Thorsten Mehles | CEO

Thorsten Mehles has been CEO of Prevent AG since it was founded in August 2002.
Before moving into consultancy, Thorsten Mehles was head of the Organized Crime Unit at Hamburg’s central CID-office, the Landeskriminalamt, from October 2000 till January 2002. After that, he held the same position in the German Intelligence Service Agency, the Bundesnachrichtendienst.
He was awarded a Bachelor’s degree in Public Administration (Diplom-Verwaltungswirt), gained a diploma as “Certified Trainer of the Association of European Police Colleges (AEPC)” and successfully completed the “European Senior Detective Course” at the National Police Training College in Bramshill, Great Britain. Thorsten Mehles has many years of national and international experience in developing and implementing anti-corruption and compliance programs in economic enterprises.

 

Lutz Krüger | Member of the Board

Lutz Krüger has a Bachelor of Public Administration and has been a member of the management with Prevent AG since August 2002, a member of the board since January 2009.
Lutz Krüger was with the homicide unit of Hamburg’s central CID-office, the Landeskriminalamt, and headed a special unit fighting corruption within the Hamburg Ministry of the Interior. In 2002, he implemented and subsequently headed a special unit within the Organized Crime department of the Landeskriminalamt Hamburg.
He created special seminars which were implemented in the program of the Hamburg Administration. Amongst his duties was lecturing throughout Germany on corruption prevention.

 

Volker Schmidt | Managing Director

Volker Schmidt has been a member of the management with Prevent AG since August 2002; from July 2005 till December 2008 he was a member of the board.
Before he changed to consultancy, he had held several executive positions with the Hamburg Police since 1977. From 1985 till 1987, Volker Schmidt headed a task force/special investigative team combating certain phenomena of organized crime. He was deputy head of the Hamburg “Dezernat Interne Ermittlungen”, a special unit for internal affairs within the Hamburg Police, from 1995 till 2000. After that, he was head of the politically motivated crime unit with Hamburg’s central CID-office, the Landeskriminalamt. He was responsible in particular for coordinating all investigations related to international terrorism, and cooperated with several German Intelligence Service Agencies (Verfassungsschutzamt Hamburg, Bundesamt für Verfassungschutz, Bundesnachrichtendienst) and the Bundeskriminalamt, Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office.

 

Josef Niemann | Managing Director

Josef Niemann has a Bachelor’s degree in Public Administration and has been a member of the management of Prevent AG since May 2005.
Prior to that, Josef Niemann, as Kriminaldirektor, was head of the department for organized crime/money laundering/financial-investigation at the central CID-office of Bavaria, the Bayerisches Landeskriminalamt. He is a founding member of the annual “Balkan-Conference on Organized Crime”, a network of special police units from Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Turkey, Ukraine and Hungary.
He’s a renowned expert on organized crime and international white-collar crime. He shares his expertise with future CID officers through lectures at the Bavarian Police University of Applied Sciences, the German Police University in Munster as well as the police universities in Kiev, Belgrade and Sofia.

 

Udo Nagel | Senior Advisor

Udo Nagel has been Senior Advisor of Prevent AG since June 2010; from September 2008 till Mai 2010 he was a member of the board.
From March 2004 till March 2008, he was Minister of the Interior in Hamburg. Prior to that, he was Commissioner of the Hamburg Police for nearly two years.
Udo Nagel, who has a Bachelor of Public Administration, started his career within the police in 1969. His last post was head of the Munich Police staff unit for crime fighting. Mr. Nagel became famous during his time with the police especially for implementing new methods of crime fighting. Amongst these methods were the “Operative Fallanalyse” (OFA), known as offender profiling, (implemented throughout Germany), new organizational models for task forces and special investigative teams and new methods of interviewing and interrogation.