Former Presidents

Heike Fölster is a renowned financial expert who has held key positions as CFO for Hamburg Airport, Germanischer Lloyd, BER Airport, and DB Station & Service AG. She has played a significant role in securing financing for major players in the logistics industry and enhancing their economic efficiency. Her professional experience spans projects in Germany, Europe, as well as the Mediterranean and Middle East regions. With a strong women’s network and excellent connections in politics and business, particularly in Berlin and Hamburg, as well as an outstanding banking network, she is a key figure in the industry.

Heike Fölster envisions strengthening the visibility and effectiveness of the EMA and expanding the Ouissal program, which supports women and entrepreneurs. She brings her extensive networks and long-standing experience to actively support these goals and to further advance the EMA’s mission.

Born in Essen in 1955, Gabriele Groneberg gained extensive experience as a foreign language secretary, including time abroad in several North African and Middle Eastern countries. She joined the SPD in 1988 in Cloppenburg, where she worked for Bundestag member Günter Graf and led the party’s regional office.

After serving in local politics, she was elected to the Lower Saxony State Parliament in 1996 and later to the German Bundestag in 2002, where she served until 2017. In the Bundestag, she was a member of the Committee for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Committee on European Union Affairs, focusing on energy, climate, and development cooperation, particularly with the Middle East, North and West Africa, and the Sahel region. She was also active in parliamentary groups for Eastern Africa and the Maghreb, as well as the Arab states of the Middle East.

Since 2014, Gabriele Groneberg has been a member of the EMA Presidium, contributing to its activities in Germany, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East. For her, organizations like EMA are essential for fostering societal engagement: “The EMA works on equal footing for tangible projects with Arab countries, and this valuable work deserves every measure of support.”

Christian Wulff, the 10th President of the Federal Republic of Germany (2010–2012), is actively committed to the integration of people with migration backgrounds and interfaith dialogue. As Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Germany Foundation for Integration and recipient of numerous awards, including the Leo Baeck Prize (2011) and the Tolerance Prize of the Evangelical Academy Tutzing (2014), he advocates for a tolerant and open Germany. He also serves as Honorary President of the EMA (Euro-Mediterranean-Arab Association) and the GASME, as well as a member of the Transatlantic Council on Migration (TCM), building bridges between Europe, Asia, and the Arab world.

In addition to his political career, including serving as Minister-President of Lower Saxony (2003–2010) and Deputy Federal Chairman of the CDU Germany (1998–2010), Wulff maintains strong ties with Asia through honorary titles from prestigious universities. He represents Germany at international state ceremonies and high-level events. Today, he works as a former Federal President in his Berlin office and as a lawyer in Hamburg.

Her professional career began in Hamburg in 1977 as deputy director of the main office of the Landeszentralbank. Her further career led her to Rome via the representation of the Deutsche Bundesbank and the position as financial attaché at the German Embassy. In Brussels, Ms. Sailer-Schuster was a member of the cabinet of Internal Market Commissioner Mario Monti at the European Commission, then an economic and financial policy advisor to the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Financial Affairs and an advisor for financial market issues at the German EU Representation. Prior to her position at the Deutsche Bundesbank’s Head Office in Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Schleswig-Holstein, she was Head of the Regional Division Banking and Financial Supervision at the Head Office in Berlin.

Professor Dr. Horst H. Siedentopf (born May 4, 1941 in Magdeburg; † December 19, 2017) was a doctor of economics. His professional career in international trade with large corporations such as Esso, VEBA (now E.ON), Stinnes and MG (Metallgesellschaft), where he worked in management positions, took him to many regions of the world.

In December 1999 he was appointed professor for foreign trade and international management (AIM) at the HAW Hamburg. After being Honorary Consul of Norway for some time, Professor Dr. Horst H. Siedentopf from 2007 Honorary Consul of the Kingdom of Morocco in Hamburg. In this capacity he got to know the EMA during the preparations for its foundation and remained closely connected to it until his death.

Professor Dr. Ralf Busch, born in Berlin in 1942, studied prehistory, art history, folklore in Göttingen and Vienna and graduated with a doctorate. From 1974 to 1986 he was curator, then chief curator at the Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum and from 1987 to 2002 director and professor of the Helms-Museum Hamburg-Harburg. Until his retirement in 2007, Busch was Senior Scientific Director of the Hamburg Senate Chancellery. Professor Dr. Ralf Busch has helped shape and carried out numerous projects in the Near and Middle East.