Isabell Hoffmann is Senior Expert at the Bertelsmann Stiftung and head of eupinions, an independent platform for European public opinion which was founded in 2015. As an expert researcher on democracy and legitimacy in the European Union, Ms. Hoffmann has managed research projects on the role of national parliaments in the EU as well as the origins and impact of populism, nationalism and authoritarianism in Europe. She studied political science and economics at the Institut d’études politiques de Paris (Sciences Po). Before joining Bertelsmann Stiftung in 2008, she worked as a political editor for the German weekly newspaper Die Zeit.
Jeffrey Liszt is a partner at Impact Research and has conducted survey research in over 100 countries. He conducted quantitative and qualitative research for the 2008 and 2012 Obama Presidential campaigns and the 2016 Clinton campaign. His political clients include the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and Democratic Governors Association independent expenditures. Mr. Liszt’s issue-advocacy work has focused on healthcare, climate, conservation, immigration, media rights, development, and education, for clients including the Ford Foundation, Gates Foundation, ADL, and the U.S. Fund for UNICEF. His corporate clients include Alphabet, Volkswagen, and Silverstein Properties. He is a two-time Ironman triathlete, and currently lives in Boston with his wife, daughter, and son.
Steven E. Sokol (moderator) has been the President and CEO of the American Council on Germany since 2015. Previously, he served as President and CEO of the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh and prior to that he was the Vice President and Director of Programs at the ACG. Prior to this, Dr. Sokol served as the Deputy Director of the Aspen Institute Berlin, was the Head of the Project Management Department at the Bonn International Center for Conversion GmbH (BICC), and a Program Officer in the Berlin office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Dr. Sokol serves on several non-profit boards and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He was awarded a Bundesverdienstkreuz (Order of Merit) for his work to strengthen German-American relations.
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Andrew Frank is the Founder and President of KARV. He is an expert in creating communications strategies particularly focused on difficult situations, overseeing and implementing crisis preparation, public affairs efforts, managing product recalls, financial and/or regulatory issues, and identifying and managing communications issues around complicated litigation. He founded KARV eleven years ago, after working as Managing Partner at Strategy XXI Group and Kreab since 1997. As a political appointee in the Clinton Administration in 1993, Mr. Frank was the Communications Director for the U.S. Information Agency; the White House communications representative for coordination of media during the 1994 GATT signing in Morocco; Deputy Spokesman for the US Delegation to the United Nations World Conference on Human Rights; and the National Security Council media representative in Haiti. He worked on more than two dozen overseas trips of the President and Vice President, including APEC and G-7 Summit Meetings – and worked with more than a dozen federal agencies and cabinet officials. He is the author of Revolution Road Trip, about his work in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland during their transitions to democracy, in 1990. Mr. Frank was also an ACG Young Leader in 1997.
Zev Furst is the Chairman and CEO of First-Intl, an international corporate and political consulting firm he founded in 1992. He is a leading business, political and communications strategist who has advised political leaders, foreign principals and global CEOs. He specializes in providing strategic counsel on highly sensitive political matters, crisis management, corporate positioning, and personal reputational issues with the unique perspective of someone who has operated at the nexus of business and politics for over thirty years. He has been at the forefront of corporate communications consulting and the use of survey research and data to help guide both political and corporate leaders with their decision-making strategies. Mr. Furst has managed and worked on presidential and congressional campaigns in the United States, as well as elections in France, Germany, Italy, Israel, Mexico, the Palestinian Authority, Ukraine and Japan.
Anja Wehler-Schöck (moderator) has been Head of International Politics at Der Tagesspiegel since August 2022. Prior to that, she worked as editor-in-chief of the IPG Journal, a debate platform for issues of international and European politics. She previously worked as a social affairs officer at the German Embassy in Washington and headed the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung’s office for Jordan and Iraq in Amman from 2012 to 2017.
