The American Council on Germany and Atlantik-Brücke will host a video discussion with the Chairmen of the two organizations - Ambassador John B. Emerson and Sigmar Gabriel. In conversation, they will discuss the national and international responses to COVID-19, the future of multilateralism and globalization, as well as domestic politics in this unprecedented and uncertain time.
We hope you can join us on Thursday, April 9, at 11:00 am (ET) for this webinar. To register, please click here.
Ambassador John B. Emerson was named Chairman of the American Council on Germany at the Council’s Annual Meeting of the Members on January 17, 2018. He is Vice Chairman at Capital Group International. Previously, he was U.S. Ambassador to Germany, from 2013 to 2017. In 2015, Ambassador Emerson received the State Department’s Sue M. Cobb Award for Exemplary Diplomatic Service, an award given annually to one non-career Ambassador. In 2017, the Secretary of the Navy and the Director of the CIA awarded him their highest civilian honors for his service. Before going to Berlin, he was the President of Capital Group Private Client Services from 1997 to July 2013. Previously, he served on President Clinton’s senior staff, from 1993 to 1997, as Deputy Director of Presidential Personnel, and subsequently as Deputy Director of Intergovernmental Affairs. Ambassador Emerson also coordinated the Economic Conference of the Clinton-Gore transition team and led the Administration’s efforts to obtain congressional approval of the GATT Uruguay Round Agreement in 1994, and the extension of China’s Most-Favored-Nation trading status in 1996. In 2010, President Obama appointed Ambassador Emerson to serve on the President’s Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations. Earlier in his career, Ambassador Emerson served as the Los Angeles Chief Deputy City Attorney (1987-1993). In 1988, he traveled to Germany on an ACG Political Exchange Fellowship, carried out in collaboration with the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. Before that, he was a Partner at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, specializing in business and entertainment litigation and administrative law.
Sigmar Gabriel was Federal Minister for the Economy and Energy from 2013 to 2017 as well as Vice-Chancellor from 2013 to 2018 and served as Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2017 to 2018. On June 26, 2019, he was elected Chairman of Atlantik-Brücke. Mr. Gabriel has been politically active since 1976. Born in Goslar, he began his political career in the youth organization of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and joined the SPD in 1977. Two years later, Mr. Gabriel joined the ÖTV union, and membership in IG Metall and Arbeiterwohlfahrt (AWO), a social welfare organization, followed. Trained as a high school educator, he assumed various responsibilities in adult education and became a member of Lower Saxony’s parliament over the course of the 1980s. During the subsequent decade, among other positions, he held the post of chair of the environmental committee of Lower Saxony’s parliament and was a member of the SPD executive committee. He served as prime minister of Lower Saxony from 1999 to 2003, and he has been a directly elected member of Germany’s Bundestag since 2005, taking over the post of Federal Minister for the Environmental that same year. Mr. Gabriel, who represents the Salzgitter-Wolfenbüttel district, occupied the position of SPD chairman from 2009 until 2017.
