Marianne Heuwagen

Marianne Heuwagen holds a State Exam in German Language, Literature and History from the University of Bonn, Germany and a MA in Communications from Stanford University in California. She went on to become a successful freelance journalist - working for such prestigious media sources as ARD (The Working Pool of the Broadcasting Corporations of the Federal Republic of Germany), Die Zeit and the Süddeutsche Zeitung. During this time she specialized in topics involving civil right, human rights, and societal development in the US. In 1978 she moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles, where she befriended Marta Feuchtwanger, widow of the German author Lion Feuchtwanger.

In 1986 Marianne Heuwagen returned to Germany to work as Berlin Correspondent for the Süddeutsche Zeitung. After the passing of Marta Feuchtwanger in 1988 the Friends of the Villa Aurora was founded, which established the Feuchtwanger Villa as cultural landmark in memory of the history of German and Jewish emigrants.

After the German Federal Government relocated in 1999 Marianne Heuwagen transferred to the Parliamentary Bureau of the Süddeutsche Zeitung. In 2002 she moved as op-ed editor to the head office of Süddeutsche Zeitung in Munich. Three years later she moved to Berlin to establish the German office for Human Rights Watch: From September 2005 to September 2010 she was the Director of the German Bureau of Human Rights Watch.

Marianne Heuwagen is Deputy Chairwoman of the Board of Directors and has been instrumental in the preservation of the Villa and its establishment as an Artist's Residency Program for more than 25 years.

Dr. Jakob Scherer

Dr. Jakob Scherer studied philosophy and economics at Freie Universität Berlin and as a fellow of the Ernst Reuter Society at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He received his PhD in philosophy on the subject of ordoliberalism. Jakob spent several years as a strategy consultant and manager at an international consulting firm and subsequently worked for the State of Berlin as head of strategy for its 1,000-worker strong IT and digitization agency. Since May 2022, he has been managing director of VATMH e. V. He is also chairman of the advisory board of Stiftung Neue Kultur Berlin and co-founder and long-time co-host of a private salon with guests from culture and public life.

Prof. Helmut K. Anheier

Helmut K. Anheier is Senior Professor of Sociology at the Hertie School and a member of the faculty at the Luskin School of Public Affairs, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). From 2009 to 2018 he served as President of the Hertie School.His research centres on cultural policy, governance, indicator systems and non-profit organizations. He is founding editor of the journal Global Perspectives, University of California Press and was academic director of the Hertie School's annual Governance Report (Oxford University Press, 2013-2020). He received his PhD from Yale University in 1986, he held a Chair of Sociology at Heidelberg University´s Max Weber Institute, he was professor at UCLA, Centennial Professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies at Johns Hopkins University and Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University. The author of numerous publications, he has received many national and international awards for his research. Before embarking on an academic career, he worked for the United Nations

Dr. Hans-Jörg Clement

Dr. Hans-Jörg Clement (*1961) is head of the Cultural Department of the Konrad-Adenauer foundation as well as curator and managing director of the Else-Heiliger-Fonds EHF 2010 for the support of young artists. Having received a PhD in philology, Clement regularly writes about the development of contemporary art in the German Federal Republic. He is also a member of various committees. Clement curated numerous exhibitions, among others as co-curator in the Bundeskunsthalle and the Deutsche Bank KunstHalle.

Dr. Alexandra Gräfin von Stosch

Alexandra von Stosch is program director of Bauhaus Council Berlin, author and curator, who teaches among others at Humboldt University in Berlin, Bauhaus Universität Weimar and the Universität der Künste Berlin. 

Following her studies in art history at the Sorbonne in Paris, she became the artistic director at the agency Art Public Contemporain Paris. In this capacity, she realized public art projects in France and was responsible for the setup of the international collection of contemporary art at the new headquarters of the French bank Société Gènérale (La Défense). As a founding member, curator and chief editor, she ran the International Center for Curatorial Studies ICCARUS (Munich and New York), among others overseeing exhibition and publication projects on Jeff Koons, Ed Ruscha, and Louise Bourgeois.

Alexandra von Stosch earned her doctorate with a study on the hitherto unknown photography of film director Stanley Kubrick and organized an international exhibition tour. In Berlin, she was a founding member of the interdisciplinary non-profit initiative Contemporary Arts Alliance Berlin, then became board member with responsibility  for the CAA Academy. She published a monograph about Anish Kapoor (together with Rainer Crone; Prestel Verlag, 2008) and Ed Ruscha (Walther König, 2009).  Alexandra von Stosch is an active member of the branch Art & Science of the international Center for Human Sciences (HWZ Munich) and participates in interdisciplinary work groups of the Academy of Sciences Berlin-Brandenburg. In addition, she is involved in various arts juries (including CAA and the BDI Kulturkreis).

Since March 2017 she is Head of Art and Culture at the Artprojekt Unternehmensgruppe, carrying out cultural development projects in Berlin and Brandenburg.

Dr. Ulrich Köstlin

Dr. Ulrich Köstlin is a private art and music patron and collector of emerging artists. In addition to the Villa Aurora, he is also involved with the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (Else Heiliger Fonds), the Association of Arts and Culture of the German Economy, and Spectrum Concerts in Berlin. He served on executive boards in the pharmaceutical industry for many years and is currently a member of various supervisory boards. He studied law in Germany, Switzerland and the United States.

Alexandra Lieben

Alexandra Lieben is the deputy director of the Ronald W. Burkle Center for International Relations and lecturer at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. She also served as faculty advisor for the UCLA Anderson School’s Applied Management Research Program and is an affiliated faculty member of the Promise Institute for Human Rights at the UCLA School of Law. A certified mediator, she teaches a. o. constructive communication and alternative dispute resolution to undergraduate and graduate students at UCLA. For more than a decade, she has held seminars in a. o. crisis prevention, crisis de-escalation, and constructive communication for leaders and rank-and-file of public safety and public sector agencies.
Alexandra Lieben grew up in the music industry and worked for years as a rock and jazz concert promoter in Austria. She eventually pivoted to the film industry and spent several years in feature and documentary film production both in Austria and in Los Angeles. Lieben graduated summa cum laude with a BA in sociology from UCLA and holds an MA in public policy with specializations in conflict resolution and international affairs, also from UCLA.