Kirsten Westphal is member of the Main Management Board of the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW).

She is also a Senior Energy Analyst at the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP) and the Executive Director of H2Global Stiftung, where she leads the Research and Analysis Department. Additionally, she serves as an External Advisor to the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a member of the National Hydrogen Council, and Vice-President of the Hydrogen Council of the German state of Baden-Württemberg.

She was a member of the expert panel of the Global Commission on the Geopolitics of Energy Transformation, promoted by the assembly of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), and contributed to the commission’s report ‘A New World’, published in 2019. She has extensively published on international energy relations and the EU’s external energy relations.

She holds a PhD in Political Science and International Relations from the Justus Liebig University Giessen.