Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook

Biography

Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook is a German-American economic and political analyst and strategist currently serving as Senior Advisor to the Bertelsmann Foundation, where she spearheads the Foundation’s work on economic security and cross-sectoral resilience. She is the former Director and CEO of the German Council on Foreign Relations and directed a series research programs at the Harvard Kennedy School for over a decade, after a career in international think tanks and management consulting. She served in the second Bloomberg administration in New York City and has published numerous academic articles and book chapters on urban reslience and leadership, alongside her 2026 SPIEGEL Bestseller on American democratic resilience. A former journalist, she is a Trustee of the Arthur F. Burns Fellowship, a Board Member of the U.S. Fulbright Commission and a Gates Foundation Goalkeeper, and retains academic affiliations at her alma maters, Brown and Harvard Universities.