German-American Young Leaders Conference 2016

Idyllic Lake Starnberg was once again the setting for Atlantik-Brücke’s Young Leaders conference. This year’s group discussed a broad scope of topics, ranging from the opportunities of digitization to populism in Europe and the US as well as the current state of affairs in Europe. A host of prominent guest speakers joined the Young Leaders: Atlantik-Brücke Chairman Friedrich Merz, John O’Farrell, Partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, Vice President of the European Parliament Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, MEP (ALDE), Burkhard Balz, MEP (EPP), Kevin O’Brien, Editor-in-Chief of Handelsblatt Global Edition, Stefan Kornelius, Foreign and Editorial Page Editor at Süddeutsche Zeitung, CEO of the Airbus Group Dr. Thomas Enders, as well as Former Parliamentary State Secretary, Chairwoman of the CDU Parliamentary Group and Deputy Chair of the Federal CDU Julia Klöckner, MdL (CDU), to just name a few. The program also included visits to Burda Digital GmbH in Munich, a refugee camp of the Bavarian Red Cross and to the Bundesnachrichtendienst, the German foreign intelligence service. The group of Young Leaders, for the first time in the history of the program, consisted to equal parts of women and men.