CIOPORA Team | ciopora

Meet CIOPORA

CIOPORA Administrative Team

Dr. Edgar Krieger

Secretary General

Dr. Krieger has extensive experience in the field of Intellectual Property Protection for plant innovation and has held the position of the CIOPORA Secretary General since 2004. Before CIOPORA, Dr. Krieger worked as a lawyer at an international law firm specializing in IP protection, particularly Plant Breeder's Rights, advising agricultural breeders in several hundred court cases up to the European Court of Justice. Dr. Krieger holds a law degree from the University of Bonn and a degree in business administration from the Aachen University of Applied Sciences. He completed his doctoral dissertation on the topic "Farmers' Exemption in Germany" at the Philipps University of Marburg.

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Stella Negraes

Executive Assistant

Stella Negraes, who is originally from Brazil, has been living and working in Hamburg, Germany, for over 20 years. In the course of her career, Stella has worked at BASF as well as the Consulates of Portugal and Brazil in Hamburg. In 2009, Stella joined the CIOPORA office as an Executive Assistant to Secretary General. At CIOPORA, Stella is in charge of event management, bookkeeping and member relations. Stella is fluent in English, German, Portuguese and Spanish.

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Micaela Filippo

Legal Counsel

Micaela Filippo works as a Legal Counsel at CIOPORA. Micaela holds a law degree from the Universidad de Mendoza, Argentina, where she focused on business law. At CIOPORA, Micaela is in charge of legal and policy analysis and is taking lead on a number of new and ongoing projects, including enforcement actions and the Minimum Distance study, to name just a few. She also monitors and reports to CIOPORA members on the IP-related legal developments in Latin America. In 2018, Ms. Filippo graduated from Leuphana University of Lueneburg with a Master's degree in public economics, law, and politics. She is fluent in Spanish, Italian, German, and English.

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Anna Kaehne

Director PR & Communications

Anna Kaehne, currently in her second tenure for CIOPORA, heads CIOPORA's communications. After launching CIOPORA's public outreach between 2011 and 2015, Ms Kaehne ventured to gain further experiences in her field producing magazines for a Hamburg based publisher and being responsible for media and public relations at an international association in the field of education research. Anna studied law in her native Kharkov, Ukraine, and holds a M.A. in Slavic and American Studies from the University of Magdeburg, Germany. She is fluent in English, German, and Russian.

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Katrin Huhnholz

Project Manager / CIOPORA Academy

At the CIOPORA Office, Katrin is in charge of the CIOPORA Academy program. Born and raised in Germany, Katrin is an experienced event manager and PR professional. She started her career organizing large-scale trade fairs in Argentina and later worked for a sports photography agency, the Italian designer brand Alessi and Reemtsma in Hamburg. Katrin’s choice of profession truly reflects her personality and early academic interests: being fluent in Dutch, English, German, French, and Spanish, she has always been fond of languages, human communication, and intercultural cooperation. Katrin holds a degree in European Studies from the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

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Stephanie Mitzschke

Student Team Assistant - Member relations

As a student team assistant, Stephanie Mitzschke supports CIOPORA with member/supporter acquisition, translations and organizational . She has been studying Business Administration majoring in Marketing (BA) at the University of Applied Sciences Würzburg/Schweinfurt and is in the process of transferring to the University of Hamburg, Germany. Due to her ancestry, Stephanie is fluent in English, German, Mandarin, and Cantonese.

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CIOPORA Trainee Program

Are you a young lawyer, political scientist, IP consultant, biologist or agronomist seeking to expand your knowledge of global horticulture and understanding of Intellectual Property (IP) protection for plants, to learn about international lobby work and policy analysis? Apply for a traineeship at CIOPORA and gain valuable insights into the role IP plays in guaranteeing sustainability and continuous innovation in the plant world today.

We offer traineeships to qualified candidates on flexible terms at our office in Hamburg, Germany. Apply to join our international team by submitting your application letter and CV in PDF-format via email to micaela.filippo@ciopora.org.

Meanwhile, check out what our past trainees have to say about their time at our office:

Elisabeth Doody

Plant Sciences Student, University of California Davis

"Joining CIOPORA as a student trainee remains one of the most professionally and personally meaningful experiences of my young career. Working at the intersection of biology and business, the CIOPORA team supports plant breeders as they face a rapidly evolving landscape. While at CIOPORA, I had the opportunity to study China’s emergence as a biotechnology superpower, analyze the regulatory ambiguity surrounding New Breeding Techniques, and evaluate how pending legislation will affect the horticulture industry.

It was an honor to work alongside the CIOPORA staff- a creative and passionate team that brings compassion and professionalism to everything they do. I am grateful for the time I spent with CIOPORA and will benefit from what I learned for many years to come."