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Annika Vollmer is a Brussels-based senior program coordinator for GMF’s Leadership Programs. She oversees the EU-US Young Leaders Seminar, and designs and implements other programs, including the Marshall Memorial Fellowships, the Transatlantic Inclusion Leaders Network, and the Schuman Challenge. All the programs foster skills development, critical thinking, and cross-cultural understanding among next-generation leaders.

Fluent in German and English, Vollmer holds a master’s in international relations with a specialization in security studies from Leiden University and a bachelor’s degree in European studies from Maastricht University.

Gesine Weber is a fellow on GMF’s Geostrategy team, where she works on European security and defense issues. Based in Paris, she focuses on EU defense initiatives, security and defense policy of the E3 (France, Germany, and the United Kingdom), and Europe's role in the global order. 

During a 2024 fellowship at the Arnold A. Saltzman Institute for War and Peace Studies at Columbia University, Weber led a research project on European balancing in the Indo-Pacific in the context of US-China competition. 

Prior to joining GMF, she worked as a defense policy adviser at the German parliament and as a consultant for the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation in Shanghai. Weber is pursuing a PhD in defense studies at King’s College London, where she is part of the European Foreign Policy Research Group and contributes to the work of the Centre for Grand Strategy. She is an associate researcher for the European Council on Foreign Relations and a nonresident Hans J. Morgenthau Fellow at the Notre Dame Center for International Security.

Weber holds a master’s degree in European affairs from Sciences Po in Paris and another master’s degree in political science from the Freie Universität Berlin. She studied Mandarin at the Beijing Foreign Studies University. Her writing and commentary appears regularly in English, French, and German in European and other international media, including the BBC, the Neue Züercher Zeitung, Politico, and France 24. 

Jörg Forbrig is managing director for the Transatlantic Trusts, GMF’s long-term programming to assist civil society and bolster democracy in Central and Eastern Europe. Based in GMF’s Berlin office, he leads the “Engaging Central Europe” program, the Fund for Belarus Democracy, and the “Ukraine: Resilience and Recovery” initiative. He also works closely with the Balkan Trust for Democracy and the Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation.  

Forbrig’s analytical and policy work focuses on the eastern-most member countries of the European Union and NATO, the EU's eastern and southeastern neighborhoods, and Russia. He has been published widely on democracy, civil society, and Central and Eastern European affairs, and is the author of Reclaiming Democracy (2007), Prospects for Democracy in Belarus (2006), and Revisiting Youth Political Participation (2005). He is also a regular contributor to major international media. 

Özgür Ünlühisarcıklı is the managing director of GMF South and the regional director for Türkiye. Prior to joining GMF, he was the manager of the Resource Development Department of the Educational Volunteers Foundation of Turkey. Previously, Ünlühisarcıklı served as director of the ARI Movement, a Turkish NGO promoting participatory democracy, and as a consultant at AB Consulting and Investment Services.

Ünlühisarcıklı is an expert on transatlantic relations and Turkish foreign policy, domestic politics, democratization, and civil society. He is quoted frequently in international media including The New York Times, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Financial Times, Deutsche Welle, and the BBC.

After graduating from the Robert College (Istanbul), Ünlühisarcıklı received his bachelor's degree in business administration from Marmara University and his master's degree from Koç University. He speaks fluent English in addition to his native Turkish.

An internationally-recognized nongovernmental organization (NGO) leader, Pavol Demeš served from 2000-10 as director of GMF's Bratislava office, where he oversaw GMF's activities in Central and Eastern Europe. He now works in Bratislava as a transatlantic fellow.

Before joining GMF, Demeš was executive director of the Slovak Academic Information Agency-Service Center for the Third Sector, a Slovak NGO committed to enhancing civil society. Previously, Demeš led a distinguished political and civic reform career serving his country as foreign policy advisor to the president of Slovakia (1993-97), minister of international relations (1991-92), and director of the department of foreign relations in the ministry of education (1990-1991). In 1999 he was awarded a six-month public policy research fellowship at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC. 

Astrid Ziebarth is deputy managing director & senior fellow, GMF Technology in the Berlin Office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. She focuses on the question of how digitalization and emerging technologies impact society, with a special focus on migration and migration policy as well as on the future of work.

William McIlhenny is a visiting senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. He was formerly at the White House as a director at the National Security Council, and at the US Department of State as a senior policy advisor. He also served as a member of the secretary of state's policy planning staff.