Joachim Jens Hesse, Professor of Comparative Government and European Policy, Dr. rer. pol. (Köln), Dr. h.c. (Brno), Dipl.-Volkswirt (Berlin), M.A. (Oxon.), Chairman/Executive Director of the International Institute for Comparative Government and European Policy (ISE), Berlin.

• Undergraduate/graduate studies (economics, law, political science) at Berlin, Göttingen, Kiel and Köln Universities.
• Postgraduate research at New York University and Harvard University.

1968–1972	Research Associate at the Kommunalwissenschaftliches Forschungszentrum Berlin.
1973–1976	Professor of Administrative Science and Public Policy at the University of Konstanz (Chair).
1976–1983	Professor (Political Science and Public Administration) at the University of Duisburg/Düsseldorf (Chair).
1983–1989	Professor at the Deutsche Hochschule für Verwaltungswissenschaften Speyer (German Post-Graduate School of Administrative Sciences, Speyer; Chair).
1987–1990	Visiting Professor at the College of Europe, Bruges, Belgium.
1989–1997	Ford-Monnet-Professor of European Institutions and Comparative Government, University of Oxford (Chair); Official Fellow, Nuffield College.
1991–1994	Founding Director of the Centre for European Studies, Nuffield College, University of Oxford.
Since 1997	Professor (Political Science and Public Administration) at the Free University of Berlin (Chair).
1997–2001	Founding Director of the European Centre for Comparative Government and Public Policy, established by the three Berlin Universities.
Since 2001	Chairman/Executive Director of the International Institute for Comparative Government and European Policy (ISE), Berlin.
Since 2008	Doctor honoris causa, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.

Other professional activities: Senior Consultant to the OECD (since 1970), the European Union (since 1988), the United Nations (since 1991), the International Labour Office (since 1992), and the World Bank (since 1995). Member of the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation, the Academia Europaea and Fellow at several Institutes for Advanced Study. 2006/07 Guest Professor at the Graduate School of Law and Politics, Tokyo University

Main areas of research: Comparative government; public sector development in comparative perspective; public management; European politics; the governmental systems of the Federal Republic of Germany, other Western industrialised countries, and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe; processes of federalisation and regionalisation within unitary and federal state systems.