Governance – Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House e.V.

Board of Directors

Chair | Dr. Markus Klimmer

Dr. Markus Klimmer | Foto: Dirk Bleicker
Dr. Markus Klimmer
Dr. Markus Klimmer

Markus Klimmer is chairman of the board of directors of Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House e.V. and Bauhaus Archive - Museum of Design. From 2000 to 2009, he was partner at McKinsey & Company, where he headed the "Public Sector" division, and until 2017 he was managing director and senior partner of corporate consultancy Accenture. In 2008/09 he was an economic adviser to the German Foreign Minister. Markus Klimmer studied political science, economics and public law at the London School of Economics, the University of California Los Angeles and the University of Hamburg.

Deputy Chairwoman | Marianne Heuwagen

Marianne Heuwagen
Marianne Heuwagen
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.

Executive Member of the Board | Dr. Jakob Scherer

Dr. Jakob Scherer
Dr. Jakob Scherer
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.

Board Member | Prof. Helmut K. Anheier

Prof. Helmut K.Anheier
Prof. Helmut K. Anheier | Image: Hertie School
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

Board Member | Dr. Hans-Jörg Clement

Dr. Hans-Jörg Clement
Dr. Hans-Jörg Clement
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.

Board Member | Dr. Alexandra Gräfin von Stosch

Dr. Alexandra Gräfin von Stosch
Dr. Alexandra Gräfin von Stosch
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.

Board Member | Dr. Ulrich Köstlin

Dr. Ulrich Köstlin
Dr. Ulrich Köstlin
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.

Board Member | Alexandra Lieben

Alexandra Lieben
Alexandra Lieben
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.

Board of Trustees, Berlin

Chair: Dr. Nicole Zeddies| Unit K 21 at the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media

Anna Bartels / Stefan Rössel | Federal Foreign Office, Commissioner for Foreign Cultural Policy

Markus Wener | Berthold Leibinger Stiftung

Johannes Ebert | Goethe-Institut e. V.

Florian Hauer | Berlin Senate

Dr. Marion Müller | Wübben Stiftung Wissenschaft

Sybille Uken

Advisory Council & Board of VATMH Los Angeles

Steven D. Lavine | Chair, President Emeritus Calarts

Steven D. Lavine has been president of the California Institute of the Arts from 1988 until June 2017. Previously, he had served for eight years as a program officer for arts and humanities at the Rockefeller Foundation, with special concentration on media and museums, and from 1974 to 1981 he was an assistant professor of English literature at the University of Michigan. Dr. Lavine currently serves on the board of directors of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, Endowments Inc., KCRW-FM National Public Radio, and KCET-Public Broadcasting, and the Cotsen Family Foundation, as Co-Chair of the Arts Coalition for Academic Progress for the Los Angeles Unified School District and on the Advisory Committee for the Asia Society California Center and the Cultural Policy Network Project of the Center for Arts and Culture, and as a member of the Public Programs Committee of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Operating Company of the Music Center of Los Angeles, the Board of Directors of the American Council for the Arts, and the Visiting Committee of The J. Paul Getty Museum and has been co-director of The Arts and Government Program for the American Assembly at Columbia University and co-chair of the Mayor's Working Group of the Los Angeles Theatre Center. He participated on the Architectural Selection Juries for the new Los Angeles Cathedral and the Los Angeles Children's Museum. In 1991, he co-edited with Ivan Karp, Exhibiting Cultures: The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display; in 1992, the Smithsonian Institution Press released their second co-edited volume, Museums and Communities: The Politics of Public Culture.

Advisory Council Villa Aurora Los Angeles

Katharina Schulenberg-Leduc | Deputy Chair of the Advisory Council, art historian curator, and philanthropist

Dr. Doris Berger | Vice President, Curatorial Affairs at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures

Alejandro Cohen | Executive Director dublab

Olga Garay English | Director National Latinx Theater Initiative

Oscar Garza | Professor of Professional Practice; Director, Graduate Program in Specialized Journalism/Arts and Culture at the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

Clara Kim | Chief Curator, Director of Curatorial Affairs at MOCA

Greg Laemmle | CEO of Laemmle Theaters

Vera Mijojlic | Founder and Festival Director at SEEFest

Jay Ezra Nayssan | Curator and Founder of Del Vaz Projects

João Ribas | Steven D. Lavine Executive Director, Vice President of Cultural Partnerships at REDCAT

Ed Schad | Curator and Publications Manager at The Broad

Peter Sellars | Opera, Film, Theater, and Festival Director; Distinguished Professor, UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance

Abby Sher | Cultural Developer in the not-for-profit arts with a special commitment to new music

Volker Straebel | Dean, School of Music; Richard Seaver Distinguished Chair in Music

David L. Ulin | Professor of the Practice of English at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, author, editor

Kevin Venneman | Associate Professor of German; Assistant Director for the Core Curriculum in Interdisciplinary Humanities; Chair, Department of German at Scripps College, author

Liat Yossifor | Visual Artist; 2022 Berlin Fellow

Advisory Board Thomas Mann House in Los Angeles

Helmut Anheier | Past president and Professor, Hertie School of Governance, member of the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, and Emeritus, Max-Weber-Institute of Sociology, Heidelberg University

Austin Beutner | Investment Banker, Former Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles, Former Superintendent of Los Angeles Unified School District

Craig Calhoun | University Professor of Social Science at Arizona State University, joint appointments in the School of Politics and Global Studies, the School of Public Affairs, the School for the Future of Innovation in Society, the School of Sustainability, and the School of Arts, Media and Engineering

Kimberly Marteau Emerson | lawyer, civic leader, and human rights advocate, Chair of the Board of Governors of Bard College Berlin, member of the Board of Trustees of Bard College; Vice Chair of the Board of Human Rights Watch; Advisory Boards: German-American Institutes, PHINEO, USC Center on Public Diplomacy.

Jerrold D. Green | President & Chief Executive Officer at the Pacific Council on International Policy & Research Professor of Communication, Business, and International Relations

David D. Kim | Associate Vice Provost, UCLA International Institute & Professor, UCLA Department of European Languages and Transcultural Studies

Josh Kun | USC Vice Provost for the Arts and USC Annenberg Professor and Chair in Cross-Cultural Communication

Alexandra Lieben | Deputy Director of the Burkle Center for International Relations at the University of California - Los Angeles

Robin Meili | Director for International Programs and Senior Analyst at the Rand Corporation

Dawn Nakagawa | Executive Vice President of the Berggruen Institute and  co-Director of the Future of Democracy program

Medaya Ocher | Editor-in-Chief at Los Angeles Review of Books

Alex Ross | music critic and staff writer for the New Yorker

Thomas Aujero Small | CEO of Culver City Forward, 2018 Mayor of Culver City, Chair of LA METRO Sustainability Council and member of the Mobility Committee of the Urban Land Institute Los Angeles

Marcelo Suarez-Orozco | Chancellor of University of Massachusetts-Boston

Krista Tippett | Broadcaster, author, and National Humanities Medalist. Founder and CEO, The On Being Project

Pete White | Founder & Executive Director of the Los Angeles Community Action Network

Members of the Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House e.V.

Feo Aladag · Züli Aladag · Dr. Zaia Alexander · Manuela Alexejew-Brandl · Hans Amann · Gabriela Bacher · Prof. Ulrich Baehr · Dr. Friedrich Barner · Doris Barnett MdB · Dr. Ingeborg Becker · Wolfgang Behr · Dr. Joachim Bernauer · Dr. Agnes Bidmon · Dr. Daniel Biene · Dr. Matthias Birkholz · Jan Brandt · Dr. Tanja Buchholz · Peter Carpentier · Prof. Dr. Oliver Castendyk · Dr. Hans-Jörg Clement · Dr. Max Dehmel · Reinhard Dinkelmeyer · Staatssekretärin Hella Dunger-Löper · Freimut Duve (†)· Johannes Ebert · Petra Eichhorn-Korte · Lilly Engel · Marianne Esser · Jürgen Falkenburg · Nina Franoszek · Lucas Froese · Christian Gaebler · Dr. Volker Hage · Marianne Heuwagen · Susanne Hockling · Prof. Dr. Peter Jelavich  · Dr. Tanja Kinkel · Dr. Markus Klimmer · Wolfgang Knepper · Clemens Köhler · Dr. Ulrich Köstlin · Torsten Limbach · Hans-Dieter Lochmann · Bernhard F. Lunkewitz · Heike Catherina Mertens · Dr. phil h.c. Ingrid Mössinger · Arnd Mühle  · Dr. Marion Müller · Andre P.H. Müller · Dr. Pipa Neumann · Claus Nieländer · Prof. Franz Martin Olbrisch · Susanne Palme-Waldemer · Hinrich Peiper · Mani Pournaghi · Konstanza Prinzessin zu Löwenstein · Monica Chana Puginier · Jörn Jacob Rohwer · Dr. Joachim Sartorius · Dr. Bernd-Michael Scherer · Volker Schlöndorff · Dr. Dirk Schmalenbach · Lisa Schmitz · Dr. Marieluise Schmitz-Kössendrup · Gabriele Scholz · Edwin G. Schuck, Jr. · Kerstin Seidel · Christian Sommer · Dr. phil. Stephanie Tasch · Volker Treffenstädt · Ginka Tscholakowa-Henle · Sybille Uken · Dr. Moritz Viehweger · Dr. Gabriele von Halem · Dr. Alexandra Gräfin von Stosch · Ulrike von Trott zu Solz · Markus Warncke · Oliver Wand · Dr. Kirsten Weiss · Dr. Hans Jürgen Wendler · Markus Wener · Babette Marie Werner · Philipp Zettel ·

(As of December 2021)