Bernd Asbach was the Deputy Chairman of the Board at Transform e.V. for many years and is still an active member today. A graduate in social sciences, he worked from 1981 to 1987 with the German Development Service in the Arab Republic of Yemen and from 1988 to 1990 with Terre des Hommes in Osnabrück. In 1990, he began his work at Buntstift e.V. in Göttingen, focusing on establishing foundation activities in the Middle East and North Africa. From 1997 to 2014, he served as Head of the Middle East Department at the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Berlin. His work focuses on democracy promotion, ecology and sustainable development, gender democracy, and Middle East policy. For many years, he has been actively involved in the peace, anti-nuclear, and environmental movements on a voluntary basis.

Michaela Birk is a founding member of Transform, served as its Managing Director for several years, and is now the Chairwoman of the Board. She works as a project coordinator, as well as a moderator and group facilitator. Her areas of expertise include conflict analysis and resolution, effective organization, and communication structures. She has worked in Israel/Palestine, North Africa, and Europe on issues of minority rights and social cohesion. Over the years, Michaela has acquired a range of tools for participatory work with groups and teams, conflict resolution methods, and appreciative communication, and has completed training as a mediator. Since then, she has been guiding organizations, groups, and teams in participatory strategic planning and/or team development and offers processes for conflict resolution within groups. Michaela holds a diploma in political science from the University of Duisburg and studied Middle East politics at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Dr. Dina El Sharnouby earned her PhD in Political Science from the Free University of Berlin. She received a scholarship for her doctorate at the Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies. Her doctoral dissertation documents the Egyptian Revolution from the perspective of youth, asking, “What is the significance of the 2011 revolution for Egyptian youth, especially for members of the leftist Bread and Freedom Party?” Before her PhD, Dina obtained her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Anthropology and Sociology from the American University in Cairo (AUC). For her Master’s thesis, she received the “January 25 Award in Recognition of an Outstanding Master’s Thesis.” She publishes journal articles and writes occasional op-eds in English for Open Democracy and in German for Die Zeit. Her research interests focus on youth, revolutions, the Middle East, particularly Egypt, political participation, and democratization processes.

Dr. Michael Sternberg is a consultant, facilitator, and action researcher specializing in conflict transformation and social change initiatives. He focuses on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, migration, and promoting social cohesion in the Netherlands, Germany, and Sweden. He offers courses in conflict transformation for civil society organizations and international and local agencies involved in working in and on conflicts in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. He is the coordinator of the International Peacebuilders’ Forum, Initiatives of Change, in Caux, Switzerland, and a research fellow at the Martin Springer Center for Conflict Studies at Ben-Gurion University. His research examines the contribution of intra-group dialogue to conflict transformation, communal strategies for transitional justice, and the use of action research to support social change initiatives. Michael Sternberg holds a PhD in Conflict Management from Ben-Gurion University and a Master’s degree in Applied Conflict Transformation Studies from the University of Novi Sad, as well as degrees in Sociology and Social Anthropology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Dr. Ahmed Badawi, founding member of Transform, was a researcher, political analyst and group facilitator. As a research fellow at the Center for Modern Oriental Studies (2011 – 2012), he focused on the West’s policy-relevant perceptions of Egyptian Islamists. From 2010-2011 he worked as a Senior Analyst at the International Crisis Group in the Middle East and North Africa Program. Prior to that, he was project manager (Israel/Palestine) at the Oxford Research Group (2007-2009) and research fellow at the Institute for Development and Peace (INEF) at the University of Duisburg-Essen. In 2001 he moved to Berlin, where he worked as a Research Associate in the Middle East and North Africa Research Group at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs until 2005. Ahmed was known as an independent thinker and researcher. He loved to challenge fixed assumptions, always striving to combine academic research with field research to make it more meaningful and sustainable. His research aimed to provide practical recommendations for tangible positive change. Ahmed was an idealist with a realistic dose of optimism and a visionary with often creative and innovative approaches. He was able to propose solutions to seemingly unsolvable problems. Moreover, instead of resorting to an “either/or” option, he sought the “both/and” solution in every conflict situation. Ahmed’s passion, professionally and personally, was to bring people together, to get them to rethink their motives and empower them to resolve conflicts through consensus rather than compromise. He dedicated himself to this cause as a mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Tunisian revolution, with Egyptian opposition groups and the Syrian civil war.