Andreas Kiefer was elected Secretary General of the Congress in 2010 and was re-elected in March 2015 for another 5-year mandate. He holds a doctorate of Law and finished a post-graduate university programme “General Management with a focus on public management”. A. Kiefer worked as Head of the Private Office of Land Salzburg’s President, was Director of the European Affairs Service of Land Salzburg and served as Secretary General of the Conference of Presidents of Regions with Legislative Powers (REGLEG). He is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Institute for Studies on Federalism and Regionalism of the EURAC Bolzano/Bozen and the board of the Salzburg Institute for Education and has published articles about local and regional democracy issues.