INTERCULTURAL INSTITUTE - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Member of the Management Team
• Member of the Management

Mr. Guido Auen has been with The Intercultural Institute since 2005. He has various experience in corporate, private and governmental practice, both, in the U.S. and Europe. After his studies of Law in Passau, Germany and Columbus, Ohio/USA, Mr. Auen lived in the United States for several years, holding various positions in international organizations. He has been a Manager to the German American Chamber of Commerce of the Southern United States, the official Representative of German Industry and Trade to the Southern United States in Atlanta, and an Advisor to the Delegation of the European Commission to the United Nations in New York. Previous positions also include 6 years of consultancy for the American Institute for Foreign Studies (AIFS, Inc.) and several stages in Brussels, Belgium, as Assistant to the Cabinet of Dr. h.c. Günter Verheugen, Vice-President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry. In his career, Mr. Auen worked with many heads of state, known business leaders, politicians, prominent people from civil society and various international organizations. Mr. Auen is unmarried and currently resides in Germany. Being a native German, he also speaks English, French and Italian. He is an active member in various business organizations such as the German American Lawyers‘ Association or the American Chamber of Commerce in Germany and belongs to several other charities and clubs. Mr. Auen publishes and lectures extensively on the subject of transatlantic relations and contributes articles on this topic to magazines, newspapers and international business publications on a regular basis.

Job Titles:

• Managing Director
• Member of the Management Team
• Member of the Following Business
• Vice President for ABN AMRO

Mrs. Bettina Ungerer currently serves as Managing Director of the Intercultural Institute. She brings a wide range of experiences in the public, academic and private sector to this position, having worked with multinational corporations, international organizations and the government sector throughout Europe and the U.S. Her work in the U.S., France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, India and the Netherlands has provided her with an expertise in Crisis-Issue Management, Government and Corporate Affairs, as well as Communications and Anti-Corruption. For the last six years, Mrs. Ungerer has worked as Vice President for ABN AMRO, one of the largest banks in the Netherlands, launching the bank's Sustainability Program and representing the bank in internal and external consultations with Multilaterals, Governments, NGOs and the Academia. After three years, she was seconded as Senior Policy Adviser to the Dutch Foreign Ministry, being the first representative from the private sector representing the Dutch Government in negotiations with other donor governments, the World Bank, IFC, and at international conferences such as the International Con-ference on Improving Governance and Fighting Corruption, the International Labour Conference 2007 (Rapporteur for the Committee on Sustainable Enterprises), as well as the EU Conference on Decent Work for all, to name just a few. In her previous work in Brussels, she represented American companies and acted as liaison delegate between the private sector and the institutions of the European Union, member state governments and international organizations. At the EU Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce, she was elected Chair of the Consumer Affairs & Health Committee and in this position published the first EU Committee Guide to European Consumer Legislation in 2000. Mrs. Ungerer is a German national, born in Brussels, and speaks English, French, Dutch and Spanish. She holds a German law degree and a post-graduate degree in European law from the University of Saarbruecken, where she also lectured on the American legal system and its terminology. Her professional experience and eloquence have made her an attractive speaker at high level conferences, enabling her to speak on a wide range of topics. Next to her speaking engagements, she has developed and taught diverse training courses on crisis management, media training, EU decision making, Sustainable Development, Anti-corruption, as well as ethics and NGO engagement. Mrs. Ungerer has been an active member of the following business associations: The World Business Council for Sustainable Development, IMD-Sustainable Development, The Conference Board, EU Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce in Brussels, UNICE-Committee of Company Affairs, European Foundation Centre - Corporate Citizenship Committee (EFC), the European Foundation for Management Development (efmd) and the German-American Lawyers' Association. Most of her life, Mrs. Ungerer has lived in different parts of the world as a foreigner. This has allowed her to recognise the necessity to become acquainted with the sensitivities, habits and traditions of every country and culture and thus enabled her to live and act there with the due respect for that country, its people and its respective history.