth, Germany and Perpignan, France.

Phone: +49 30 20 67 99 06 E-Mail: jessica.sommer(at)berlin-civil-society-center.org

Sascha Roth
Project Officer

Sascha joined the Center in April 2010 as Project Officer after interning with us from September to December 2009. He is part of the project management team and supporting the Programme Director. Sascha studied Political Science, Macroeconomics and Welfare policy at the Otto-Friedrich-University of Bamberg in Germany and at the Vilnius University in Lithuania. He is writing his thesis on the influence of institutional arrangements in international climate policy.

Phone: +49 30 20 67 99 06 E-mail: sascha.roth(at)berlin-civil-society-center.org

Daniela O’Halloran
Finance and Administration Officer

Daniela joined us in May as our Financial and Administration Officer in part-time after recently relocating from Dublin to Berlin. She is currently externally studying for a B. Sc. Sociology Degree at the University of London. In Ireland she worked for a non-profit organisation called “Integrating Ireland”. Together with her husband, who is also active in the non-profit sector, she launched an online exchange network that enables companies to donate office furniture and services to organisations working in the voluntary field for which they were awarded by “Social Entrepreneurs Ireland”.

Phone: +49 30 20 67 99 05 E-mail: daniela.ohalloran(at)berlin-civil-society-center.org

Jeremy Gould
Intern within event management

Jeremy Gould joined the Center in January 2010 and will be staying until early July. He mainly works with project organisation. Jeremy holds an MA degree in French and German from Oxford University, as part of which he also studied at the University of Münster and taught English in France. After working for Bloomberg in London and Switzerland for three years, he volunteered with a grassroots NGO in Cambodia before relocating to Berlin to work in the civil society sector.

Phone: +49 30 20 67 99 06 E-mail: intern2(at)berlin-civil-society-center.org

Marika Tügel
Intern within Coordination and Organisation

Marika Tügel joined the Center in January 2010 to stay until early July. She is mainly working with office administration and support of the Executive Director’s office. Marika studied International Relations and Modern History at the University of Tuebingen and Helsinki University in Finland. She finished her thesis about the transnational women’s movement in the region of the Southern African Development Community in November 2009.

Phone: +49 30 20 67 99 05 E-Mail: intern(at)berlin-civil-society-center.org