Jürgen Heyen-Perschon
Executive Director

Jürgen Heyen-Perschon is the Executive Director of ITDP Europe and has been working on transport issues in developing and developed countries for almost 15 years. He had previously worked as the African Regional Officer for ITDP US in New York.

His focus has been on transport planning, road safety, analyzing the relationship between transport and CO2 emissions, poverty alleviation, environmental protection, low-cost public and non-motorized transport, gender-related transport issues in rural and urban Africa, and the UN millennium development goals.

Jürgen has carried out long and short-term field studies (household based socio-economic research, project impact monitoring studies) in Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Senegal, Ghana, Botswana and South Africa. He has given lectures and trainings to transport ministries, municipalities,transport NGOs and universities in Germany and China. He has also worked as an urban transport consultant for the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ).

Jürgen received his PhD from the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in The Netherlands.

Gabrielle Hermann
Program Director

Gabrielle Hermann has a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy (M.A.L.D) from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and a Master of Arts (M.A) from Tufts University in Urban Planning and Environmental Policy. Her research focused on the advance of bus rapid transit (BRT) technology in South America and the results of her research were published in several journals. Since October 2005 she has been the Program Director of the Wohltorf-based Institute for Transportation and Development Policy Europe (ITDP Europe). Her programmatic efforts have been focused on sustainable land-use in Eastern Europe and Bus Rapid Transit in East Africa. Currently Gabrielle is cooperating on a road design and finance guidance document to support the global "10% Campaign" and is working on a best practices parking study.

Gabrielle serves on the Executive Board of the Czech-based Institute for Sustainable Development of Settlements (IURS) and the Steering Committee of the World Carfree Network.

Christof Hertel
Program Coordinator

Christof Hertel is a geographer and is finishing a PhD on the eco-social governance of international transport chains at the Hamburg University of Technology. At the same time, he has been a Project Coordinator at ITDP Europe since 2007. He is currently overseeing a research study that aims to identify and assess the CO2 reduction possibilities in freight transport in Europe.

Christof received his undergraduate degree and master's degree from the Free University of Berlin in Transport Science, Political Economy and Environmental Management. He wrote his master's thesis on the mobility problems resulting from the South African apartheid and how they could be overcome through bicycle use.

Sandra Thielisch
Program Coordinator

Sandra Thielisch has been working at ITDP Europe since 2009. She has primarily coordinate a health care and transport project in the northeast of Uganda, which aims to improve and enable access to health facilities for the rural population.  Additionally, she is responsible for administrative tasks at ITDP Europe.

Sandra is currently finishing her master's degree in environmental science with a specialization in environmental planning, communications and management. For the last few years, she has been an active member of the NABU (German Society for Nature Conservation) and the children's rights organization tdh (terre des homes).

Simon Fields
Program Assistant

Simon joined ITDP Europe as a transport programme assistant in July 2009. He graduated with a Masters in transport planning and policy in 2007, having specialised in the environmental and social impacts of travel. His dissertation examined the use of personal carbon allowances to reduce CO2 emissions from transport. Simon also sits on the steering committee of the World Carfree Network and is an organiser of the 2010 Towards Carfree Cities conference.