Ambassador Ortwin Hennig was a Vice President at EWI until July 2009. He was instrumental in establishing EWI's Preventive Diplomacy Initiatives. Ortwin is a distinguished alumnus of the Free University of Berlin and the London School of Economics where he concentrated on Political Science. As an alumnus of the NATO Defense College in Rome, Ortwin specialized in arms control and security policy matters.

Before joining EWI, Ortwin held diplomatic posts in Afghanistan and Russia, and with the German Representation to the European Commission and the OSCE in Vienna. Ortwin also served the Office of the German Federal President as a foreign policy advisor. His last assignment before joining EWI was as Commissioner for Civilian Crisis Prevention, Conflict Resolution and Post-Conflict Peace Building for the German Federal Foreign Office in Berlin.

Ortwin has published extensively on the subjects of arms control, the OSCE and conflict prevention. He is now Germany's ambassador to Georgia.