A sustainable structure
More than 750 people are employed at ZUG in Berlin, Bonn and Cottbus. With its organisation into five business units, two interdisciplinary divisions and two competence centres in Cottbus, ZUG has given itself a forward-looking and modular structure. Two business units have been set up to consolidate domain expertise and research for the International Climate Initiative (IKI) and various national funding programmes. The Funding Management business unit is responsible for the appropriate handling of matters relating to budgets and grants. Activities relating to the National Climate Initiative are managed by another business unit. The fifth business unit provides core services to the organisation.
Each business unit is subdivided into departments. In Cottbus, ZUG has also consolidated its expertise in the energy sector with the think-and-do tank PtX Lab Lausitz and the Competence Centre on Climate Change Mitigation in Energy-Intensive Industries (KEI).
Management Board
Corinna Enders

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Managing Director
Corinna Enders has been ZUG’s Managing Director since its formation in 2018. She has acted in this role to shape both the structure and contextual development of ZUG as an organisation.
A lawyer by profession, Ms Enders is an expert in climate and environmental policy. Before being appointed Managing Director at ZUG, she was part of the international climate negotiation team at the BMU. From 2012 to 2016, she was posted to the Federal Foreign Office’s Nairobi Embassy, and was Germany’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat). She started her career as a lawyer before moving to the Federal Ministry for the Environment in 2008, where she subsequently held several positions.
Stefan Demuth

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Business Development Director
Stefan Demuth has a background in public administration. He joined the organisation in 2021 and is responsible for directing its commercial affairs.
Previously, he worked at Project Management Jülich (PtJ) since 2001, where he was Head of the Central Services, Development and Quality Division from 2010, while also acting as the Deputy Managing Director. He worked at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) from 1988 to 2001. At BMBF, he worked in a number of funding departments as well as the Department for Organisation (from 1998).
Supervisory Board
A Supervisory Board has been appointed to advise and monitor the Management Board in matters of governance.
The Supervisory Board has nine members:
- Dr Ingrid Hanhoff (Deputy Director-General, Federal Ministry for the Environment)
- Dr Florian Rauser (Vice President, Federal Office for Radiation Protection)
- Professor Christiane Hipp (Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus – Senftenberg (BTU))
- Dr Andreas Rickert (Management Board, PHINEO)
- Professor Yvonne Schoper (HTW Berlin – University of Applied Sciences)
- Henrik Spickschen (Desk Officer, Federal Ministry of Finance)
- Jens Deutsch (Employee Representative, ZUG)
- Katja Frank (Employee Representative, ZUG)
- Holger Sassenberg (Employee Representative, ZUG)
Chair of the Board is Dr Ingrid Hanhoff, with Jens Deutsch as Deputy Chair.