Kristian Brakel heads the East Asia Regional Office of the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung since July 2023. 

He joined Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung in 2015 as Country Director for Turkey, where he directed the work of the foundation in Istanbul for 8 years. Kristian originally has an expertise focused on the Middle East and East Africa, where he worked for several years in different capacities in countries like Palestine, Israel, Sudan and the UAE for the UN, the EU and the German Foreign Service.

When he is not busy with politics he loves cats, martial arts, board games and electronic music. While in East Asia he is still trying to get used to the way Korean taxi drivers drive, but loves Korean and Japanese food.