Team - PowerShift

Our goal is a just and ecological world economy. To this end, we apply our expertise in international trade, raw materials and climate policy. With comprehensive research, we examine political processes, identify the problems of an unjust economic system and develop policy alternatives. Our team forges strong alliances with other organizations, social movements and citizens to reach our goals. We know that we are stronger together than we can ever be alone.

Trade and Investment Policy

Fabian Flues

+49 (0)30 308 821 92

Main areas of work: Energy Charter Treaty, corporate action rights, climate and trade. I work at PowerShift because a sustainable and fair economic system is an important prerequisite for a more just society.

Fabian Flues works at PowerShift as a trade and investment policy expert, focusing on the relationship between trade, resource extraction and processing, and environmental protection. Before joining PowerShift, he worked for Friends of the Earth in Brussels, among others.

Bettina Müller

+49 (0)30 278 757 86

Main areas of work: Trade agreements with Latin America, corporate rights of action. I work at PowerShift because fairer trade and investment policies are crucial in the fight against climate change, human rights violations and poverty worldwide.

Bettina Müller studied politics and international relations. From 2014 to 2018, she lived and worked in Argentina - already on international trade policy. After an eventful period of action on the South American continent, she set out for new adventures and into the arms of PowerShift at the beginning of 2019, where she is now working on European trade and investment policy. She is particularly interested in investor-state arbitration, an unjust, private legal system that urgently needs to be abolished.

Alessa Hartmann

+49 (0)30 278 756 32

Main areas of work: Team coordination, sustainability in trade agreements, impact monitoring. I work at PowerShift because here profession is at the same time vocation, namely to work for a just global economy that respects our planetary boundaries and protects human rights.

Alessa Hartmann has been working on trade and investment policy at PowerShift since 2014, focusing on the impact of trade and investment protection regulations on environmental and development policy. She is also a member of the coordinating group of the Netzwerk Gerechter Welthandel. Before joining PowerShift, she worked at the Forum Environment and Development and at the Association of German Development NGOs - VENRO.

Climate and resource justice

Peter Fuchs

Executive Board

+49 (0)177 633 4900

Main areas of work: Climate justice, mobility transition, energy transition. I work at PowerShift to effectively do something for more social and ecological justice!

Peter Fuchs is a graduate economist/social economist and has been active in environmental policy and internationalist work for many years. He is the "founding father" of PowerShift, executive board member and until 2018 worked mainly on international trade and investment policy. He now works on climate & resource justice in Berlin; his main topics are transport transition, mobility justice and resource justice in the automotive industry. Besides his work, he tries to motivate his little daughter to play soccer and to ride a bike - later: to play bacon board.

Hendrik Schnittker

+49 (0)30 2472 4541

Main areas of work: Energy transition and circular economy, hydrogen, mobility. I work for PowerShift because I want a real social-ecological transformation, without bogus solutions and greenwashing.

Hendrik Schnittker has been supporting PowerShift since 2021, and since mid-2022 he has been a consultant for energy transition, circular economy and mobility. His focus is on the metal needs for renewable energy infrastructure and how we can meet them in the long term while still tackling destructive mining. He also examines where the German government's hydrogen strategy can benefit people and the climate, and where it is a sham solution and a continuation of colonial exploitative relationships.

Neelke Wagner

+49 (0)30 2472 4541

Main areas of work: Energy transition, gas phase-out and a climate-friendly hydrogen economy. I work for PowerShift because I believe that climate action, a fair economy and global justice go together.

Neelke Wagner joined PowerShift in May 2023 as a climate and resource justice expert. Her focus lies on the energy sector. Previously, she worked as a consultant for hydrogen, climate protection and heat transition at Climate Alliance Germany and before that as a scientific advisor for energy and climate policy for the Left Party in the German Bundestag and for MP Klaus Ernst. She has also worked as a journalist on energy system transformation (including for the solar magazine Photon). As she was responsible for the publications of Mehr Demokratie e.V. for several years, she is also well acquainted with the field of (direct) democracy.

Raw Materials Policy

Michael Reckordt

+49 (0)30 428 054 79

Main areas of work: Raw materials turnaround, climate and metals, mobility and raw materials. My goal is a raw materials turnaround that eliminates inequities in the mining of metallic and mineral raw materials.

Michael Reckordt has been working at PowerShift since May 2013 and is a resource policy expert. The geography graduate is former executive director of the philippinenbüro (2009 to 2013) and coordinator of the network AK Rohstoffe (2013 to 2020). His focus is on German raw materials policy and the mining conditions of metallic raw materials worldwide. It is particularly important to him to advance the urgently needed raw materials turnaround. When not dealing with metals and human rights, he runs after his daughter, is a columnist for the world's oldest music fanzine, and enjoys the downs of Berlin amateur soccer.

Hannah Pilgrim

+49 (0)30 419 341 82

Main areas of work: German raw materials policy, raw materials turnaround, deep sea mining. I work for PowerShift because the use of raw materials must no longer be accompanied by human rights violations and environmental destruction.

Hannah Pilgrim has been supporting the work of the Raw Materials Policy Team for a few years now; since March 2020, she has been working as coordinator of the Raw Materials Working Group at PowerShift and is committed to making German raw materials policy more globally just and democratic. Otherwise, she likes to be in motion, on rails, wheels, or in her mind. She likes sound, voices and dance, as well as confusing influences.

Tine Laufer

+49 (0)30 278 757 36

I work at PowerShift because my professional and private interests complement each other perfectly and I feel like I'm doing something meaningful every day.

Tine Laufer has been working at PowerShift since 2017, and in 2018 she took over the role of Managing Director. She studied law, international relations and organizational studies. Before joining PowerShift, she managed the DAAD office in Armenia, worked as a guest lecturer at the Siberian Federal University in Russia and at WEED in the PC Global project.

Vanessa Fischer

+49 (0)1575 4768413
I work at PowerShift because here I can work against the causes of global injustice and contribute to social-ecological change.

Vanessa Fischer joined PowerShift in 2021. She studied Global Studies, Social Sciences and Asian-African Studies in Berlin, Shanghai, Buenos Aires and New Delhi. Before joining PowerShift, she worked as an editor at nd and worked on free trade agreements at Focus on the Global South in India.

Merle Groneweg

Ich arbeite für PowerShift, um mich für eine politische Regulierung der Wirtschaft einzusetzen – für den Schutz von Klima und Umwelt, Menschenrechten und Arbeitsrechten.

Elena Gnant

I work for PowerShift for political work against social and environmental exploitation through collaborative action against global inequalities and the climate crisis.

Elena Gnant is a freelancer at PowerShift. She supports PowerShift in the area of raw materials policy and organizes, among other things, the crash course on raw materials policy.

Thomas Fritz

Thomas Fritz works as a freelance author in Berlin with a focus on economic policy and sustainable development.

He is the author of numerous studies on the consequences of trade liberalization and privatization of public services.

Lilian Leupold

I work for PowerShift because it's important to understand the connections between our politics and lifestyles and global injustice, and to create spaces for change.

Lilian Leupold supports PowerShift as a freelancer in various projects with event organization and text work and understands it as a privilege to be able to dedicate herself to these topics. After completing her studies in social sciences, she is studying theater directing and dreams of using performative street actions to make questions of a future worth living even more present.

Emma Jacoby

I support PowerShift because I want to actively contribute to the fight against the climate crisis and I enjoy working at the interface between politics, business and the environment.

Emma Jacoby started a Voluntary Ecological Year at Stiftung Naturschutz Berlin after her Bachelor's degree at Bard College Berlin, where she mainly studied political science and economics.

Jeremy Oestreich

I work at PowerShift to advocate for trade policies that eliminate, rather than increase, global inequalities while effectively protecting the environment and climate.

Jeremy Oestreich supports PowerShift as a freelancer, working mainly on trade agreements between the EU and Latin America. Before that, he studied philosophy and social sciences and was committed to sustainable agriculture without overpowering agricultural corporations.

Anne Bundschuh

I work for PowerShift because global justice and averting the climate crisis are only feasible if trade and investment policies are finally trimmed to these goals as well.

Anne Bundschuh's work in recent years has included the EU-Canada agreement CETA, the regionalization of supply chains, and sustainability in trade agreements. Prior to joining PowerShift, she worked at Forum Environment and Development, where she coordinated the Fair World Trade Network.