Board of
Advisors

Dr. Gerlinde Niehus is an independent NATO and international security expert, author and speaker.
She can draw on more than 25 years of leadership, management and innovation experience in multilateral diplomacy, gained in particular at NATO and the European Commission. From 2019 until mid-2024, Gerlinde served at NATO Headquarters in Brussels as Deputy Director for Defence and Security Cooperation with NATO partner countries. In this capacity she oversaw NATO's practical cooperation with NATO’s currently 35 partner nations worldwide. These range, for example, from Ukraine and Georgia, via Serbia and Bosnia Herzegovina, to Jordan, Iraq or Colombia. The cooperation seeks to strengthen crisis prevention and to better empower partners through reforms in the defence and security sector.
In previous positions at NATO Headquarters, Gerlinde reformed and managed NATO’s Communications Services (2003-2012), where she was responsible for all NATO publishing work online and in print, and NATO’s Public Relations Services (2012-2019), where she guided NATO’s engagement with audiences in all NATO nations and NATO partner countries across the globe.
Gerlinde Niehus holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from Muenster University, Germany. She is a member of Women in International Security (WIIS), as well as alumni of the London Business School and the Friedrich-Naumann-Foundation.