Dr. Bernhard Lorentz achieved a PhD and MA at the Humboldt University Berlin as well as an MA at the University of Sussex, England. He was a research fellow at Johns Hopkins University, UC Berkeley and Harvard University.

Dr. Lorentz has worked in two fields: large foundations and international oriented corporations. He also has a strong background in academia, with a two-years post as assistant professor at Humboldt University and numerous fellowships in the US. He has lectured on, and published about, European Economic History.

Following a post as Executive Assistant to a member of the European Parliament, he served two years as Special Assistant to the CEO of Drägerwerk AG, an international medical company, located in Lübeck (1996-1998). He moved to Corporate Communications at the Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt (1998-2000) as an internal consultant for special projects. In 2000, he moved to the philantropic sector as Director for international projects at Bucerius ZEIT-Foundation, Germany’s fifth largest private foundation. In 2003, he was nominated as Managing Director and Head of the Berlin Office of the Hertie-Foundation (fourth largest in Germany). His main responsibilities included national education policy, governmental relations, international projects and the establishment of a private university. In 2005, he was appointed Head of Corporate Responsibilty and Foundations at Vodafone. In 2008, Dr. Lorentz was nominated as president of Stiftung Mercator.