Speakers

Dr. Mustafa Alsayed

Secretary General, Royal Charity Organisation, Kingdom of Bahrain

“Fair play means more than just abiding by the rules. It covers such notions as friendship, respect for others and the sporting spirit. Sports ethics signify not just certain form of behaviour but also a particular way of thinking. It involves the elimination of cheating, bending the rules, doping, abuse of food additives, physical and verbal violence, the harassment and sexual abuse of young people and women, trafficking in young sportsmen and women, discrimination, exploitation, unequal opportunities, excessive commercialisation and corruption.”

Dr. Mustafa Alsayed, who is the Secretary General for Royal Charity Organization, was the Chief Executive of Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO) until end 2007.

His previous positions include Chief Engineer with the Ministry of Works, Power & Water, responsible for power generation in Bahrain, Chief Executive at Midal Cables and General Manager with Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company (GPIC) and Power and Utilities Supervisor with Bahrain Petroleum Company.

A mechanical engineer by qualification, Mr. Al Sayed also holds a PhD and Masters in Industrial Management.

Mr. Al Sayed is the winner of Crown Prince Award for Best Research in Social Science in 2007 and the GCC Best Environment Personality Award for 2005-2006. He is the author of a management book, “The Key to Organizational

Mr. Christian Arbeit

Communications Director, 1. FC Union Berlin; Germany

“The symposium jointly organized by the WFEB and 1. FC Union Berlin brings interesting conversational partners together to discuss the overlaps of sports and society as well as the economy, in particular. The challenges related to ethical and sustainable action are greater than ever and require permanent reflection and consideration. This event can set an important impulse and provide plenty of food for thought – two partners have come together here that both firmly understand the importance of acting in a socially responsible and considerate manner.”

Christian Arbeit was born in Berlin in February of 1974 and has remained faithful to his home city to this very day. The 41-year-old is a graduate social pedagogue and worked in the cinema industry up to the end of 2008.

Being a fan of 1. FC Union Berlin for many years, he is responsible for the club’s communication since 2009. Three years prior to that, he already started working on the microphone of the club’s stadium located “An der Alten Försterei” as a stadium announcer.

Christian Arbeit has two children.

Mr. Florian Bauer

Special sport political Journalist, ARD German TV

“There is no business in the world where so much money is involved, where there is so much social influence, so much political power and yet so little institutional supervision as in sports. A discussion of ethics, human rights, and the responsibility of sports often does not occur.”

Florian Bauer is an award-winning journalist, host and lecturer. As a journalist working in the field of social policy, especially as an expert in the field of sports for the German TV channel ARD, he has revealed many a scandal in the last couple of years. Those scandals mainly belong to the fields of doping, FIFA and human rights in sports. He has been granted several awards for his work and is a popular guest in talkshows, such as “Günther Jauch“, or with channels like CNN, BBC or HBO.

He mainly works for the TV and radio channel ARD abroad and reports on topics that are being neglected in general. Such is the case with, for example, the Sochi workers that have been exploited during the erection of the buildings for Olympia, the question of human rights at major sports events in Belarus, Kazakhstan and China, as well as the history behind having Quatar as the World Cup´s host in 2022.

His being arrested at the end of March this year caused headline events around the globe. Bauer is an experienced journalist displaying his own cinematic handwriting. His most recent work is a 45 minutes documentary about refugees in Germany. As one of only very few international journalists, he reported on the sociopolitical circumstances around the Africa Cup in dictatorial Equatorial Guinea. The film material even had to be hidden in the underpants.

For several years he presented the TV report “Sport im Westen“ (“Sports in the West“) working for the German TV channel WDR. Apart from that, he was one of the youngest commentators for the German newscast “ARD Tagesthemen“. Amongst other things, he teaches journalism at universities, and writes articles for the German weekly DIE ZEIT. He spent several months living in the USA, Madagascar, Australia, and Columbia.

Mr. Christoph Daum

International Football Manager, Germany

“You can fall. It is not important how many times you fall. You just have to get up again.”

Christoph Daum, who was born in 1953 in the mountainous area of Erzgebirge, grew up in the Ruhr region, and is one of the most prolific and idiosyncratic football coaches in Germany.

For a quarter of a century he has been working successfully as the head coach of top European clubs; he won national titles in Germany, Turkey and Austria with his teams.

Christoph Daum is the father of four children and married to his second wife. He lives with his family in Cologne.

Mr. Patrick Gasser

Senior CSR Manager, UEFA

“Is there a place for sportsmanship in today’s scenario of professional sports? – Challenges on and off the pitch? We are required to ensure, that sportsmanship is sustained in professional sports.”

Patrick heads UEFA’s Football and Social Responsibility (FSR) Unit, having joined UEFA in 1999. Before his time at UEFA he worked for thirteen years at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), both in the field and in Geneva. He was engaged in areas affected by conflict in Africa, Asia and Europe where he had a broad range of responsibilities that included directing relief and protection operations, and managing media contacts. Along with football his sporting passions are skiing and tennis.

Mr. Eugen Gehlenborg

Vice-President, Social Responsibility, German Football Association

Eugen Gehlenborg has been a member of the German Football Association’s (DFB) steering committee since October of 2013. As the Vice President responsible for sustainability, social and sociopolitical matters, he also serves as the Managing Chairman of the Egidius Braun Foundation maintained by the DFB and as Chairman of the Sepp Herberger Foundation.

During his days as an active player, Gehlenborg played at the association level and was also active at the district level for many years as a player-manager. He has been holding honorary positions within the association since 1991. He initially serves as the Chairman for the Cloppenburg Fußballkreis, later followed by a positions as Vice President of the Football Association of Lower Saxony and Chairman of the Commission for Social Matters.

Eugen Gehlenborg has also been the President of the North German Football Association since 2009.

As a certified pedagogue, Gehlenborg worked in adult education after completing his degree and held an executive position in the Weser-Ems region. In 2003, Gehlenborg joined Lower Saxony’s Ministry for Science and Culture. There, he was entrusted with heading the division responsible for Continuing Education, Information Management and Academic Libraries and was appointed the Deputy Head of Department for the Research and Innovation area.

Mr. André Hahn

Member of German Parliament, Spokesperson of the Left Party for the Sports Committee

“Bertolt Brecht wrote in The Threepenny Opera, “Food comes first, then comes morality”. He ensured morality has a place in the (capitalist) economy, although not at the top of the priority list. How much morality, can and must they, the economy and professional sports, afford today? I mean: significantly more than in the past, out of their own interest. Profit rates, economic return rates , or the number of medals are not supposed to be the only currency in competitive sports.”

Dr. André Hahn (52) is a Member of the German Bundestag since October 2013. There he is, inter alia, Member of the sports committee and sports policy spokesman of the faction DIE LINKE, as well as Chairman of the Parliamentary Control Panel who reviews the work of the secret services, and Parliamentary Secretary of the Left Party. He is also Deputy Member of the NSA committee of inquiry, the Committee on Internal Affairs and the Tourism Committee. His constituencies are the Saxon Switzerland – Osterzgebirge and the district Meissen.

The Berlin-born graduate teacher was a member of the Central Round Table of the GDR from 1989 to 1990 and did his PhD in 1994, Dr. rer. soc. on the topic: “Political culture in the last year of the GDR based on investigations of the round tables”.

André Hahn is a member of the county council Saxon Switzerland since 1994 – Osterzgebirge. From 1994 to 2013 he was active for the PDS / Die Linke member of the Saxon parliament in various capacities from 2007 to 2012 as the faction chairman.

Sports, especially football, is Hahn’s number one hobby. Until 1991, a football referee (last national league, before until the DDR-League), Hahn was active in the state parliament FC Sachsen: as vice president, team captain and reliable scorer (116 goals in 114 games). Since 2014 he plays in the FC Bundestag.

More information: www.andre-hahn.eu

Mr. Alexander Koch

Deputy Head of Communication, FIFA

“In the past, we used to deal primarily with organizational matters – today, our focus is increasingly shifting to other issues, such as ethics, human rights, the protection of the environment and sustainability. I wholeheartedly welcome this change and appreciate that it is making my work even more interesting.”

Alexander Koch was born in Bremen 1967. His life was marked since early childhood through sport.

He rowed at the World Championships and the Olympic Games in 1992 for Switzerland and his career is from the outset closely linked to the sport. In 1995 he started at the ISL Worldwide in the athletics department and directed, inter alia, the local office for the 1999 World Championships in Seville.

Since 2000 Alexander Koch works for football, first in marketing, where he, among other things was responsible for the marketing program of the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, and since 2006 in the communications department of FIFA as Deputy Head of Corporate Communications.

Mrs. Rajita Kulkarni

President, World Forum for Ethics in Business; India

“Given the immense importance sports have gained in todays society, a focus on true sportsmanship and the discussion on ethics in sports have become more relevant than ever.”

Rajita is a humanitarian, an educationist, a writer, a leadership guide and a global leader. She is the President of the World Forum for Ethics in Business and a Board member in a number of non-governmental organizations at a national and international level.

She helps organizations globally to achieve excellence in governance, finance & administration. She is committed to create global advocacy to inspire individuals and corporations to embrace an ethical way of life. She has been instrumental in leading a number of action-oriented initiatives towards this goal. Apart from global responsibility of WFEB, her key current projects include the launch of the prestigious Sri Sri University in India, global design & roll out of TLEX & overseeing the administration of over 100 educational institutions. Her expertise lies in leading large, multicultural, multi country, diverse teams to unleash their full potential and fulfil their vision.

She travels the world addressing various international fora to advocate the message of excellence, ethics and human values. Before committing her life to society 3 years ago, Rajita was a banker for 18 years with Citi. She held many international leadership positions in her career, last of which was Asia Pacific Head for Customer Advocacy & Training for the Retail Assets Business. Considered an expert in her field, she designed 85 management exercises and learning tools released in a book Focus Forward.

She has won 17 awards for professional excellence in her field and has done training and development for over 100,000 participants.

Ms. Wendela Kuper

Chair of the EPAS Governing Board, Council of Europe

“Sport is about fair play – fair play should be evident in the board room as well as on the field. And if it goes wrong in the board room, how can one expect fair play to exist out on the field.”

Since 2013 Wendela Kuper is the chair of the Governing Board of the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport (EPAS), which is the intergovernmental platform of co-operation of the Council of Europe on Sports policies. Next to that she is working as a program manager sport, security and international affairs at the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport in the Netherlands. She is responsible for topics like integrity of sport, match-fixing and international affairs. Before working at the ministry Wendela had various positions in the healthcare sector at NGO’s and healthcare organisations.

Mr. Jo Leinen

Member of European Parliament; Member of the Board, World Forum for Ethics in Business; Belgium / Germany

“Sport serves as an excellent tool for international collaboration, and only fair play on and off the pitch can create trust and peace. The European Parliament has many a times called for a common code of conduct in sports and this Summit is very important for an open debate about common rules in sport competition to create consensus about fair play in sports. 
The WFEB has held various global sessions in the European Parliament in Brussels in the past, which were highly appreciated, and I am sure that this 1st WSES at FIFA is going to be a successful endeavor.”

Jo Leinen was born in the Saarland at the German-French border. Leinen began his career as a legal trainee at the Higher Regional Court Koblenz and soon after became a well-established lawyer in Freiburg/Breisgau. Before becoming an MEP, Jo Leinen was Minister for the Environment in the State Government of Saarland, Germany from 1985-1994.
From November 1994 until September 1999, he played the triple role of Chairman of the Committee for European Affairs in the State Parliament of Saarland, Germany and member of both the Committee of the Regions and Congress of Regions of the Council of Europe. He served as Vice President of the European Movement International (EMI) from 2003 to 2011, before becoming its President in November 2011.

Since July 1999 Mr. Leinen has been a Member of the European Parliament. He was a Member of the Convention for the Elaboration of a Charter of Fundamental Rights for the EU. From 2004 to 2009 he was President of the Constitutional Affairs Committee and from 2009 to 2011 he chaired the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety.
He is a full member in the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety and a substitute member of the Committee for Foreign Affairs and of the EP’s Working Group on EU-UN relations. He is also a full member of the Delegation for the relations with India and a substitute in the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly.

Mr. Jamilon Mülders

Coach of Germany women’s national field hockey team, Hockey world champion in 2002

“Our responsibility as a coach is to accompany and encourage our athletes on their way to top-performances. We need to give realistic feedback and clearly define goals to support our athletes.

Open and honest communication is a prerequisite for creating an atmosphere of mutual trust. Only with such confidence in themselves and their skills is it possible to have a successful and long term sportsman career.”

Jamilon Mülders (29 May 1976, Düsseldorf) is a former German National Team hockey player, world champion and national coach of the junior German Hockey Federation (DHB). Currently, he is the federal coach of the German Women’s National Team. His sports career started in 1991.

Since then he passed through every selected team of the German Hockey Federation, participated in the Junior European Championship and World Cup. In 2001 he won the Champions Trophy with the German Men National Team. He played 41 caps with the national team and 104 junior national matches. In 2002, after his first World Cup victory in Kuala Lumpur, Mülders ended his active career as a professional hockey player.

After that he worked 7 years as an athletic director in hockey and tennis for one of the biggest German tennis & hockey clubs (TC 1899 Blau-Weiss Berlin). Jamilon Mülders successfully graduated from the German Olympic Sports Confederation Training Academy with a very good mark in 2009. He assisted Markus Weise at the Champions Trophy and the Women’s World Cup in 2006, before he took over as a coach of the National Junior Team in 2009. Since 2009 he has worked for the German Hockey Federation.

Coaching the Junior National Team from 2009 to 2012, he laid the foundation for the World Cup success in India in 2013. Since 2012 Mülders is the responsible coach of the German Women’s Team. He achieved victories at the European Championship and at the World League 2013, and was placed 8th at the World Cup 2014. His objectives are clear – he targets the Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo.

Ms. Birgit Nössing

Moderator, Sky Germany

“Sport has prepared me for life. I’ve learned as a young skier to fall and then rise again. As someone from South Tyrol I grew up in Italy speaking German and found out how easy prejudices can be overcome through sport.” 

Birgit Nössing works as Moderator at Sky Sport News HD, the first 24-hour sports news channel in Germany. Raised in South Tyrol she lived after her studies of Communication Sciences in Munich for several years in Berlin-Kreuzberg. In addition to the “Welt” and “Welt am Sonntag” she has been working there for five years for the news channel N24. For this she worked inter alia 2008 as a correspondent for the US presidential election and was bound for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. In 2011 Nössing was also seen as a presenter of “ProSieben” News Time.

Today she is involved in addition to the moderation in Sky Sport News HD for social projects of the Sky Foundation and is producing films. In its report on Munich’s street soccer league “Colourful plays well” one could see how integration can work through soccer. In her spare time Nössing is a passionate athlete. She is a governmental approved ski instructor and some time ago has contested numerous competitions of ski racings at the international level. In addition to her mother tongue, she speaks fluent Italian and English.

Mr. Peter Nünlist

CEO, PETER NÜNLIST AG, Investment Management & Services

“I am convinced that we can achieve an outstanding performance in considering environmental and social aspects within our investment decision process.”

Peter started his career as a Portfolio Manager at UBS. He later became Assistant to the Executive Board of a Private Bank before taking the role of Head of Portfolio Management at Bank Leu and PBS Private Bank Switzerland in Zurich.

In 2007, Peter founded his own Asset Management Company. He is focussing on Wealth Management for Clients in the Sports World, offering a personal service and tailored expertise in the fields of sports and finance.

Peter holds diplomas from the University of North-West Switzerland (BA), from St.Gallen (Financial Mathematics) and from ESSEC Paris (Master of Economics).

Peter is a passionate football player and started playing in his early childhood. Nowadays, he enjoys practicing sports with his three children. He is convinced, that sport keeps him fit and gives him the strengths to take sustainable investment decisions in every situation.

Ms. Sylvia Schenk

Chair of Working Group Sport, Transparency International

“Sportsmanship – just as a the conduct of integrity in politics, business and other societal fields – must always be lived anew. Where People are in competition with one another, where Power and (peak-)performance are at stake, there is also the danger of manipulation. Already in the Olympic games of the antique, corruption and fraud existed, that did not change until today. Therefore it is crucial to identify risks, and to meet them adequately. To that end, a commitment to ethical conduct and the living example of the leadership are essential, as well as transparency, accountability and an extensive communication about the values of an organisation and the sport respectively.”

Sylvia Schenk is a lawyer in Frankfurt on Main, Germany. She worked as a judge at the Labor Court of Offenbach (1979-1989) and as a City Councilor in Frankfurt (1989-2001).

She has been a German champion and an Olympic athlete in 1972 800 m running and has served as a volunteer in national and international sports organizations since 1975. From 2001 to 2004, she was the President of German Cycling and from 2000 to 2005, member of the Management Committee of the International Cycling Union UCI.

From 2007 to 2010, she was on the chair of Transparency Germany and from 2006 to 2014, Senior Advisor for Sport of Transparency International, and is now chairing the Working Group Sport of Transparency Germany.

She is a board member of the German Olympic Academy and an arbitrator at the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) in Lausanne.

Mr. Matthias Schmidt

Member of German Parliament, Member of the Sports Committee (SPD)

“Sports are a connective link between people of various different cultures, religions and countries. They constitute a common language that is characterized by the acceptance of rules and the striving for an ethical self-perception that is sustained by a mindset of fairness, integrity and integration.”

Matthias Schmidt has been a member of the German Bundestag since 2013. Born in Northern Hesse, he got his High School education at the Phillippinum Gymnasium in Marburg in 1982. After obtaining his degree in public administration from the Fachhochschule des Bundes in Cologne, he worked at the German Federal Statistical Office („Statistisches Bundesamt“) – first in Wiesbaden, later as Administrative Director in Berlin, where he resides today. Schmidt is 52 years old, married with three children and has one grandson.

Since 2006, Matthias Schmidt has been a member of the SPD parliamentary group in the district parliament („Bezirksverordnetensammlung“) of Treptow-Köpenick, becoming Chairman of the group in 2011. In 2013, he was elected to the Bundestag via party list. As part of his parliamentary duties, eh serves as a member of the Committee on Internal Affairs and the Sports Committee. He also functions as Deputy Spokesman of the „Landesgruppe Ost“. In addition to his commitment to the promotion of sports, his political work also encompasses the fight against right-wing extremism as well as the strengthening of democratic principles. The recognition of lifetime achievements of East German citizens is of special importance to him as the representative of an East Berlin electoral district. In addition to his political activities, Schmidt is committed to creating and maintaining an immigrant-friendly, open arms policy in his district. Maintaining the regional town twinning agreements and partnerships has also been of great importance to him for many years.

Mr. Jürgen Trittin

Member of German Parliament, Member of the Foreign Committee

Jürgen Trittin was born in Bremen and studied social sciences in Göttingen. After graduating, he worked as a research assistant, press spokesman and freelance journalist. From 1990 to 1994, he served as the Minister of Federal and European Affairs for the State of Lower Saxony.

From 1998 to 2005, Jürgen Trittin was Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. He then served as a Member of the Committee for European Affairs, as coordinator of the International Politics Study and as Vice Chairman of his political group. From 2009 to 2013, he served as the Group Chairman of “Die Grünen”.

Today, Mr. Trittin works as a member of the Bundestag’s Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Mr. Mark Warnecke

CEO AM Sport, Former professional swimmer, Olympic Medal Winner, World and European champion

“I am delighted to be part of this year’s symposium in Berlin. In the meantime economy, ethics and sustainability have become important issues in sports. I was able to use my athletic success in a sustainable manner and build on it as the oldest swimming world champion. Meanwhile, I’m on the other side and may return some of it as an entrepreneur and nutrition medicine expert to the sport and in particular to the athletes.”

Mark Warnecke is an entrepreneur, physician, nutritionist and former athlete. His most exciting swimming achievements were the bronze medal at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta 100m breaststroke, three World Championship titles, seven world records and the surprise victory at the World Championships in Montréal 2005: With already 35 years, he became the oldest swimming world champion of all time. But Mark Warnecke sees himself not only as an athlete: As a trained physician and due to personal experiences he has been working for years on the subject of diet and sports nutrition. He first examined the impact of amino acids on the body.

In addition to performance optimization and the enhancement of regeneration in athletes, these findings help people who try to lose weight without suffering the dreaded yo-yo effect. Today Warnecke has had great success with this self-developed nutrition and service concept. Non-athletes, recreational athletes, but also competitive athletes benefit from his AMsport® products. Warnecke bids farewell to sports at the German championship in 2007.

Now he has devoted himself entirely to his company on the sports nutrition AMsport® and to the topic “Nutrition and Dietetics” in connection with his AMFORMULA®

Mr. Dirk Zingler

President, 1. FC Union Berlin e.V.

“The strong helps the weak – This is the motto of the multi-faceted societal responsibility commitment of the 1. FC Union Berlin. It encompasses projects which are directly connected to football, as well as the promotion of culture and arts, the work with refugees, the topic of health and the commitment against racism, homophobia and discrimination of any kind. Is it for the ethical values which prompt us to use the integrating power of sports in a way which benefits society. The Ethics in Sports Symposium Berlin, held at the stadium An der Alten Försterei, to which we are inviting, together with the WFEB, serves as a platform for exchange on how the values of sports can affect other areas of society, such as politics and business and also on which challenges it is facing, and how the actors in sports can prepare for them. I am looking forward to distinguished speakers and interesting talks.”

Dirk Zingler was born in August 1964 in Königs Wusterhausen in Brandenburg, Germany and was raised in Eichwalde. Educated as a maintenance technician, he is an entrepreneur since 1995 and is the owner of a construction logistics company with 300 Employees. As an “Unioner” for more than 40 years and as member of an Union-fan-club, he took the post of president at the 1. FC Union Berlin in 2004. Since then, the Club has taken to a speedy development in the last years, and became well established in german professional football, without losing its traditional as well as innovative character. Dirk Zingler is married and has three children.