Nina Smidt

Dr. Nina Smidt has served as Managing Director and Spokesperson of the Board of Directors at  Siemens Stiftung since April 1, 2020. As of October 1, 2021 the Board of Trustees conferred  upon her full operative management duties at the foundation with responsibility for the three  working areas Development, Education, and Culture as well as the Communication  department. Together with Klaus Grünfelder she is responsible for managing the foundation’s  activities and the operative implementation of the foundation’s goals.

Siemens Stiftung operates in the areas of Development Cooperation, Education, and Culture.  The foundation develops its own national and international projects and implements them for  the long term. In collaboration with its partners, the foundation’s goal is to support people in  need to improve their living conditions.

Prior to her role as Managing Director at Siemens Stiftung, Nina Smidt led the American  Friends of Bucerius Inc. from 2010 to 2020, an independent foundation representing the  ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius in New York City. From 2011 to 2020, she served as  well as Director of International Planning and Development at ZEIT-Stiftung in Hamburg. As  CEO of Bucerius Education GmbH at Bucerius Law School in Hamburg from 2006 to 2011,  Nina Smidt was in charge of professional development, conference management, and  consulting services. Previously, Nina Smidt was Vice Director of the International Center for  Graduate Studies at Hamburg University.

Nina Smidt studied German and English studies, and education at Hamburg University in  addition to political and cultural sciences at the University of Technology in Sydney. She  completed an Executive Master of Business Administration program in economic sciences at  the European School of Management and Technology in Berlin and participated in organizational leadership programs at Harvard Business School in Boston and at Columbia  Business School in New York City. Nina Smidt received her PhD in literary and cultural theory  at Hamburg University, which was followed by postdoctoral fellowships at Cornell University’s  School of Criticism and Theory in the United States and Haifa University in Israel.

Dr. Nina Smidt is a Board Member in the following organizations: Federal Association of  German Foundations, American Friends of Atlantik Brücke, New York City; Arthur F. Burns  Fellowship Program, Washington D.C.; German-American Partnership Program, Washington  D.C., Tamer Center for Social Innovation at Columbia Business School, New York City; Do School, Berlin and Latimpacto, Bogotá. She represents the Siemens Stiftung at the Forum  Bildung Digitalisierung, Berlin.