The MSF Advisory Board supports the Director and the School Leadership Team in strategy, quality assurance and school development. The Advisory Board includes three experienced school directors with decades of local and international school leadership experience, a lawyer and tax consultant and both elected and nominated parent representatives.
Daniel Schmitz (Board Chair) An IB Diploma graduate of the International School of Düsseldorf, Mr. Schmitz has 30 years of experience in financial services as Managing Director of Goldman, Sachs & Co., Partner of CVC Capital Partners and as an independent investor and entrepreneur. From 2010 to 2017, Mr Schmitz was a seed investor and Director of Wichtel Akademie München GmbH, a group of kindergartens and childcare centres. Mr Schmitz is the father of three MSF students; his family has been part of the MSF community since 2010.
Cathie Mullen (Vice Chairperson) has been the Director of Education at the International School Augsburg (an IB World School) since 2005. Her prior experience includes the position of Lower School Principal at the International School of Stuttgart, as well as teaching posts in Ireland and the Bahamas. She has also served as a board member of the Association of German International Schools.
Thomas Braun has 20 years of experience as a teacher and school leader in Germany. He is currently Co-Director of BBS Neuwied, the largest private vocational training school in the state of Rhineland Palatinate (Rheinland Pfalz). His responsibilities on the Board include personnel, curriculum, organisational matters, school legal issues and the coordination of the MSF Scholarship Programme.
Cornelia Donner has over 40 years experience in education at the primary and secondary levels. After 25 years as a teacher and school adminstrator in the United States, she became the founding head of the Berlin Metropolitan School and later headed the Berlin Bilingual School. Ms Donner was a member of the MSF Board from 2007 to 2016 before she joined MSF as the Secondary Principal in 2016. Ms Donner rejoined the MSF Board after her retirement in 2020.
Vera Pütz joined the MSF Board in 2021 after fulfilling the role of Head parent rep a number of times over the past years at MSF. After graduating in International Business and Marketing studies in Germany and South Africa, Mrs Pütz worked both in finance and marketing in Chicago and Germany. She has one son who graduated from MSF in 2022 and three sons in Secondary – all of them started at MSF in kindergarten.
Wolfgang Sietzy joined the MSF Board with more than 20 years of experience as a tax, accounting and legal expert (StB, Wp, RA). Following his early years with Arthur Andersen, Mr Sietzy started his own consulting business in Bad Soden, advising on mid-sized (“Mittelstand”) clients and private educational institutions on tax, accounting and legal matters. Since his retirement, Mr. Sietzy serves on the board on the Taunus Sparkasse and is active in local politics.
Joanna Werkowska is Head Parent Representative at MSF. Joanna holds a Master Degree in Management and Marketing and has been running an event company and patisserie in Poland. She has two daughters at MSF – one in Grade 5 and one in Transition.
Sara Rosensteel is Deputy Head Parent Representative at Metropolitan School Frankfurt. She holds degree in English Literature and Library Science and has been a reference and public programming librarian in museums and historical archives, educational settings, and public libraries. She has two children, a daughter in grade four, and a son in grade one.
