Maribel Königer is Director of Journalism and Media at ERSTE Foundation in Vienna. She is responsible for the foundation's programmes supporting investigative journalism and public interest media in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. Since September 2023, she has represented ERSTE Foundation on the Pluralis supervisory board. Pluralis, a Dutch limited liability company managed by the Media Investment Development Fund, invests in media pluralism in CEE. Since 2024, Maribel has represented ERSTE Foundation as a shareholder and co-initiator in the Media Forward Fund, a fund for the development of new business models in media organisations of public interest in the DACH region. Maribel is member of the steering committee of Philea’s Journalism Funders Forum.

Maribel has a master's degree in art history and history. In the 1990s, she worked as an art critic and journalist in her native city of Munich and in Paris/France before changing sides and becoming the spokesperson for several international cultural events. She joined ERSTE Foundation in 2007 as head of the communications department and has been in charge of the media and journalism programme since 2017.

Photo credit: ERSTE Foundation/Peter M. Mayr

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