| since 2006 | German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE)
Head of Department II: Competitiveness and Social Development |
| 1995 - 2006 | German Development Institute
Head of Department IV: Private Sector Development and State Reform |
| 1994 - 1995 | Scholarship of 'Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft' (DFG) / German Research Association
research on "World market integration and industrial competi-tiveness exemplified by small Latin American countries" |
| 1992 - 1994 | Research fellow of Philipps University Marburg
research project "Trade liberalization and deregulation in small Third World countries" |
| 1989 - 1991 | Scholarship of Deutsche Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD – German Academic Exchange Service)
research on "Possibilities and limits of regional development in peripheral areas of Costa Rica" |
| 1986 - 1989 | Research fellow of the Latin American Institute of the Free University Berlin
research project "Agro-industrial development as key to overcome the crisis in Costa Rica?" |
| 1991 | PhD in Economic Geography
Thesis on: “Regional Economic Development. Case Studies from Peripheral Regions in Costa Rica” |
| 1977 - 1986 | University of Hamburg:
Studies in Economic Geography
Graduation in June 1986 |