Ambassador (ret.) Wolfgang Ischinger was Chairman of the Munich Security Conference from 2008 until 2022 and is now President of the Munich Security Conference Foundation Council.

He has a law degree from the University of Bonn and Geneva and continued his studies at Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and Harvard Law School. In 1973 he joined the staff of the Secretary-General of the United Nations in New York, moving from there to the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany. In 1998 he was appointed Deputy Foreign Minister.

He serves on the boards and advisory boards of numerous companies as well as non-profit-institutions, including Atlantik-Brücke/Berlin, the American Academy/Berlin, and the Atlantic Council of the United States/Washington D.C. Furthermore, he is member of the Advisory Boards of several international businesses.