Eveline Lemke


Eveline Lemke is former German politician and member of the Alliance 90/The Greens. From 18 May 2011 until 18 May 2016 she was vice minister president of Rhineland-Palatinate and Minister for Economics, Climate Protection, Energy and Regional Planning. On 27 March 2011 she was elected into the Landtag of Rhineland-Palatinate. She was the leading candidate for her party in the 2016 Rhineland-Palatinate state elections along with The Greens faction leader in the Landtag, Daniel Köbler, after having been leader of the party since 2006. As vice minister president Eveline Lemke represented the state of Rhineland-Palatinate in the German Bundesrat. As author and speaker in green technological issues and Circular Economy she founded Thinking Circular in 2017. This thinktank is listed in the Sustainable Development Goals Help Desk, a platform by the United Nations since July 2018. She is also working as consultant together with Prof. Michael Braungart, chemist and inventor of the design philosophy Cradle-to-Cradle, Martin Lees and David Wortmann. Lemke is married and has four adult children and one grand child. She is living in Bad Bodendorf.

Before politics

The father of Eveline Lemke, Dietrich Lemke, was leader of GEW, a teachers union in Hamburg, whose brother Willi Lemke was Senator in Bremen and Manager Werder Bremen, a famous soccer-club, and later serving as United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Sport for Development and Peace. He was appointed to the position by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on 18 March 2008.
Lemke graduated in high-school 1981 in Burlington /USA and got her German Abitur 1984 in Hamburg, where she added a diploma as Assistant in Foreign Languages in 1985 and a dual training as a steel merchant, which she finished at Carl Spaeter GmbH in 1987. Then she worked for DEUMU Deutsche Erz- und Metall-Union in the steel and scrap business as assistant for the management. She then signed in for studying economics and management at the University in Hannover and finished with Vordiplom in 1993. After a family phase, raising children she entered business life again in 2000, working as consultant for ELZ and for the Green Party Hochtaunuskreis, was elected head of party in Hochtaunuskreis and entered local parliaments there before becoming head of the party in Rhineland-Palatinate in 2006 and entering Landtag of Rhineland-Palatinate and the government in 2011.
Lemke focused on the energy turnaround, renewable energies, land-planning strategies for renewable energies, the founding of an energy agency and innovation strategy for Rhineland-Palatinate. In the center of her work in the Ministry for economy, climate protection, Energy and Landplannin was a resource-effective industrial policy, the lack of qualified workers, dual training, sustainability and climate protection. Under her leadership an index for well-being was installed.
In 2015 she was elected as head of campaign for running Landtagswahl 2016 together with Daniel Köbler. The Green party entered parliament with 5,3 %. Lemke did not become member of the following governmental coalition between Social Democrats, Liberals and Greens. She stayed one more year in parliament and left in March 2017, followed by Katharina Binz.

After politics

Eveline Lemke was elected as president of the private Karlshochschule International University in Karlsruhe in December 2016 for a period of 8 years. Lemke was elected also to enter the advisory board of ABO-Wind in 2017. In 2017 she finished thesis at the University of Hannover „Zur Bedeutung des Upgrading von Elektroalt- und Gebrauchtgeräten in Deutschland“. She in carrying BSc for economics and management. She left Karlshochschule in July 2017 and founded her own consulting company and thinktank Thinking Circular, which became listed on the Sustainable Development Goals Help Desk in July 2018.

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