Prof. Dr. Daniela Schwarzer is member of the Executive Board of the Bertelsmann Stiftung and a leading expert on European and international affairs. She is honorary professor of political science at Freie Universität Berlin and senior fellow at Harvard University. Since 2025, Daniela Schwarzer has been serving as the honorary president of the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations and as co-chair of the German-Japanese Forum. 

She previously served as Executive Director for Europe and Central Asia at the Open Society Foundations, as director and CEO of the German Council on Foreign Relations, and as head of the Europe research group at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. 

She is a member of the supervisory boards of BNP Paribas and Covivio, a honorary board member of DGAP and non-executive board member of the Jacques Delors Centre (Paris, Berlin) and a Council member of the European Council on Foreign Relations. From 2020 to 2022 she served as special advisor to the Vice-President of the European Commission Josep Borrell. She also advised France and Poland during their respective EU presidencies. In 2017, she was inducted into the French Legion of Honour.