Lars-Christian Klinnert will become the new Administrative Executive Director of the GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam. The GFZ Board of Trustees has appointed the former head of administration at the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to the GFZ Executive Board. He will start on December 1, 2025. Together with the Scientific Director and Spokesperson of the Executive Board, Prof. Susanne Buiter, Lars-Christian Klinnert will lead the GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences with its approximately 1,200 employees. He succeeds Marco Kupzig, who had taken over the position of Administrative Director on an interim basis following the departure of Dr. Stefan Schwartze. After studying law for several semesters at Saarland University, sinologist Klinnert went on to study Chinese studies, public law, and German language and literature in Shanghai, Göttingen, and Heidelberg. After more than ten years as Head of the F+U Academy of Languages Berlin, he moved to the former “Hochschule für Wirtschaft, Technik und Kultur“ (hwtk, now VICTORIA | International University), also in Berlin, as Head of international affairs and Chancellor. Since November 2021, he has been Head of the administration department at the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. 

The Chairman of the GFZ Board of Trustees, MinR Dr. Wolf Junker, says: “We are very pleased to have recruited Lars-Christian Klinnert, a proven administrative expert with extensive international experience. He is an excellent fit for the GFZ with its staff from more than 80 nations and cooperation agreements with institutions from more than 70 countries.” 

Prof. Susanne Buiter, GFZ’s Scientific Executive Director, is looking forward to working with her new colleague on the Executive Board: “The conditions for science and research in Germany, and even more so internationally, have not exactly become easier in recent years. This makes it all the more important to have a colleague at the helm of our administration who has an excellent knowledge of the national and global scientific landscape and has already worked with numerous colleagues worldwide. I am very much looking forward to working with Lars-Christian Klinnert.” Marco Kupzig, who was appointed as interim Administrative Director, will return to his original position as head of the Administrative Executive Director’s Staff at GFZ. The Chairman of the Board of Trustees, MinR Dr. Wolf Junker, praised Marco Kupzig's commitment: “We are very grateful to Marco Kupzig for his sensible and dedicated administrative leadership of the GFZ during the interim phase.” Susanne Buiter also thanked her colleague: “From the very beginning, our collaboration was characterized by a high level of trust. Marco Kupzig supported the scientific work at the GFZ with great dedication during the intensive evaluation period. He also accompanied and advanced the implementation of the results from our strategy process. I am glad that he will continue to hold a leading position at the GFZ and would like to thank him very much for his commitment and collegiality.”