Annette Heuser is Executive Director and Founder of the Washington, DC office of the Bertelsmann Foundation, a private, non-partisan operational foundation that promotes and strengthens trans-Atlantic cooperation. She previously helped establish the Foundation’s Brussels office and served as its Executive Director from 2000 to 2006. From 1995 to 2000, she was Director Europe/USA at the Bertelsmann Stiftung in Gütersloh, Germany. In the corporate sector, Annette served as Vice President of International Relations at Bertelsmann AG, Europe’s largest media company. She was Editor of the Jahrbuch der Europäischen Integration, an annual publication that covers the year’s institutional and political developments in European integration. Annette studied political science, law and sociology at the University of Mainz in Germany. She has authored articles on trans-Atlantic relations and European affairs that have appeared in major US and European publications, and she has appeared on numerous television news programs. Annette is a member of the Atlantic Council Board of Directors and its Strategic Advisors Group. She is also a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations. She previously served on the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Future of the European Union and was Vice Chair of the Council on Foundation’s Global Philanthropy Committee for four years.