Program Director

Bertelsmann Stiftung

Berlin | Germany

Dirk is an organizational sociologist, education strategist, and foundation leader who works at the intersection of systems change, leadership, and public-sector transformation. He has been with Bertelsmann Stiftung in Germany since 2013, first as Project Lead for Schools and, since 2020, as Director of the foundation’s education program, where he shapes strategies to make Germany’s education system more equitable, adaptive, and capable of learning.

Dirk’s academic background is rooted in organizational sociology, social constructivism, and neo-institutional theory. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Freie Universität Berlin and his master’s degree and Ph.D. from Princeton University, with a year-long fellowship at Harvard University. In his doctoral research, Dirk examined how different conceptions of managerial control were socially constructed and how these conceptions influenced corporate strategy. He focused particularly on the emergence of the Chief Financial Officer as a pivotal role in top management.

Prior to joining Bertelsmann Stiftung, Dirk spent six years at McKinsey & Company in strategic management consulting, including as Practice Manager of the Public Sector Practice. This experience strengthened his ability to connect analytical rigor, strategic problem-solving, and the realities of institutional change.

At Bertelsmann Stiftung, Dirk’s work has evolved alongside a broader reflection on how change happens in complex education systems. For many years, the foundation’s education work followed a classic think tank logic, generating evidence about what was not working in the school system and what should change. The underlying expectation was that strong arguments and public pressure would lead to political action. As the author of numerous studies, Dirk helped shape the education discourse in Germany. Over time, however, he and his team recognized the limitations of this theory of change. With the launch of Change Learning in October 2025, the foundation made a strategic shift from describing what needs to change to understanding how to implement sustainable change in complex social systems.

This shift is the main reason Dirk is participating in the Compassionate Systems Awareness Master Practitioner Program. As a comprehensive approach to change, the program can provide an essential methodological foundation for the next stage of his work: moving from piloting Change Learning toward building an agency for a more capable education system as a collective impact initiative.

Dirk combines analytical and strategic strengths with a growing commitment to dialogue, presence, and relational leadership. In recent years, his practice of mindfulness meditation, among other things, has deepened his interest in fostering environments for authentic listening, reflection, and collaborative learning. As a father of four, he experiences education as both a field of policy and systems work and a lived reality that shapes the future of the next generation.