The Schöpflin Foundation was established in 2001 by Hans Schöpflin and his siblings Albert Schöpflin and Heidi Junghanss. Hans Schöpflin, who worked in the USA for 40 years as a highly successful entrepreneur, has been Chairman of the Foundation's Executive Board since the beginning. Today, he is supported in his work by Tim Göbel, the Foundation’s President and, from January 2023, by Dr. Constanze Wehner as a member of the Executive Board.
Hans Schöpflin is an entrepreneur and philanthropist. He studied in Germany, France and the USA and has enjoyed a successful career as a businessman and investor. He continues to work as an entrepreneur and is founder and President of the Schöpflin Investment Company. He laid the foundations for his philanthropic activities with the establishment of the Panta Rhea Foundation in the United States in 1998 and the Schöpflin Foundation in Germany in 2001.
Tim Göbel became Executive Director of the Schöpflin Foundation in 2016. He studied economics and was then a founder member of the team that set up the private Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen, serving as its Vice President from 2008 through 2016. Tim Göbel is a member of the supervisory board at Finanzwende e. V. and a member of the advisory board at ProjectTogether.
Dr. Constanze Wehner joined the Executive Board in January 2023. Holding a PhD in educational science, she initially headed the "Schools & Development" program area at the Schöpflin Foundation starting in 2017; in 2020, she took over project management for the establishment of the Schöpflin School. From 2021, she was responsible for the FABRIC participation project and the planning process for the new "Schöpflin Quarter" in Lörrach-Brombach.
The Schöpflin Foundation supports people and organizations that advocate for a more just and sustainable world and experiment with new ideas to find solutions to the major social challenges of our time. The goal of our philanthropic engagement is to secure a better future for the young and future generations.
In an in-depth interview published in 2019 in Stiftungswelt, the magazine of the Bundesverband Deutscher Stiftungen (Association of German Foundations), Hans Schöpflin and Tim Göbel explain the role that strengthening a vibrant democracy in particular plays for our Board and for us as a foundation.
