Ambassador Michaela Spaeth took up her duties as Permanent Representative of Germany to the OECD on 20 August 2020.

Ms Spaeth holds an M.A. in Economic and Social History, Political Science from the University of Freiburg (Breisgau) and she has attended the Institut d’études politiques in Paris. She also holds an M.A. in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School.

She joined the German Foreign Service in 1987. Her first posting let her to the German Embassy in Dhaka from from 1989 to 1992. Ms Spaeth then served in numerous capacities both in Germany and abroad, in China (Head of the German Trade Promotion Office in Beijing), in Pristina at the UNMIK Mission and as an exchange officer for two years in the British Foreign Service. 

From 2008 to 2010, Ms Spaeth was involved in the setting up of the International Renewable Agency (IRENA) at the German Federal Foreign Office in Berlin. She then headed the Cultural Affairs Section of the German Embassy in Warsaw from 2010 to 2012 and the Energy Policy and International Commodity Policy Division at the German Federal Foreign Office in Berlin from 2012 to 2015. From 2015 to 2018, she was Deputy Head of Mission at the German Embassy in Vienna.

Prior to taking up her duties as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Germany at the OECD in 2020, Ms Spaeth since 2018 served as Deputy Director General for Energy and Climate Policy, Business and Human Rights, International Labour Rights and Issues at the German Federal Foreign Office.