Following an academic year in London in 2004/05, Sophia Armanski will return to Berlin in 2006/7 to complete her Bachelors Degree in History and Economics at the Humboldt-University. As an active member of the International Students of History Association (ISHA), she gained her first operational experience in organising and preparing international seminars. In parallel to her studies, she is an intern at the German Council on Foreign Relations, assisting on the project "Europazug" ("Europe train").

Denise Eisoldt is currently finishing her Bachelors Degree in Baltic Management Studies in Stralsund, Germany. She studied for one semester at the North-West University in Potchefstroom, South Africa focusing on Human Resource management. Denise gained consultancy experience during her internship at Potentialpark Communications in Stockholm, Sweden. As a scholar of the Foundation of German Business, she co-initiated and organised several projects. During her participation in MARA 2005, she had her first contact with decision analysis. Denise will study Culture and Management for her Master's degree which she is due to start in May 2006.

Timo Glaser is a PhD student at TU Berlin focusing on "The Impact of Outsourcing to China on Information Security". He lived in China for two years and received an MSc from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He also holds a Diploma in Computer Science from TU Berlin. During his time in Asia, he set up a multicultural non-profit association whose goal is to contribute to the regions' human, social and economic development by providing an exchange platform and building an international knowledge network of students and young professionals. Since then, he has worked as a consultant on health care and IT issues and is partner of a company providing knowledge management services - consulting, system development and training. Next term, he will be a visiting lecturer at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, giving lectures on Information Security Management.

Andrés Hernández is a former Masters student in Economics and Management Sciences at the Humboldt University Berlin. He has worked for a Colombian business consulting firm (Remolina Estrada) where he was involved on different projects with government and non-government organisations. During this time, he gained hands-on experience in various fields such as strategic planning and project management. He is member of the sdw-alumni organisation and regional counselor for Colombia.

Cordula Kiank is a student of Social Sciences at Humboldt-University Berlin. In 2004, she studied in the Department of Political Science at the University of Melbourne, focusing on public policy making and (non-)decision making. She has experience in conducting workshops and seminars in both university and union environments. As a scholar of the Hans Boeckler Foundation, Cordula co-organised "Spannungsfeld Tarifkonflikt 2005" thereby refining her project organisation skills. She also worked as an intern for the Mining, Chemical and Energy Industrial Union (IG BCE), as well as a research assistant in several university projects.

Nadine Oeser is currently in her fifth semester studying Psychology at the Free University Berlin. She specialises in psychology in business and organisation and is interested in human resource management. Since November 2004, Nadine has been a scholar of the Foundation of German Business and has participated in seminars and workshops on mediation, change management, team building and human resource diagnostics. During a three month internship at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development (MPI) in Berlin, Nadine researched "fast and frugal decision making". She is currently gaining further professional experience and research skills as research assistant at the MPI.

Before finishing his degree in computer sciences for media in 2003 at the TFH Berlin, Jörg Petri gained experience in digital workflow management and print-design as a typographer and DTP-Trainer. While continuously working as a freelance graphic designer in Berlin, he started his PhD at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Braunschweig in 2004. His research focus lies on historical evolution of type forms and alternatives to traditional type-classification strategies.

Felix Rübcke has a Bachelors Degree in European Economic Studies from the University of Bamberg, Germany. He also studied International Relations during his year abroad in Costa Rica at "Universidad Latina". Felix is an alumnus of the Foundation of German Business. He gained work experience as Project Assistant for different organisations in Bangkok, New York and Taipei. In addition, Felix gained insights into decision-analytic methodologies as Associate Team Leader in last year's MARA Project in Argentina. Until recently, he worked for Deutsche Bank's Group Division: Corporate Social Responsibility in Frankfurt.

Cornelius Schaub is an sdw scholar and PhD student at the London School of Economics (LSE) where he also received an MSc in Economics (LSE). In his PhD, Cornelius uses an experimental economic approach to investigate issues related to people's decision-making processes and the notions of overconfidence and shared control. Cornelius has some experience in strategic consulting (Boston Consulting Group) and in organising projects: over the last few years he has co-initiated workshops in co-operation with the Foundation of German Business in the UK, Germany and Argentina. Cornelius was part of the Steering Committee of MARA 2005 in Argentina. For MARA 2006, he is again on the Steering Committee,mainly responsible for human resources. He is UK Co-ordinator of the Centre for Decision and Negotiation Analysis.

Martin Schilling is a PhD student at the London School of Economics (LSE). He has a Masters degree in Decision Science and a degree in Psychology. In his research Martin transfers decision-analytic methodologies to strategy development and negotiation situations. As president of the Centre for Decision and Negotiation Analysis he is responsible for content and partner development in MARA 2006. The objective of his work is to contribute to the further institutionalisation of Decision and Negotiation Analysis in Germany. One emphasis of his work is, therefore, on 'outreach' - the transfer of useful theory from academia into practice and vice versa.

Wolf Thyssen is about to complete his studies in Industrial Engineering and Management at the Technical University Berlin (TU-Berlin) and has studied a year abroad at Pontifica Universidad Católica in Santiago de Chile. He is a scholar of the Foundation of German Business. Wolf has gained practical work experience during several internships for an energy supply company (Endesa Chile), in various mechanical engineering companies (BMW, HDW, ZF Lenksysteme) and as an assistant of a delegate of the German Bundestag. He has been a member of a board of a lacrosse sports club. He currently co-organises a German-Russian aid project.

Gunther Vilzmann is a student of applied computer science with a focus on "Facility Management" at the FHTW Berlin. He is co-founder of the Centre for Decision and Negotiation Analysis, responsible for finances and web content management (www.cdna-online.org). Gunther specialised in computer-based models to evaluate negotiations and decision-making. He co-organised several negotiation workshops for students and executives in Germany, thereby applying his modelling techniques. Gunther was part of the organisational team of MARA 2005. He designed the homepage (www.2005.projectmara.com) and provided technical support. For MARA 2006, he is in charge of IT and providing technical support for the homepage (www.projectmara.com).