Stephan Welk (born 23 December 1967 in

Korbach Korbach (pronunciation: ˈkoːɐˌbax), officially the Hanseatic City of Korbach (German: Hansestadt Korbach), is the district seat of Waldeck-Frankenberg in northern Hesse, Germany. It is over a thousand years old and is located on the German Timb ...

) is a German

business economist Business economics is a field in applied economics which uses economic theory and quantitative methods to analyze business enterprises and the factors contributing to the diversity of organizational structures and the relationships of firms with ...

and

diplomat A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or internati ...

. He has been in the Diplomatic Service of African countries such as São Tomé and Príncipe since 2015 and

Central African Republic The Central African Republic (CAR; ; , RCA; , or , ) is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to the north, Sudan to the northeast, South Sudan to the southeast, the DR Congo to the south, the Republic of the C ...

since 7 February 2018.

Early life and education

Welk was born in

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

. After graduating from high school, he studied business and economy in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

and

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. He went on to complete his Doctorate in Economics on the topic "Possibilities of overcoming bottlenecks and rehabilitation in the crisis management of medium - sized enterprises".

Career

By 2003, he worked for financing and reconstructing small and middle size companies and was an advisor for the Government of

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the Capital city, capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is th ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkm ...

and the

Gaddafi Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, . Due to the lack of standardization of transcribing written and regionally pronounced Arabic, Gaddafi's name has been romanized in various ways. A 1986 column by ''The Straight Dope'' lists 32 spelling ...

family. During his time as CEO of Pro Consult AG, he prepared the acquisition of Weserbank AG in Frankfurt for the SAT & Co AG Group in Kazakhstan. Later, he became a member of the management board of the oil and energy group of SAT & Co AG Kazakhstan.

From 2007 onwards, he was focused in consultancy of governments such as Sao Tomé e Principe,

Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Ma ...

Burundi Burundi (, ), officially the Republic of Burundi ( rn, Repuburika y’Uburundi ; Swahili: ''Jamuhuri ya Burundi''; French: ''République du Burundi'' ), is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley at the junction between the African Gr ...

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...

and

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics ...

followed in the area of finance and consultations in the diplomatic service. In 2015, Welk was appointed as a Special Advisor of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Diplomatic Service of São Tomé and Príncipe. He works in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs first under the Minister H.E. Manuel Salvador dos Ramos (Minister of Foreign Affairs) and now of the current Foreign Minister, H.E. Urbino Botelho (Minister of Foreign Affairs) in the Diplomatic Service. He is the head of the office in Europe. On 7 February 2018 Welk was appointed Ambassador-at-Large of the

. He also acts as a Special Advisor to the President of the Republic and as a Head of Economic Mission of the Republic.

Press

The Press described Welk as a lobbyist in the diplomatic service. He linked China and Japan investors to the governments, as well as internationals networkers such as

David Arkless David Edwin Wilson Arkless (born February 1954) is a British businessman, the former president of both CDI Corporation and ManpowerGroup. Early life Arkless studied at the University of Durham, where he read for a BA in General Studies. He subs ...

to Africa. There is a close link between Welk and the world market price for

cocoa Cocoa may refer to: Chocolate * Chocolate * ''Theobroma cacao'', the cocoa tree * Cocoa bean, seed of ''Theobroma cacao'' * Chocolate liquor, or cocoa liquor, pure, liquid chocolate extracted from the cocoa bean, including both cocoa butter and ...

. Several TV stations produced documentaries on Welk, his diplomatic activities and São Tomé e Príncipe, such as the

ORF ORF or Orf may refer to: * Norfolk International Airport, IATA airport code ORF * Observer Research Foundation, an Indian research institute * One Race Films, a film production company founded by Vin Diesel * Open reading frame, a portion of t ...

Honorary appointments

In São Tomé e Príncipe, he supports the Universidade de São Tomé e Príncipe and allows students, in collaboration with the foreign language department of the university, to visit the University of Münster for 4 weeks a year. In October 2017, Welk was awarded a ''Grand Cross of the Royal Order of the Lion of Rwanda'' by

Emmanuel Bushayija Emmanuel Bushayija (born 20 December 1960) is the titular King of Rwanda. He was proclaimed the ceremonial successor to the royal title ('' Mwami'') on 9 January 2017 under the reign name Yuhi VI. He succeeded his late uncle King Kigeli V and is ...

, holder of the custom title ''King Yuhi VI of Rwanda''. Since Rwanda is a republic and there is no official position as ''King of Rwanda'', this award is of no diplomatic or political relevance.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Welk, Stephan 1967 births Living people German economists German diplomats