Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has been a major force on the world’s political stage for nearly a decade. He is a leading world statesman and internationally recognised authority on global relations, economic development and social change.

Gerhard Schröder was born into poverty in Northwestern Germany in 1944. He attended high school at night while working as a sales clerk. At 19, he enrolled in a night program at the University of Göttingen law school while working days at an ironmonger’s shop. From 1972 onwards, Schröder served as an Assistant at Göttingen University. In 1976, he passed his second law examination and worked as a lawyer until 1990. Meanwhile, he was laying the groundwork for a career in politics. He joined the Social Democrats in 1963 and, in 1978, became the Federal Chairman of the party´s Youth Organisation. From there, it was a short trip to the National Parliament, to which he was first elected in 1980. Moving swiftly on, he became Minister-President of the Federal State of Lower Saxony from 1990 to 1998.

In 1998, Gerhard Schröder was elected Chancellor of the newly reunited Germany. In his seven years in office, he did much to modernise Germany’s economy. Elected to a second term in 2002, he increased his country’s influence on a global level by taking strong stands on global issues. From 1999 to 2004, he was also Chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). From 2005, he was a freelance lawyer in Hanover and advisor to the Swiss publishing company Ringier.

In recent years, he has been Chairman of the Shareholders’ Committee of the European-Russian pipeline company Nord Stream AG, Member of the European Advisory Council of the Rothschild Group and Independent Director of the Anglo-Russian oil company TNK-BP and Member of the Board of Directors. He is Honorary Chairman of the German Near and Middle East Association and of the Emirati-German Friendship Society. He is also patron of the German anti-racism association “Gesicht Zeigen!”