Board of trustees

Dr. Doris Höpke
Chair of the Board of Trustees

Dr. Höpke was born in Georgsmarienhütte. She completed her law studies at the universities of Osnabrück, Hanover and Leiden with a doctorate.  Dr. Höpke was a member of the Board of Management of Munich Reinsurance Company from 1 May 2014 to 30 April 2022. From 2017, she was responsible for the divisions Special and Financial Risks and Global Human Resources in the reinsurance field of business, including the function of Labour Relations Director.  

Prof. Dr. Dr. Peter Höppe
Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees

Prof. Höppe was the Head of Geo Risks Research/Corporate Climate Centre at Munich Re. Before joining Munich Re he has worked in different institutes at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich and as a post doc at Yale University (USA). His academic education is in meteorology (Masters and PhD) and human biology (PhD). He is the Chairman of the Munich Climate Insurance Initiative, which he has founded in 2005. In 2007 Prof. Höppe has been appointed as Global Warming Advisor of the Bavarian State Government and Chair of the “Finance-Forum: Climate Change” of the high-tech Strategy of the German Federal Government. In 2009 he has been one of the initiators of the Desertec Industrial Initiative.  

Renate Bleich is the chair of the Munich Re Foundation. The foundation addresses major global challenges including environmental and climate change as well as disaster prevention.  Previously, she was responsible for further developing Munich Re’s sustainability strategy and putting the Goup’s activities in a wider context, e.g. the SDG’s. One particular focus of her work is on climate change. Renate holds a Master’s degree in economic geography from LMU Munich.

Nicholas Gartside was born in Warrington, United Kingdom, in 1975. Mr. Gartside commenced his professional career as a fund manager, Fixed Income, with Mercury Asset Management in London. Mr. Gartside has been a member of the Board of Management and Chief Investment Officer of Munich Reinsurance Company since 18 March 2019. He is responsible for Group Investments and Third Party Asset Management.

Prof. Dr. Claudia Kemfert  has been Head of the department Energy, Transportation, Environment at the German Institute of Economic Research (DIW Berlin) since April 2004 and Professor of Energy Economics and Sustainability at Berlin's Hertie School of Governance since 2009. She studied economics at Oldenburg, Bielefeld and Stanford University. Her research activities concentrate on the evaluation of climate and energy policy strategies. In 2016 she was appointed as a member of the German Advisory Council on the Environment and received the German-Solar-Award and the Adam-Smith-Award for Market-Based Environmental Policy.

Prof. Dr. Harald Lesch, born in Gießen, has been Professor of Theoretical Astrophysics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich since 1995 and Professor of Natural Philosophy at the Munich School of Philosophy since 2002. Prof. Lesch is a member of the Bavarian Climate Council. He is also known from the media, and has been involved for years as a television presenter for ZDF, as a science journalist and as an author.     

Prof. Dr. Detlef Müller-Mahn  is a professor of Human Geography at the University of Bonn, specialized in geographical development research and political ecology. His research focuses on the relationship between precarious livelihoods, social-ecological transformation and the emergence of new risks especially in Africa.  

A geophysicist by training, Ernst Rauch has been consistently involved in natural hazard and climate change risk management, business development and asset management since joining Munich Re in 1988. He was responsible for the Munich Re think tank and the Corporate Climate Center strategy unit, which served as a central entry and coordination point for climate-related issues and renewable energies.   In 2018, Ernst Rauch took on the role of "Chief Climate and Geoscientist" for Munich Re and now heads the Climate Change Solutions department.