Turning Over A New Leaf: How to Shape Change

Ambassador Ricklef Beutin has been the Permanent Representative of Germany to the United Nations since August 2025. From August 2022 to May 2025, Ricklef Beutin served as Director General for Central Services of the German Foreign Office. In February 2022, Ricklef Beutin was appointed Director General for Crisis Prevention, Stabilization, Peacebuilding and Humanitarian Assistance in the German Foreign Office. Ricklef Beutin took over the position of Deputy Chief of Mission at the German Embassy in Washington, DC, in July 2019. Prior to this, he was a Visiting Fellow in the Europe Program at the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) in Washington. Before coming to the United States in 2018, Ricklef Beutin served as Chief of Staff to the German Federal Foreign Minister. Between 2011 and 2017, he was Chief of Staff to several State Secretaries of the German Foreign Office. From 2015 to 2016, Ricklef Beutin headed the division for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and served as deputy head of the Task Force for the German OSCE Chairmanship in 2016. Previous positions in the German Foreign Office include Head of the Division for Parliamentary and Cabinet Affairs and Deputy Spokesman of the German Permanent Representation to the EU. Between 2005 and 2007, Ricklef Beutin was seconded to the EU Commission’s policy planning division Bureau of European Policy Advisors (BEPA) as a foreign policy analyst. Ricklef Beutin holds an M.A. in international affairs from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and a degree in law from the University of Bonn, Germany.

Prof. Dr. Shen Xiaomeng works as UNU Vice-Rector in Europe (UNU-ViE) and Director of the UNU Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS). As the UNU Vice-Rector in Europe, Prof. Shen facilitates collaboration between UNU and stakeholders in and outside of the United Nations; contributes to high-level policy development with other United Nations entities and regional/national bodies; and guides UNU outreach efforts to Geneva-based UN entities, the European Commission, and European academic and research institutions. As the Director of UNU-EHS, Prof. Shen is the chief academic and administrative officer of the Institute and oversees its direction, organization and programmes. From 2011 onwards, Prof. Shen worked with the then International Bureau of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung; BMBF) at the Project Management Agency of the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt-Projektträger; DLR-PT). Prof. Shen holds a BA degree from the Beijing Foreign Studies University, a MA degree from the University of Bonn and a PhD degree from the University of Bonn/UNU-EHS, with a focus on flood risk perception and communication in different cultural contexts.

Frithjof Maennel is the Deputy Director for European and International Cooperation, German Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR). He studied Law at the Universities of Bonn and Munich. In 1992 he joined the Federal Ministry for Research and Technology, today’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research, where he held various positions. From 1996 to 2005 he worked in the “Internal Market” and the “Information Society” Directorates-General at the European Commission in Brussels and was involved in particular in shaping the legal framework for the information society. He left Brussels to become Head of the “Patent Policy, Inventor Promotion” Division at the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology and was subsequently appointed Head of the “Strategy” Division at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in 2007, remaining in this position until March 2015. He was appointed Head of the Directorate for International Cooperation at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in April 2015, and later Deputy Director for European and International Cooperation, German Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR).

Prof. Dr. Zita Sebesvari is an internationally recognized expert in the fields of social-ecological risk assessments, ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction (Eco-DRR), and ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA), with a focus on low-lying coastal areas, such as river deltas. An ecologist by training, she holds a Ph.D. (Dr. rer. nat.) in Environmental Science from the Carl von Ossietzky University in Oldenburg, Germany. She also holds a M.Sc. in History, and has a great interest in inter- and transdisciplinary research design and project implementation. Prof. Sebesvari is author or co-author of around 70 publications, and served as a Lead Author of the IPCC Special Report on Ocean and the Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCCC, Chapter 4 and Summary for Policymakers; 2019). In her personal capacity, Dr. Sebesvari is member of the European Commission expert group Mission Board for Adaptation to Climate Change including Societal Transformation since September 2022. At UNU-EHS, she has held the position of Head of the Environmental Vulnerability and Ecosystem Services (EVES) Section from 2017 – 2022; prior to this, she worked as a Senior Scientist at UNU-EHS for several years.

Melissa Fleming is Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications at the United Nations, having taken up her post in September 2019. Ms. Fleming leads the UN’s Department of Global Communications, which is responsible for informing global audiences about the state of the world and engaging them to build support for the Organization’s work and goals. In this role, Ms. Fleming oversees the UN’s strategic communications operations, including its multilingual news and digital media services, public outreach programmes, and global campaigns. Under her leadership, the UN Department of Global Communications engages in far-reaching efforts to address misinformation, disinformation, and hate speech. She is leading on the development of a Code of Conduct for Information Integrity on Digital Platforms. Previously, Ms. Fleming served 10 years at the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) as Head of Global Communications. Prior to that, she was the Spokesperson and Head of Media and Outreach at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). She also headed the Press and Public Information team at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). Ms. Fleming is a TED speaker, the author of the book, A Hope More Powerful than the Sea, and the host of the award-winning UN podcast, Awake at Night. Ms. Fleming holds a Master of Science in Journalism from the College of Communication, Boston University and a Bachelor of Arts in German Studies from Oberlin College.

Prof. Dr. Daniel Naujoks focuses primarily on issues related to international migration and development and homeland-diaspora relations. He further concentrates on international development, transnational studies, gender, the economic impact of migration, normative citizenship theory, diverse societies, as well as on questions of inclusion and exclusion in host countries. He has published widely on the effects of migration on social, economic and political development, ethnic identity and the role and genesis of public policies. His book ‘Migration, Citizenship, and Development. Diasporic Membership Policies and Overseas Indians in the United States’ (2013, Oxford University Press) examines how country-of-origin citizenship affects migrants activities and attitudes, such as naturalization, remittances, investment, philanthropy, return migration, political lobbying, and transnational belonging. Daniel has been working on development, migration, and population affairs at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), EC-UN Joint Migration and Development Initiative (JMDI), the UN Population Division, UNICEF and the International Labour Organization (ILO). He also serves as the Research Coordinator for the Organisation for Diaspora Initiatives (ODI), New Delhi. The regional focus of his academic is South Asia, the U.S. and Europe. However, he has conducted analyses and led projects in South America, North and West Africa, as well as in South-East Asia. Daniel holds a PhD in political science and political economy from the University of Münster and a law degree from Humboldt University in Berlin.

Dr. Jan Lüdert is Head of Programs at the German Center for Research and Innovation (DWIH) New York. Jan earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of British Columbia (UBC). He holds Harvard Kennedy’s School Public Leadership Credential; a First-Class Honors MA in International Relations from the Australian National University; and a BA in Public Policy from Hamburg University for Economics and Politics. He previously served as Associate Professor at City University of Seattle where he was the inaugural Director of Curriculum and Instruction. He held positions as Visiting Research Scholar at the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies at City University of New York's Graduate Center as well as Research Associate with the DFG 'Dynamics of Security' project at Philipps Marburg University. He is an alumnus of Seattle's World Affairs Council Fellows and UBC Liu Institute for Global Issues Scholar programs.