The Management Board

The BGE is represented by three managing directors.


Iris Graffunder

Iris Graffunder – Chair of the Management Board

Iris Graffunder has been Chair of the Management Board of the BGE since 2024. Prior to that, she was firstly Technical Managing Director and then, from 2021 onwards, Chair of the Management Board of Kerntechnische Entsorgung Karlsruhe (KTE).

Graffunder studied radiation protection and has spent her entire professional career working on the dismantling of nuclear facilities and the disposal of radioactive waste. At the BGE, she is responsible for site selection for the repository for high-level radioactive waste, product control, finances and communication.


Marlis Koop – Managing Director and Labour Director

Marlis Koop has been Managing Director and Labour Director at the BGE since 2024. Before joining the Management Board of the BGE, she was Head of Labour Relations at TÜV NORD GROUP.

At the BGE, she will accompany the process of generational change in the workforce and focus primarily on recruiting specialists in the area of final disposal. An expert in human resources, she is also responsible for materials management and information and communication technology at the BGE.

Marlis Koop


Dr. Thomas Lautsch

Dr. Thomas Lautsch – Technical Managing Director

Dr. Thomas Lautsch is a graduate engineer for mining. Before becoming Managing Director of the Deutsche Gesellschaft zum Bau und Betrieb von Endlagern für Abfallstoffe mbH (DBE) in 2014, he held various management positions in both national and international mining. At the DBE, he was responsible for technical areas of the group of companies.

Since 2018, he has been Technical Managing Director of the BGE, where he is responsible for the Konrad and Morsleben repositories as well as the Asse II and Gorleben mines. He has also been assigned the cross-divisional area of technology.

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