Advisory Board

The Advisory Board of the Metropolitan School Frankfurt consists of Enja Riegel, Thomas Braun, Waltraud Mertens and Veronica Ferres. Enja Riegel, Thomas Braun and Waltraud Mertens are all teachers/headteachers with 20 or more years experience and are excellently qualified to oversee the quality of the pre-school and primary school, their concepts and the organisation. The opinions of working families with kindergarten and/or school children are represented by Veronica Ferres. All board members were actively involved in designing our school concept and remain involved as educational experts for our continued development.

Thomas Braun has had 20 years experience as a teacher and school manager in state high schools ("Gymnasium") and in private schools. At present he is co-head of BBS Neuwied, the largest private vocational training school in Rheinland Pfalz where he focuses on internal management areas such as curriculum, personnel, quality control and timetabling 60 classes. His major responsibilities on the Board are personnel and organizational matters and legal school issues. Thomas Braun is our current Chairman of the MSF Advisory Board and as such coordinates the MSF Scholarship Programme review process.

Cornelia Donner joined our board as a US citizen living in Berlin. She has over 30 years experience in education at the secondary level, primarily in the United States where she headed the middle school of the Bryn Mawr School in Maryland. After moving to Berlin, she conducted a marketing study in the field of gifted education for an American university. In 2005, she became the founding head of the“Berlin Metropolitan School” which grew from 30 to 450 students in five years under her leadership. She is currently starting her own new international school which is scheduled to open in Berlin in August 2010.

Veronica Ferres, as a working mother, was confronted with the decision of which pre-school to choose for her daughter. She has been a successful actress on stage, film and TV both nationally and internationally for the last 20 years as well as a producer. Veronica Ferres has followed the concept development of the Metropolitan School through the eyes of a parent and will continue advising the school in parental affairs.

Waltraud Mertens has had over 25 years teaching experience and management experience as kindergarten head in kindergartens throughout Germany.
Following her university studies she taught education at a college in Neuss and later supervised various cities’ kindergarten networks and child day-care units as regulator ("Fachaufsicht für Kindergärten und Kitas"). She is responsible on our board for all kindergarten matters.

Enja Riegel has had a career involving establishing and heading various kindergartens, teaching in schools and working in school administration. Up until 2004 she was head of the Helene-Lange-School in Wiesbaden which was acclaimed as the best school in Germany in the 2003 PISA study. Since 2006 Mrs. Riegel has worked in a committee of 10 professors to select schools for the ‘German School Prize’, a prize which is being awarded yearly by the German President, Mr Köhler. On our board Mrs. Riegel continues to focus on our educational concept including Middle School..

Wolfgang Sietzy joins our Board with more than 20 years experience in business as a tax, accounting and legal expert (StB, Wp, RA). He is the owner of Sietzy & Coll., a mid-sized tax, accounting and legal practice in Bad Soden, focusing on “Mittelstands” clients. Following his early years with Arthur Andersen (now Ernst & Young) that is specialized in international taxation he started his own consulting business that also serves private schools like MSF. Mr. Sietzy is familiar with private schools from a professional client angle as well as a personal angle due to the fact his son spent his entire school life in large international schools.