The office team
Anna-Kathrin Dietrich,
Managing Director
Anna (she / her) took over the management of the PopBoard together with Till in January 2025. She was able to read music earlier than letters and consequently came to Cologne to study music after graduating from high school in the East Westphalian province. Anna worked at “create music NRW” over 10 years ago, which was still responsible for Westphalia-Lippe at the time and was based at the Landesmusikakademie NRW. Before and after that, she was involved in various cultural projects, such as the Ruhr Piano Festival, Museum Night Cologne and the “off Beat culture” initiative.
Anna wants to improve structures and conditions for musicians, cultural and creative professionals – she not only does this at PopBoard, but has also been involved in the choir scene for several years as managing director of the federal association “Pueri Cantores”. Anna is not only a passionate cultural manager but also an excessive consumer of culture in her private life. She has seen the Swiss singer-songwriter Faber live around 15 times and is generally very enthusiastic about small and medium-sized festivals.
Contact: anna-kathrin.dietrich@popboard.nrw
TILL SKORUPPA,
Managing Director
Till (he / him) has been active in various roles in the music industry for over 20 years. The stylistic spectrum he has dealt with professionally ranges from metal to classical music, from rehearsal rooms to international bands. More than 10 years ago, he found his way into association work. First as Program Manager of the European Music Council, later as Secretary General of the European Music School Association. Along with his work in cultural policy came the realization that things that had been bothering him for a long time did not simply have to be accepted. In particular, he has never heard a good justification for cultural policy practices in which some genres are more worthy of support than others. He is therefore intrinsically motivated to champion the PopBoard’s issues and concerns. Even in his free time, music takes center stage – whether in passionate record discussions, in the rehearsal room with one of his bands or at concerts.
Contact: till.skoruppa@popboard.nrw
Karla König,
Management Consultant
Karla (she / her) has been coordinating and managing projects in various sectors at the interface between science, culture and the creative industries since 2007. Her experience ranges from handling various project formats in the agency environment, to working on project-related planning processes in the university environment, to her position as project manager of various event formats in the cultural sector. She also studied something to do with media and culture. Karla has been part of the PopBoard NRW team since February 2023 and supports Anna and Till in their work as a management consultant.
Karla thinks structure is good, only on the dance floor (front left or where there is enough space) please as freely as possible and crosswise. Otherwise, she lives according to the motto: ice cream always works and a little (more) intersectional feminism never hurt anyone!
Contact: karla.koenig@popboard.nrw
Teresa Zoller,
Public Relations Officer
Teresa (she / her) moved from Lake Constance to Cologne in the fall of 2009 to study musicology. After several internships in the cultural sector, she deepened her knowledge with a master’s degree in cultural education and cultural management in Mönchengladbach and gained several years of practical experience in the marketing team of the c/o pop music festival. After professional detours as a project manager in the classical music and podcast scene, Teresa has been back to pop music since July 2022 and is responsible at PopBoard NRW for all topics that need to be brought to the public’s attention. On the side, she isAlways relaxed, but with lots of creative ideas and the latest social media trends on her mind, Teresa can get excited about feminist events, concerts, game nights and vegan food outside the office.
Contact: teresa.zoller@popboard.nrw
Katharina Würzberg, Project manager
Katharina (she / her) is new to the team and new to Cologne, having swapped the Isar for the Rhine in fall 2022. She first studied political science in Munich and later cultural and music management. Along the way, she organized festivals, gained experience in art museums, theaters and a concert agency and spent many years on the road with her own band.
Katharina found her first professional home in Cologne at the Sommerblut Kulturfestival. Among other things, she is responsible for funding applications and the festival’s accessibility. Since summer 2023, she has also been supporting the PopBoard NRW team as a project manager. In the evenings and at weekends, Katharina can sometimes be found playing volleyball in the sports hall – when she’s not at a concert, at the theater or in the company of friends and food.
Contact: katharina.wuerzberg@popboard.nrw
Johanna Bauhus,
Awareness person
Johanna (she / her) is our awareness person. She co-founded the awareness, diversity and inclusion agency “Safe the Dance” and is constantly working on best practices and standards for awareness concepts and implementing them, e.g. at major events such as the SBÄM Fest or DEICHBRAND Festival 2023. Johanna has been involved in our awareness process from the very beginning and helped develop our Code of Conduct. She is independent and works for us as a freelance consultant. She also runs the queer feminist music label Ladies&Ladys, where she was honored by the German government as a “Culture&Creative Pilot 2022” for her clear set of values and high social transformational power. She plays bass in the band “Wenn einer lügt dann wir” and her new career aspiration is to be a lobbyist for change processes in pop culture.
If you notice something that is not going so well for you or if you notice something where, for example, boundaries have been violated or people have not felt comfortable, you can contact Johanna. It will treat every message confidentially and as quickly as possible.
Contact: awareness@popboard.nrw
