Board of Trustees

After a commercial apprenticeship and several years of thorough training, Klaus-Michael Kühne joined the family business Kühne + Nagel in the early 1960s, became a personally liable partner in 1963 and three years later Chairman of the Management Board. From 1975, he served as Chief Executive Officer and later Chairman of the Board of Directors at the company’s international headquarters in Switzerland. He has been Honorary Chairman since 2011. The majority shareholder of the Kühne+Nagel Group is Kühne Holding AG, which was founded by him in 1993 and also holds a 30 percent stake in Hapag-Lloyd AG, one of the world's leading container shipping companies, and a 17.5 percent stake in Lufthansa AG. In addition, Kühne Holding AG owns real estate and is involved in the high-end hotel industry. Together with his parents, Klaus-Michael Kühne founded the Kühne Foundation in 1976, whose most important concern is the promotion of education and training as well as research and science in logistics and the transport industry. The Kühne Foundation is also heavily involved in the field of medicine. In Davos, Switzerland, it maintains a medical campus with two large research programs in allergology and cardiology and operates the Hochgebirgsklinik. A new focus on climate is currently in the conception phase. In the cultural sector, the Kühne Foundation supports festivals, opera houses and concert halls in Europe.

Christine Kühne is Klaus-Michael Kühne’s wife and supports him in all his projects. The Christine Kühne – Center for Allergy Research and Education (CK-CARE) was founded on her initiative in 2009 to promote allergy research in the long term.

Dr. Thomas Staehelin holds a PhD in law and has been a partner of Fromer Advokatur und Notariat based in Basel since 1981. His expertise includes international mandates, corporate law, mergers and acquisitions, tax law, contract and commercial law as well as banking and stock market law. Dr. Staehelin is a member and/or President of the Board of Directors of several Swiss and international companies. Dr. Staehelin has been a member of the Board of Trustees since 1998 and has been its Vice-President since then.

After studies in law, Michael Behrendt joined VTG Vereinigte Tanklager und Transportmittel GmbH in 1985 and became Managing Director in 1994. In 1999, he was appointed Chief Executive Officer of VTG Lehnkering AG. Michael Behrendt became Chairman of the Executive Board of Hapag-Lloyd AG in 2002; and has taken over as Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Hapag-Lloyd AG in 2014. Furthermore, he is Honorary President of the Übersee-Club e.V. in Hamburg and board member of the non-profit science organisation Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft e.V. Mr. Behrendt was first appointed to the Board of Trustees of the Kühne Foundation in 2005. From 2008 to 2016, he sat on the Board of Trustees of the Klaus-Michael Kühne Foundation.

Dr. Thomas Buberl began his career as a consultant at the Boston Consulting Group for the banking & insurance sector and joined the Winterthur Group in 2005. He moved to Zurich Insurance in 2008 as CEO for Switzerland. He was appointed CEO of AXA Germany in 2012, then CEO of the Global Health business line in 2015, before being appointed CEO of the AXA Group in 2016. He holds a Master of Economics degree from WHU Koblenz (Germany), an MBA from Lancaster University (UK) and a PhD in Economics from the University of St. Gallen (Switzerland). He is a member of the IBM Board of Directors and sits on the Board of Trustees of the World Economic Forum. Thomas Buberl has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Kühne Foundation since November 2023.

Dr. Jörg Dräger studied Physics and Economics in Hamburg and New York. After his graduation, he worked for Roland Berger Strategy Consultants in Frankfurt/Main. He returned to Hamburg as CEO of the Northern Institute of Technology. From 2001 to 2008 Dr. Dräger took office as Hamburg’s (independent) Minister of Science and Research. In addition, he was a member of the Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs and a deputy member of the German Bundesrat. From 2008 till the end of 2021 he was a member of the Executive Board at the Bertelsmann Foundation. Dr. Dräger was first appointed to the Board of Trustees in 2008 and has been the Executive Director of the Board of Trustees of the Kühne Foundation since 2022.

Karl Gernandt started his career with Deutsche Bank AG, after graduating with a Master in Business Administration at the University of St. Gallen. He moved on to A.T. Kearney, focusing on strategy development for financial institutions, then to Alsen AG und Holcim AG, most recently as CEO of the Region Western Europe. From 2009 to 2011 Karl Gernandt was Delegate and from 2011 to 2016 Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of Kühne + Nagel International AG, and has been Vice-Chairman since 2016. Furthermore, he is Executive Chairman of the Kühne Holding AG and Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Hapag-Lloyd AG as well as a member of the Supervisory Board of Lufthansa AG.

Following the completion of an apprenticeship at Kühne+Nagel Hamburg, Dr. Wolfgang Peiner studied business administration in Hamburg and Kansas/ USA. Thereafter, he worked as tax consultant and auditor at Arthur Andersen & Co., the Werner Otto Group and as Director, later on as Chief Executive, of the Gothaer Group. During those times, Dr. Peiner was a member of the Board of Directors of the Treuhandanstalt and its successor organisation BvS, Kühne + Nagel International AG as well as a member of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Friends Provident. From 2001 to 2006 Dr. Peiner was Senator of Finance of the Hamburg state government, at the same time, he was Federal Treasurer of the CDU party. In the years 2010 and 2011, he was founding president of the Kühne Logistics University. He was also a member of the Board of Directors of Kühne Holding AG from 2008 to 2022. Dr. Peiner has been a member of the Board of Trustees since 2005.

Dr. Marc Pfeffer is admitted to the bar in Switzerland and Germany. He received his doctorate with distinction from Saarland University and worked for the FTC, Washington D.C., USA and the Federal Cartel Office, Berlin, at the end of the 1990s. Various management positions included working for the DB AG Group from 2002 to 2006, where he last served as General Counsel of DB Netz AG, Frankfurt. After the IPO was canceled, Dr. Pfeffer moved to Switzerland in 2006 and was Head of International Legal Affairs and later Group Legal Counsel at OC Oerlikon until 2012. In 2013, Dr. Pfeffer advised Kühne Holding AG as attorney-at-law and has been Group General Counsel at Kühne+Nagel since 2014, where he also became Corporate Secretary of the Board of Directors in 2019. He served as a Member of the Board of Directors of Ruf Holding AG from 2008 to 2019. From 2019 to the end of 2022 he was Executive Director and member of the Board of Directors of Kühne Holding AG. When he joined the Management Board of Kühne + Nagel International AG on January 1, 2023, he resigned from this office. He has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Kühne Foundation since April 2023.

Tobias B. Staehelin is admitted to the bar and specialises in corporate law. He graduated from the University of St. Gallen with a lic. iur. degree. In addition, he holds a CEMS Master in International Management, an LL.M. from Northwestern University, USA, and the Instituto de Empresa, Spain. Tobias B. Staehelin has operational experience in Asia and Europe. From 2021 to 2024 he was a member of the Group Executive Committee of the Schindler Group, responsible for Corporate Human Resources. He is currently member of the Board of Directors of Schindler Aufzüge AG and Schindler Holding AG and since 2024 member of its Supervisory and Strategy Committee. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of Kühne + Nagel International AG since 2021 and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Kühne Foundation since 2023.

Prof. Dr. Jens Weidmann, who holds a doctorate in economics, studied in Aix-en-Provence and Bonn. He started his career at the International Monetary Fund, then became Secretary-General of the German Council of Economic Experts, and subsequently headed the department for monetary policy and monetary analysis at the Bundesbank. In the Federal Chancellery, he led the department of economic and financial policy and was most recently the personal representative of the Chancellor for the economic summits of the G8 and G20 nations, before being appointed President of the Bundesbank in 2011. After leaving the Bundesbank in 2021, Weidmann was elected Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Commerzbank AG in 2023 and was appointed as Professor at the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management. Since November 2023, he has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Kühne Foundation.

Dr. Jörg Wolle holds a PhD in engineering sciences. In his roles as CEO and President, he formed and led DKSH AG from 2000 to 2017, most recently reaching net sales of CHF 11 billion and employing 35,000 staff in Asia. The company was created through the merger of three traditional Swiss trading houses in Asia. Since 2010, Dr. Wolle has been a member of the Board of Directors of Kühne + Nagel International AG, since May 2016, he has been Chairman of the Board. He is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Klingelnberg AG and member of the Board of Directors of Olam International Limited, Singapore.