Our guardians of order: the Board of Trustees shapes the strategic direction of the Sto Foundation and monitors the use of funds. What does it need for this? Experienced personalities from the fields of education, craftsmanship and architecture who are committed to volunteering with a vision in their heads and empathy in their hearts. They work together to support young people in an academic or craft context and to promote projects that enrich society in the long term. They also ensure that all of the foundation's activities serve exclusively and directly charitable purposes.
"Everyone always needs luck in their lives, a helping hand, someone who promotes talent, someone who „sees" commitment. If, in the case of young people, this is the Sto Foundation in one case or another, then we have done a good job. Young life in particular is not always a "highway", sometimes it's a "forest path". It's good to have someone who knows the way back onto the road."
Till Stahlbusch likes to get into conversation with each other. He appreciates good writing, Italy and paragliding. His large family and private commitment, which perhaps makes the world a little better and fairer, are important to him.
"Originally, I wanted to pursue a trade," reveals Carlo Stotmeister. "I was always fascinated by craftsmanship." But then he was tempted to learn the art of building by studying architecture. He lived in the United States for nine years before moving back to Munich, where he has been working as an architect since September 2020.
"Through my involvement in the Sto Foundation, I can combine the two professional fields. The foundation has set itself the goal of promoting young craftsmen in the finishing trade and students of architecture and connecting them through joint building projects. This is also close to my heart." Carlo Stotmeister will contribute his experience as an architect to the fourth area of support, project and research funding. "Apprentices and young students bring a lot of creativity with them, which we should encourage," he is convinced. "Our aim now is to network them with science in the next step. I would like to contribute my experience as an architect to this."
Christoph M. Stolz
Member of the Executive Board and Treasurer
Christoph M. Stolz has been a member of the Sto Foundation's Executive Board and Treasurer since the beginning of 2022. Originally from Baden-Württemberg, he lives and works in Berlin. In 2017, he took over the position of Head of Public Affairs/Association Affairs for Sto SE & Co. KGaA. Prior to this, he was office manager for members of the Bundestag in Berlin for several years. From 2012 to 2016, he worked in the Strategy & Policy division at the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW), which represents around 2,000 member companies.
"The Sto Foundation supports and inspires young people to train and during their training, in the form of scholarships or in specific projects. In this way, it makes a lively contribution to the promotion of young talent and to training and further education. I am impressed by the Sto Foundation's formats, such as the DenkmalCamp or at the Biennale, which bring young craftsmen and students together and thus increase mutual understanding of the different areas of responsibility, in line with our guiding principle of „Head & Hand“ at the Sto Foundation."
Anne Bambauer
Foundation Board Communications
"Over the years, the foundation's work has become a real affair of the heart for me. I meet many young talents through the projects. Our mission is to accompany these people on their professional path, open up opportunities and offer them the stage they deserve because of their talent and commitment."
Anne Bambauer is very familiar with the foundation's activities for talented young craftspeople and architecture students at home and abroad. Because "communication" is her thing above all, because she is a master of moderating and interviewing in front of and behind the camera, she has become "the face" of the foundation. At the beginning of 2021, Anne Bambauer was appointed to the Foundation as a member of the Board of Trustees for Communication because of her skills and commitment. She is also the PR manager of Sto SE&Co KGaA in Stühlingen, so to speak.
"In the future, it will be even more important to expand our network - to be able to pass on experience, to experience careers and perhaps orientate ourselves on them, to be integrated into a circle of peers who all want more than what they are doing at the moment."
In addition to her job, she has fulfilled her personal dream and lives together with her animals on a small Black Forest farm.
Ingeborg Totzke
Foundation Board Craft
"I have been associated with the painting and decorating trade for a very long time, both privately and professionally - as Managing Director, I have headed the Hesse State Association for Paint, Design and Building Protection in Frankfurt since 2004. I have also been involved in a number of voluntary activities for young tradespeople - in the region, throughout Germany and internationally. The trade really is in my blood - my father ran a medium-sized specialist painting business for a long time, and I was always able to help out at an early age."
My particular goals at the foundation? In addition to professional expertise, I want to work with my colleagues to focus on personality, social responsibility and the famous "thinking outside the box". Our foundation wants to promote excellence and focus on particularly talented, committed and imaginative young people, as well as those who are struggling with economic difficulties in their education. Here, too, we want to help wherever possible.
Prof. Ralf Pasel
Foundation Board Architecture
Prof. Ralf Pasel works as an architect on local design strategies and international projects with a focus on residential construction in the Netherlands and Germany. He is a founding partner of PASEL-K Architects Berlin and pasel.kuenzel architects Rotterdam and has been head of the Department of Design and Building Construction | CODE at TU Berlin since 2012. Since 2021, Professor Pasel has been responsible for the architecture division of the Sto Foundation and supports young people in pursuing extraordinary paths.
"Architecture fascinates me so much because it can make a decisive contribution to the sustainable design of our environment through creative processes and inspiring design. For me, considering this in the field of tension between teaching, research and practice represents an explicit added value that I would also like to actively promote as a member of the Board of Trustees. It is therefore a fundamental concern of mine to promote architecture as a cultural form - and to support young people in the complex implementation of their conceptual ideas into reality - from the first sketch to the built project - in cultural exchange and social interaction."