Advisory Board Spokesperson. Inspections and catalogue evaluation: Prof. Dr. Antonio Juárez Medina was born in the province of Granada (Spain). He studied political science, economics, history and romance philology in Paris, Strasbourg, Madrid and Bamberg (doctorate 1986).
Since September 1991 he has been a professor in the Department of Spanish for Business and Tourism (linguistics, cultural studies, political science, social studies, tourism and economic geography of the Spanish-speaking world) at the Heilbronn University of Applied Sciences. Prof. Dr Juárez-Medina teaches at several different universities and educational organisations, e.g. in Germany, Spain, Argentina, Uruguay, France, Italy and the UK. He was a co-founder of the research group SLEST (Standard Linguistico Europeo per il Settore Turistico, Rome).
He has been a member of the FDSV’s Scientific Advisory Board since 2007. In this role, he evaluates the language tours and courses offered by the FDSV members and their partner schools to verify compliance with the European standard EN 14804. Since 2012 he has also been responsible for coordinating the annual “language-stay analysis” of the Association of German Language-Tour Operators (FDSV), Berlin.
Inspections and catalogue evaluation: Prof. Dr. Olaf Bärenfänger is Director of the Language Center at Leipzig University. He has authored numerous publications on competence diagnostics, e-learning and the role of language in education. As a member of the Evaluation Commission of the German Federal Ministry of the Interior, he advises the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees on all issues related to language training and civic education. Olaf Bärenfänger has taught at universities in Germany, the United States, China, Portugal and Switzerland. His numerous lecture tours have taken him to Russia, Finland, Hungary, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Italy, France, Turkey, Bahrain, China, Korea, Canada, the US, Mexico and Brazil.
Inspections and catalogue evaluation: Prof. Dr. Britta Bergemann is a Professor of International Marketing with extensive experience in global education. She held teaching positions at Heilbronn University and Furtwangen University, where she also served as Vice Rector for International Relations and Director of the international MBA program. She founded and led MBA programs in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Tajikistan, where she also regularly taught. In addition to this, her teaching and lecture engagements took her to China, Russia, Tunisia, and Vietnam.
Before transitioning to academia, she held an executive role at Aegis Media, now Dentsu, one of the world’s largest communications agencies headquartered in London.
Since 2017, she has been a member of the scientific advisory board of FDSV, focusing on evaluating member offerings and shaping the association’s marketing strategy.
