Blue Riband Society’s Board of Directors
Robert Helbig is the Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the BRS. He is a German student at American University in Washington D.C., majoring in international relations. Robert has gained experiences in politics through his engagement with the Junge Union and the College Republicans, as well as through his work in the German Bundestag and the U.S. House of Representatives. He has also been involved in a number of think tanks and advocacy groups dealing with transatlantic relations and conservatism. Robert also spent four months in India where he worked on a NATO-India project. He is a reserve of the German army and plans to work for the German government after completing his graduate studies.
Todd Carney is a Member of the Board of Directors of the BRS. He is from Illinois and a student at American University. Todd has interned for several Conservative organizations along with several Republican candidates. He served as President of American University College Republicans for the 2011-2012 school year.
BRS Executive Team
Eftychis John Gregos-Mourginakis is the Executive Director of the BRS. He has served as a Senior Advisor to the U.S. Senate Campaign of financier and TV personality Peter Schiff and as the Campaign Manager for Republican Congressional Candidate Rick Torres. He is the President & CEO of Ivory Elephant Consulting, LLC, a political strategy firm. He is currently advising The Fund for Inquiry into the Morality of Capitalism a program led by John Allison, Chairman of BB&T, to Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged to college classrooms around the country. He is a graduate of the American University School of International Service with a concentration in international economics and Europe. He is a native of Greenwich, CT and a current resident of Washington, DC.
Joshua Jacobs is the Treasurer of the BRS. He is also a Gulf Policy Analyst and published columnist currently working at the Institute for Gulf Affairs. Joshua has published and co-authored papers on Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Oman, with a special emphasis on Saudi Arabia and energy policy. He has worked at numerous think tanks and policy organizations dealing with both foreign policy and conservative politics. As BRS’s London coordinator in early 2011, Joshua worked to help establish BRS’s British connections and relationships. Joshua studied International Politics at American University with a concentration in US Foreign Policy and the Middle East.
Nick Wenker is the Editor-in-Chief of the BRS. He is a twenty-five year-old Swiss-American dual citizen and a member of the BRS Leadership Board. He obtained his B.A. in German and European Diplomacy at the University of Texas and has worked for a U.S. Congressman, a Texas State Representative, and a member of the Bavarian Parliament. In 2009 he also worked for half a year at the German Parliament in Berlin as one of the ten Americans accepted annually for the I.P.S. fellowship program. His involvement with conservative politics includes co-founding a chapter of the Young Republicans, writing political columns for the Houston Chronicle, and serving on the William F. Buckley Jr. Youth Leadership Council of the Council for National Policy (CNP). Nick completed  his M.A. in Political Science as a part of the TransAtlantic Masters Program conducted between U.N.C.-Chapel Hill, the Free University-Berlin, and Humboldt University-Berlin.
BRS Berlin Committee
Gerrit Kettel is Chairman and Communications Director of the Berlin Committee. He is a postgrad-student at the John-F.-Kennedy Institute of the Free University Berlin. In his studies, he focuses on American Politics and history. Gerrit holds a BA degree in North American Studies and has written his thesis on Anti-Americanism in Europe. He has gained work experience with the German Bundestag, the Friedrich Naumann Foundation’s Transatlantic Dialogue Program as well as with various public-relations agencies. Gerrit supports the BRS  to foster the dialogue between young Germans and Americans in order to save the good relationship between the two countries.
F.W. Horst is co-Chairman of the Berlin Committee. He is a freelancing consultant and published author specializing in Salafism, radicalization in Europe and security policy. He received his MA in Government from the IDC Herzliya in Israel and studied in Leipzig, Damascus and Haifa.
Marc Schütz co-chairs the Berlin Committee. He is currently pursuing his master’s degree in political science at the Free University of Berlin. He focuses on international relations, European politics as well as energy and climate policy. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Technical University of Darmstadt. His thesis dealt with the European Union’s external relations. He also studied at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. Marc gained practical experience with the European Commission, the German Bundestag as well as with think tanks focussing on  energy and climate policies as well as conflict and cooperation issues.
BRS Bavaria Coordinator
Norman Blevins is a German-American citizen living in the Free State of Bavaria (Germany) and having been engaged in politics and transatlantic issues for almost 15 years. He made his first semi-professional political experiences in 2002 when he was elected to the city council of his residence Windsbach. He was re-elected in 2008 and is now acting minority leader. Besides his local engagement, he is currently county chair and deputy district chair of the Junge Union in Middle Franconia. In 2005 he founded the German-American Society of West Middle Franconia (DAG-WMF). Backed by this experience he now gets engaged within the BRS to establish the institution in Bavaria. Norman Blevins graduated as business informatic at the university of applied sciences in Ansbach and is employed at the Department of “Organizations, Information Processing and Central Services” of the City of Nuremberg.