BOARDS

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

The Board of Trustees is made up of four people. The positions are on a voluntary basis. You can reach out to the Board of Trustees via vorstand@jung-stifung.de. A list of former chairmen of the board can be viewed here.

Jochen Spethmann

Jochen Spethmann began his career as a Wholesale and Export Clerk in Hamburg. After spending many years in Great Britain and the USA, he returned to Germany in 1985 and joined the Laurens Spethmann Holding (LSH) as shareholder in 1992, occupying the chairmanship of the Board from 1999 to 2017. In 2018 he switched to the Supervisory Board of the family-run company active all across Europe, which, for example, distributes the brands Meßmer and Milford via its subsidiary OTG. Furthermore, Jochen Spethmann was Chairman of the German Tea Association for 20 years. He has been Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board in the Versammlung eines ehrbaren Kaufmanns zu Hamburg e.V. (historic merchants' organisation) from 2014-2022 and is its chairmen since 2023. In 2005 he joined the Board of the Jung Foundation and took over the chairmanship in October 2018.

Dr Christian Flach

Dr Christian Flach, born in 1968, is a legal practitioner and works in the energy industry. For the Hamburg-based company Marquard & Bahls, an independent company in the fields of energy supply, trading and logistics, he has held several management positions both in Germany and abroad for 25 years, most recently as CEO. Since 2018, he has been CEO of London-based Greenergy, a leading company in the energy transition and Europe's largest producer of waste-based biodiesel. On the Board of the Jung Foundation, Dr Christian Flach is Vice Chairman.

Prof. Dr. Blanche Schwappach-Pignataro

Prof. Dr. Blanche Schwappach-Pignataro has been Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and a member of the Board of Trustees at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf since 2020. Previously, she has been Dean of Research at the Faculty of Medicine and Head of the Institute of Molecular Biology at the University Medical Center Göttingen. The molecular biologist organizes the exchange of knowledge between Board of Trustees and the Scientific Advisory Board. She is therefore a member of both boards.

Petra Scharner-Wolff

Petra Scharner-Wolff (MBA) has been responsible for the areas of finances, controlling and personnel in the Group Management Board of the Otto Group in Hamburg since 2015. She was born in Göttingen and also studied there. She moved to the Hanseatic city in 1999, where she headed the worldwide controlling of the Otto Group for several years as Director. Later she was the Management Board Spokesperson for the Schwab Group in Hanau, before returning to the city on the banks of the Elbe to take over the position of OTTO Divisional Director. Petra Scharner-Wolff has been a member of the Jung Foundation Board since October 2018.

SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD

The Scientific Advisory Board is made up of medical scientists in Germany and abroad. It is a long-standing tradition that it also consists of former awardees at all times. You can reach out to the Scientific Advisory Board via kuratorium@jung-stifung.de. You can find an overview of former chairmen of the Scientific Advisory Board here.

Prof Dr med Thomas Boehm

Professor Dr med. Thomas Boehm is Director of the Immune System Development Department at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg. The focus of his research includes the evolution of the immune system and the genetic causes of congenital immunodeficiency in humans. He was the Ernst Jung laureate in 2014. Since 2023, Prof Boehm is the Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Jung Foundation.

Prof Dr Ruth Ley

Prof Dr Ruth Ley, PhD, has been Director of the Department of Microbiome Research at the Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen since 2016 and is also the Institute's Managing Director since 2022. She is one of the pioneers in microbiome research and investigates which factors influence the human gut microbiome and thus have an impact on health. In 2018, she received the Ernst Jung Prize for Medicine. On the Scientific Advisory Board, she is Vice Chairman.

Prof Dr med. Jens Brüning

Professor Dr med. Jens Brüning is director of the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research as well as of the Polyclinic for Endocrinology, Diabetes and Preventive Medicine at the University of Cologne. He is an endocrinologist and researches the physiological effects of insulin and the pathophysiology of insulin resistance in the development of obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus. He was the 2009 Ernst Jung laureate.

Prof Dr Gary R. Lewin

Professor Dr Gary Lewin is head of the Research Group Molecular Physiology of Somatic Sensation and he is the co-speaker for the research area Molecular Processes and Therapy at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in Berlin. He and his team investigate the molecular basis of sensory transduction that underlies thermal, touch and pain sensation. He was awarded the Jung Prize for Medicine in 2019 for his work.

Prof. Dr. Blanche Schwappach-Pignataro

Prof. Dr. Blanche Schwappach-Pignataro has been Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and a member of the Board of Trustees at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf since 2020. Previously, she has been Dean of Research at the Faculty of Medicine and Head of the Institute of Molecular Biology at the University Medical Center Göttingen. The molecular biologist organizes the exchange of knowledge between Board of Trustees and the Scientific Advisory Board. She is therefore a member of both boards.

Prof Dr Dominique Soldati-Favre

Professor Dr Dominique Soldati-Favre has headed the Institute of Microbiology and Molecular Medicine at the University of Geneva since 2020, after previously working at the same university from 2011 to 2019 as Vice Dean in the field of research. Her current research project is about decoding the molecular mechanisms that ensure the gliding motility and invasion of the host cell by the Toxoplasma and Plasmodium parasites.

Prof Maria Grazia Spillantini

Prof Maria Grazia Spillantini is a Professor of Molecular Neurology at the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at Cambridge University as well as Fellow of the Royal Society, of the Academy of Medical Sciences and Knight Officer of the Star of Italy, She has received several prestigious awards for her work on understanding mechanisms of disease in tauopathies and alpha-synucleinopathies.

MANAGEMENT

Verena Strasoldo

Verena Strasoldo is a fully qualified lawyer. After studying in Munich, she completed her legal clerkship in Berlin and then later in New York. After holding further professional positions in Mexico and Madrid, she returned to Germany in 1998. In Hamburg she was in charge of management at the Hermann & Else Schnabel Foundation as well as at the Deutsch-Tschechische Gesellschaft Hamburg e.V. (DTG, the German-Czech Society), to then switch in 2017 to the management of the Jung Foundation for Science and Research.

CONTACT

Elbchaussee 215
22605 Hamburg
Germany
Telefon: 0049 40 880 80 51
Telefax: 0049 40 880 10 71
E-Mail: info@jung-stiftung.de