Grand Speaker Series: Thomas Matussek, former German Ambassador to the United Kingdom and India

Topic: “Challenges for US-German Cooperation in a Globalized World"

Ambassador Thomas Matussek is managing director of Deutsche Bank's Herrhausen Foundation. He is the former head of public affairs at Deutsche Bank, where he coordinated the bank's relations with national and international institutions, nongovernmental organizations and authorities, as well as governments. 

Prior to joining Deutsche Bank, Ambassador Matussek had a long and distinguished career in the German Foreign Service, most recently serving as German Ambassador to India from 2009 to 2011. From 2006 to 2009, he was the Permanent Representative of Germany to the United Nations, and from 2002 to 2006, he was German Ambassador to the United Kingdom. From 1999 to 2002, he was the director-general of the political department in the Foreign Office in Berlin, and he was deputy chief of mission in the German Embassy in Washington, D.C., from 1994 to 1999. 

Prior to his career in the German Foreign Service, Ambassador Matussek was a judge's assistant, as well as an assistant lecturer at the University of Bonn. Ambassador Matussek studied law and history at the Universities of Paris and Bonn from 1969 to 1972, and received his Juris Doctor degree in 1973.

Ambassador Matussek focuses on current challenges for U.S.-German cooperation in a globalized world: some relevant points of cooperation and conflict include Ukraine, Iraq, civil society in post-Soviet states and the developing world, statebuilding in post-conflict areas of Africa.