The Secretariat

The Departments


Secretary General

Benedikt Manzinger

B.A. Philosophy & Economics

Having participated within various MUNs and MAUs as delegate and chairperson but also within other more content-based, educational conferences, Benedikt´s vision is to establish a conference that gives the participants the possibility to debate important topics but also to receive input from experts on their fields. He believes that MAU 2017 has the perfect mixture. Having had the extraordinary experience of the MAU Conference 2016, he knows about the huge potential this event has.

Deputy Secretary General

Anita Besch

M.A. Language interaction & Culture

Since 2016 Anita is the first secretary of the MAU Bayreuth association, her bachelor degree in anthropology focused on African culture. Now within her masters she continues to pursue her interest in African culture within the MAU association. Having participated within MUN and MAU conferences already including the MAU Bayreuth Conference of 2016, she especially wants to shape and advance the cultural programme of our conference.

Advisor for Conflict Management

Michelle Epps

B.A. Ethnology, Sociology

The Conflict Management is responsible for retaining a peaceful atmosphere in that every member of the Model African Union Organization Team and every participant of the Model African Union Conference feels comfortable to fulfill his/her tasks. Therefore the office of the Conflict Management offers different services in order to prevent the escalation of conflicts and resolve them.

Contact: advisor@modelafricanunion.de

Legal Affairs Officer

Alexander Loehr

Law with focus on state and administrative law

Alex is currently just before graduating in his law degree and advices the secretariat in legal stuff in such a structured, relevant and clear way that makes him the unambiguous German jurist he is and wants to be. Whenever he raises his voice during the meetings, the crowd strains their ears in order to benefit from this man´s wisdom.

Advisor for Sustainability and Diversity

Fiona Ecker

B.A. African Development Studies in Geography and Economics

As a founding member of MAU and the former treasurer of the association, this year, Fiona is especially in charge of making our conference greener. Whenever possible she thinks about sustainable alternatives – for the future of our planet. At the same time, Fiona’s aim is to have an inclusive and diverse conference with people of different nations, educational backgrounds …and life stories. This is not always an easy task as sometimes the objectives are conflicting. She worked hard but is not fully satisfied with the ecological outcome.

External Advisor of the Secretary Generals

Nidia Hernandez

B.A. International Relations

Having chaired the Peace and Security Council within the MAU Conference 2016, Nidia knows about the shape and structure of our conference despite currently living in her home country Mexico. She has participated as delegate, chair and organiser within uncountable conferences all around the globe including her own Conference in Tijuana, Mexico, as the Secretary General and helps us in bringing up new perspectives. Fun fact: Held a speech within the UN General Assembly with only 20 years. We´re impressed.

Undersecretary General for PR

Undersecretary General for PR

Thierry Boudjekeu

M.A. Romance philology

The first impression of this inspiring young man you will have is that he does not talk and act within reasonable steps but within visions. Further following the cliché of a creative artist, he does not talk often but if he does, it will take ages until he stops. Nobody knows how he manages with his masters degree, his translation agency in his mother country Cameroon and his commitment as the USG of PR within the MAU conference and we are thankful for such an experienced maverick.

Undersecretary General for PR

Rufine Songue

M.A. Literature and Media Studies

Rufine has been a MAU member since its very creation. She is from Cameroon and feels like to extend her knowledge on the political, social and economic challenges of the African countries within MAU. She participated within the MAU Conference 2016 as chairperson of the ACHPR Committee. Having sufficient knowledge from her studies on public relations, Rufine is acting as the PR manager of our conference.

Sara Fortmann

B.A. African languages, literatures and arts

As the USG of Logistics of the MAU Conference 2016, Sara knows what is going on within the organisation of the MAU Conference and also what should be going on. It is really hard to imagine what our secretariat meetings would be without her critical comments.

Andras Breuer

B.A. African Development Studies in Geography

Andras initially was assigned to be a part of the admissions department but as soon as his creative skills were revealed he moved to the PR department quite quickly. It is him that is doing the design and best corporate identity ever and the secretariat loves him for that. He stayed in Ghana for over one year after graduating from school. He is interested in the political and economic development of the African countries.

Undersecretary General for Admissions

Undersecretary General for Admissions

Joan Gouverne

B.A. Philosophy & Economics

Having participated within the MAU Conference 2016 as a delegate and having joined the organisation of the European Youth Conference 2015, the Open Source Economy Days 2015 and the National Youth Climate Conference in Lyon 2015, Joan has the vision and brings the necessary know-how to reach the next step for the MAU Conference, to make it more international and also more content-based. Having him as the USG for Admissions, I would rather boost my application as that guy is really picky!

General Advisor

Melanie Gebhard

M.A. Culture and Society in Africa

Melanie was the Secretary General of our MAU Conference 2016 and otherwise participated within many, probably too many, MUN Conferences all around Europe. Having travelled many African countries, being partially grown up in Kenya and speaking 8 languages, she is the embodiment of internationality. That’s why we can not think of a better team member for our admissions team.
Department of Admissons

Lars Springfield

B.A. African Development Studies in Geography

Being an ambitious and curious student at the best university for African studies in Germany, Lars wants to extend his knowledge on the countries of Africa with his MAU involvement. But Lars sometimes just focuses on the wrong stuff: He spent his entire gap year as a volunteering English teacher in Tanzania on the foot of the Kilimanjaro having never actually climbed it.

Julia Marie

B.A. African Development Studies in Geography

As a fresher, Julia just started her bachelor degree and has actually never heard about the MAU or MUN concept ever before but as she appreciates the possibility of cultural exchange and political discussion, she is really excited about it.

Department of Admission

Lisa Runge

B.A. Social Anthropology and African Development Studies in Geography

Lisa had the chance to participate within the MAU Conference 2016. She was inspired by this huge event and wants to use her time and expertise from her studies on creating an even better, greater and more international conference.

Undersecretary General for Culture

Ange Gaelle Songué Mouaha

B.A. African Development Studies in Geography

As the heads of the department of education of the MAU association, Ange normally works on relevant content and not on boring stuff like the organisation of social events. But as it is about cultural social events here, Ange is just the perfect person in charge. As she is from Africa from the country Cameroon, she also knows African culture and therefore is able to organise cultural events. Fair enough.

Department of Culture

Cécile Ndew Diouf

B.A. African Development Studies in Geography

Having already graduated in her masters degree in her mother country Senegal, many people think she´s crazy starting her studies within a whole different subject now at Bayreuth University. But if that means that we have her as a member in our culture department, we really like this idea.

Department of Culture

Paul Lindner

B.A. African Development Studies in Geography

Being inspired by idea of simulating official conferences, Paul used the first weeks of his studies in order to explore the MUN universe and cannot wait to realise the final structures of our conference.

Undersecretary General for Finance

Undersecretary General for Finance

Lucas Boller

B.A. Philosophy & Economics

Being the certainly most rational guy with the team, that guy really knows his stuff. And he has to, as it is him who lays the foundations for realising all the fantastic ideas brought forward by the secretariat. Lucas spends his leisure time – from which he has very few, at least he always tells us – with creating memes of his fellows in the secretariat.

Department of Finance

Sofie Reinl

B.A. Social Anthropology and African Development Studies in Geography

Sofie has participated within various conferences so far including the MAU Conference 2016. That unprecedented experience gave and gives her motivation to face the challenges of organising the next conference and make her look forward to it. She has spent her gap year on Cape Verde within a project for protecting marine wildlife and as the social anthropologist cliché goes on, she of course wants run her own eco farm one day.

Finance Department

Benjamin Herrnsdorf

B.A. African Development Studies in Geography

With his former architectural expertise, Benni is able to set the foundations for a construction of funds that will build up the conference financially. Also during his previous architecture studies and other engagements he went for visits and an internship to South Africa, Angola and Rwanda. Benni is convinced that – if the industrialised countries were to treating the African countries more respectfully – our future would be an exciting future to imagine.

Undersecretary General for Logistics

Undersecretary General for Logistics

Lukas Fehrmann

B.A. Philosophy & Economics

Having organised a major conference at Bayreuth University as the project head only recently, Lukas is perfectly aware of the logistic necessities a conference at our venue has to fulfil and with this guy in charge logistics will just be run smoothly and perfectly prepared. The secretariat is regularly impressed how this guy is able to influence decisions of other people only by changing the manner of talking to them. Crazy guy.

Undersecretary General for IT

Undersecretary General for IT

Jan Strohmeier

B.A. German philology, Sociology

It took some time for the Secretary General to convince his good friend Jan to join the secretariat. Jan initially hesitated as this really creative guy prefers to spend his leisure time with radio projects, theatre acting and singing in the Swahili Choir. But when we said that he could set up a whole webpage on its own and let his creativity take its course, he said yes. Look at the webpage: It´s his merit.