Board of Trustees

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Straßburg

Chairman of the Board of Trustees

Wolfgang Straßburg was born in 1945. He studied law in Munich and Tübingen, completed his doctorate
in jurisprudence in 1974, and passed the German state examination in law in 1975. Since 1975 Straßburg
has worked – predominantly in high-level positions – in the electric power industry and been a member of
various executive boards both in Germany and abroad. He is currently Attorney at Law for Kümmerlein & Partner, Essen,
has been teaching at the University of Hannover as a lecturer since 1989 and as an Honorary Professor
since 1996. Since 1998 he is also a lecturer at the Ruhr University Bochum. He has expressed his views,
mainly on topics related to the electric power industry and energy legislation, in numerous publications.

When asked why he is committed to DeSEK, he said:
"My interest in cancer research started after my wife was diagnosed with cancer. I have been working even more intensely
for this cause since her death."

Michael Beck

Deputy Chairman of the Board of Trustees

Michael Beck was born in 1947. After completing a commercial apprenticeship as a bank employee, he
went on to study business administration at the Universities of Münster and Berlin. Between 1976 and 1994
he worked for Barclays Bank Int. Ltd. in Düsseldorf. During this time he expanded the bank's business with
major customers in North-Rhine Westphalia, Northern Germany and the new German states. He was ap-
pointed Director of Barclays' Düsseldorf branch in 1980. In 1991 he was appointed Managing Director of
Barclays Bank PLC located in Frankfurt/Main and Düsseldorf. Since 1995 he has been a member of the
Board of Management of Sparkasse Essen, where his responsibilities include the entire sector of
corporate customers and the sectors of securities and financial investments.

When asked why he is investing his energies in DeSEK, Beck replied:
"As a long-term member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Sponsors of the Institute of Cell Biology (Cancer Research), I have come to realize that, although it is important to help people with cancer, it is just as important to support research on how cancer develops and how it can be prevented. I am happy to do my part to secure the funds required to finance basic research in this area."

Dr. Uwe Kirstein

Managing Director and Member of the Board of Trustees

Dr. Uwe Kirstein was born in 1944. As an undergraduate in biochemistry and biology at the University of
Tübingen, he got his first taste for scientific investigation at the Max Planck Institute of Virology (MPI) in
Tübingen, Germany. The research work he carried out in the Dept. of Physical Biology of the MPI served
as the basis for his Diplom thesis and later for his doctoral dissertation. He completed his Ph.D. in
chemistry at the University of Tübingen in 1976.

Together with Prof. Manfred F. Rajewsky, Kirstein built up the Institute of Cell Biology (Cancer Research)
Medical School, Essen, Germany, in the years 1975/1976. The Institute – known as the IFZ in German –
was the first institution of its kind at a medical school in Germany. Kirstein has participated in numerous national and
international research projects. Since 1987 he has been responsible, in particular, for research and development work
in the areas of cytometrics and image analysis at the IFZ. In 1991 he was appointed to the Board of Directors of IFZ-
Fördervereinigung e.V.; since 2003 he has also been a member of the Center for Medical Biotechnology at the University
of Duisburg-Essen.

When asked why he is putting his expertise and experience at the service of DeSEK, Dr. Kirstein stated:
"It is my personal conviction that further progress will be made in the battle against cancer in the near future only if basic
biomedical cancer research is carried out with the financial support of both the public and private sector. In keeping with
this conviction, I want to draw the public's attention, with the help of the foundation, to the urgency of supporting cancer
research. I am convinced that cancer research exploring the molecular and cellular origins of cancer in particular will
enable us to detect cancer at an earlier stage and offer our patients more targeted treatment."