Announcements - What's New?

Dr. Jens Eckstein has been named President of SR One, Glaxo Smith Kline's independent healthcare venture organization, effective 1 October. Jens will report to R&D Chairman Moncef Slaoui and be based in Boston. As President of SR One, Jens will oversee the overall activities of the group and manage the investment and support team. He will be responsible for evaluating the technology, business model, management team, investor base and financial status of non-public companies in promising technologies and sciences in order to determine their suitability for investment by SR One. Jens was voted Secretary of the Board of Directors for GABC in 2010 and 2011. more...

Each July, the GABC Board of Directors votes on the slate of officers to serve for the next 12 months. This is a volunteer position which requires dedication, energy, work and time; GABC has only one paid part-time staff member (the Executive Director) and the 11 member Board is therefore critical to the everyday workings of the organization.

Due to GABC's increasing membership and ever-growing list of responsibilities which it has chosen to shoulder, the Board decided this year to increase its size from 9 members to 11 members. We are especially happy to report that 8 of the existing 9 Board of Directors, many of whom have previously served in various officer positions, chose to continue in their service, and were also voted to stay by their colleagues. We say goodbye with thanks and gratitude to Karsten Xander, who is stepping down to focus on new duties overseas. You can see full bios and photos for each of the GABC Board Members here .

President: Marius Carstensen
Vice President: Erik Dilger
Treasurer: James DeLuca
Secretary: Jens Eckstein

Members at Large:
Brigitte Hoppe Carangelo
Christa Bleyleben
Warwick Davies
Douglas Hauer
Beatrix Henize
Claudia Schütt
Christoph Wassong

Honorary Member
Friedrich L. Löhr
Consul General of Germany

New Faces on the Board:


Douglas Hauer, Esq.
Board Member at Large
Partner, Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.
Doug Hauer practices in the firm's Immigration Practice and Israel Business Section. He has substantial experience in business immigration law, related government investigations, family-based green card sponsorship processes, EB-5 investor visa filings, and corporate immigration policy development. Doug regularly represents German companies seeking E-1 and E-2 visas for their employees, and he is frequently called on by German clients who are setting up business in the United States and who need to navigate the American system. He has a J.D. degree from Boston University School of Law (2001), an M.A. degree in Yiddish and Hebrew Literature, Harvard University (1997), an M.A. degree in German Studies, University of Chicago (1994) and a B.A. in German Literature and Russian, Ohio State University (1993). He has been a GABC member and Sponsor since 2009.


Beatrix Henize
Board Member at Large
Strategic Adviser for nonprofits
Beatrix Henize has more than twenty years of experience in corporate and foundation relations at leading universities and medical centers – including MIT, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, George Mason University, Jhpiego, and Harvard University. Most recently Beatrix was Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University. Beatrix is no stranger to GABC ---- in the late 90s, Beatrix served as Vice President and then as President of GABC. She is a native German, raised in Düsseldorf, with B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Bonn.


Christoph Wassong
Board Member at Large
International Sales Manager, InterContinental Hotel
Christoph was born in raised in Germany, but moved to the United States in 2000 due to a company relocation. He is the International Sales Manager for InterContinental Hotels in Boston, a position he assumed in 2006, and he oversees and manages the leisure sales as well as corporate negotiated sales activities for the hotel. He has been a GABC member since 2008.

Saying goodbye:
Karsten Xander, who has served as Board Member at Large since 2008, and is also a valued GABC Sponsor, has decided to step down in light of his promotion and resulting time commitment at TUEV SUED AG. We will miss Karsten's past stewardship & support, his voice of reason, and his wicked sense of humor.

At the we are committed to the future ... and to those who will create it. In a move to enhance the sustainability and visibility of our mission, we have established a GISB Intercultural Guest Student Program.

We are looking for families who are interested in hosting our students arriving Sept 2011 from Germany, Belgium and Spain to spend an academic year at the German International School Boston.

The purpose of the host program is to assist international students between the ages of 14 and 16 as they arrive from abroad at the German International School in Boston. A host shares his/her culture with an international student by becoming a friend and resource to the student as they newly experience the American culture.

You can join our program by hosting a student starting in September 2011 for either 5 months or 10 months. As a host you will receive US$ 500/month to cover some of your costs.

GISB is located at 57 Holton Street, Boston, MA 02134. If you would like more information about GISB Host Program, or to accept GISB's invitation to be a host to international students, please contact Gabriele Zerwas, Coordinator Guest Students, 617-783-2604 or gabriele.zerwas@gisbos.org. and please visit our website at http://gisbos.org/our school/guest students.

GABC Members Claus Habermeier, Director of Germany Trade and Invest (NY office) and Uli Mittermaier, Chief Financial Officer of Brainloop, Inc. will be key speakers at

Brandeis University's Global Trade Summit 2011: Expanding Exports and Building International Business Partnerships

For the Conference session: "Doing Business with Europe: Opportunities in Germany and the United Kingdom"

April 5, 2011
11:00 AM – 6:15 PM

For more about the conference, please see the flyer or go to the conference website at www.brandeis.edu/global/tradesummit. There will be more than 30 outstanding speakers in 8 sessions.

Application deadline: October 15, 2011

The German Chancellor Fellowship provides for a stay of one year in Germany for professional development and research.

Germany's Alexander von Humboldt Foundation awards ten German Chancellor Fellowships annually to young professionals in the private, public, not-for-profit, cultural and academic sectors who are citizens of the United States. Application is open to all professions and fields of study, with preference for individuals in economics, law, social sciences and the humanities.

The program, which also includes fellowships for citizens of the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China, sponsors career-oriented individuals who demonstrate leadership and the potential to strengthen ties between Germany and their own country through their profession or studies.

Prior knowledge of German is not a prerequisite.

Fellowship Details and Eligibility

The German Chancellor Fellowship provides for a stay of one year in Germany for professional development and research. Applicants design individual research-related projects tailored to their professional background and decide at which institutions or organizations to pursue them. Before submitting an application, they must establish contact with a prospective host (mentor), who agrees to supervise them during the stay in Germany.

Applicantsmust be U.S. citizens and have a bachelor's degree; candidates must have received their degree after September 1, 2000. Successful candidates have come from such fields as government, social and policy sciences, law, journalism, communications, management, finance, economics, architecture, public service, the humanities, the arts, and environmental affairs.

Program and Application Information

• The program begins September 1 and lasts twelve months. It is preceded by three months of mandatory language classes in Germany.
• Monthly stipends range from 2,150 to 2,750 EUR, and additional allow­ances are available for accompanying family members, travel expenses, and introductory German lan­guage instruction in the United States.
• The application deadline for the 2012-2013 fellowship is October 15, 2011.
• Applications and additional information are available on the website of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation at the above link.

This announcement was designed and distributed by:
American Friends of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
1012 14th St., NW - Suite 1015
Washington, DC 20005

(202) 783-1907 - info@americanfriends-of-avh.org

The Executive Director and the GABC Board of Directors is very pleased to welcome Jim DeLuca to the Board. Jim has been a member of GABC since 2002, and adds his considerable accounting skills to the existing mix of talent on the Board. Jim DeLuca is a Senior Manager, Taxation, for Tonneson & Company CPAs and PC which provides services in the fields of Financial & Estate Planning, Financial Services, Business Advisory, Tax Advisory, and Mergers & Acquisitions.

• Education: Northeastern University, Bentley University (MST)
• Areas of Emphasis: Twenty plus years in public accounting, specializing in taxation including corporations, individuals, exempt organizations, fiduciaries, partnerships, subchapter S corporations and international taxation.
• Why Public Accounting: I got into the profession because I have a passion for accounting and taxation.
• Tonneson Experience: Tonneson is a great place to work because the owners of the firm treat their employees with respect.
• Outside of work: In addition to spending time with family and juggling my children's recreational activities, I am a "do it yourselfer." I am in the process of renovating a 6,400 square foot Grand Victorian House.
• Someday I will: Restore a wooden sail boat and sail around the world.

Claudia Schuett took over as a GABC member-at-large from Dr. Bernd Rinnert. She has recently come to Boston in July 2009 and has served since then as Deputy Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany in New England.

Ms. Schuett was born in Brunswick, Lower Saxony (Northern Germany) and grew up in and around Stuttgart, the capital of Baden-Württemberg (Southern Germany). After a vocational training in the apprenticed profession of General Business Administrator (Industriekauffrau) at Mercedes-Benz Headquarters in Stuttgart, she studied International Economics at Tübingen, Lyon (France) and Münster Universities with scholarships from the European ERASMUS program and the German National Academic Foundation. After graduation, she worked as a Consultant with Kienbaum Management Consultants in Düsseldorf, focusing on efficiency promotion and introducing cost and activity accounting methods in the public sector. 

In May 1999, she joined the German Foreign Service. After training in Germany, China and India, she served in Beijing and in Kabul, Afghanistan. From March 2004 through May 2008, she was in charge of international indeptedness and financial sanctions at the Foreign Ministry's Directorate General for Economic Affairs and Sustainable Development. After maternity leave and before coming to Boston, she rejoined the Ministry in spring 2009, working on renewable energy matters.

Fall of the Berlin Wall 1989-2009: www.freedomwithoutwalls.org 

Our Choices Matter - www.transatlantic-climate-bridge.org

GABC Board profile:
Christa Bleyleben
Member at Large
Tel: 617-717-9601

Christa Bleyleben is a Global Business and Economic Development Advisor, assisting international governments, organizations and universities with issues such as strategic partnerships, technology transfer, international financing as well as other economic development challenges.

Until February 2009 Christa was the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Office of International Trade and Investment (MOITI), a position to which she was appointed in September 2005. MOITI is the state agency tasked to grow the Massachusetts economy and create jobs by marketing the state's business sectors internationally via focused export promotion, attracting foreign companies to invest/locate in the state and managing international business relationships between the state government and regions around the world.

Before assuming that position, Christa was Managing Director in the Global Financial Institutions Group at Banc of America Securities LLC, managing a team responsible for a diverse portfolio of major international banking groups. Prior to the merger with Bank of America Corp, Christa was Managing Director and Group Head of FleetBoston's International Financial Institutions Division. In that role she oversaw the bank's teams in Boston, New York, London and Hong Kong which were responsible for global relationships with more than 250 top-tier banking groups headquartered in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Canada, Latin America as well as select central banks and multi-national organizations such as the World Bank, IMF and others. In her earlier banking career Christa was Chief Foreign Exchange trader at BankBoston.

A native of Austria, Christa holds a Master's in Business Administration and International Finance from the Vienna School of Business in Austria and has attended several executive education programs on non-for-profit management and global branding at Kellogg School of Management, Chicago and at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, N.H.