Prof. Dr. Hans Dieter Knapp is geo-botanist and landscape-ecologist. He is one of the initiators of the Eastern German national park program and the International Academy for Nature Conservation Island of Vilm. Until his retirement he has been director of this branch office of the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation. As an honorary professor he also lectures at the Greifswald University.

He initiated the “European Beech Forest Initiative”, he was instrumental in the nomination of beech forests of Germany and Europe to the World Heritage List of UNESCO and involved in further nominations in Russia, Mongolia, Iran and Georgia. His focus within the foundation lies on projects of international cooperation in Eurasia. 

Prof. Dr. Dr. Hans Joosten is peatland and landscape ecologist, professor for Peatland Studies and Palaeoecology and director of the working group on Peatland Studies and Palaeoecology at the University of Greifswald. The working group hosts the general secretariat of the  International Mire Conservation Group (IMCG). Prof. Dr. Hans Joosten is general secretary of this international organisation for peatland protection.

Within the foundation, he is in charge of the connection to the University of Greifswald's Institute for Botany and Landscape Ecology, he supervises the scientific quality and integrity, and establishes contact with international peatland and climate protection science as well as climate protection policy.

As a biologist, Dr. Hartmut Kretschmer was engaged in agro-ecological research for many years. In 1997 he became deputy director of the State Institute for Protected Areas in Brandenburg and later head of the Department of Protected Areas in the State Environmental Agency until his retirement. He was mainly involved in the implementation and design of the large-scale protected area programme for Brandenburg, for which amongst others Michael Succow had previously laid an essential basis.

He is one of the co-founders of NABU Brandenburg, and was its 1st chairman for many years. Today, he is still active on the board. Hartmut Kretschmer has been particularly involved in the transfer of federal nature conservation areas to nature conservation foundations and associations in Germany largely free of costs. He continuously advises on the management of such areas in Brandenburg. Dr. Kretschmer has been a member of the foundation's advisory board since 2019.

Dipl.-Ing. Dipl.-Kfm. Rolf Seelige-Steinhoff is managing partner of SEETELHOTELS. He completed his degree in electrical engineering and his degree in business administration at RWTH Aachen University. He lives on the Island of Usedom since 1992, where he and his family founded the SEETELHOTELS, which today consists of 17 hotels, villas and residences, as well as a hotel on Mallorca. Progress and innovation are part of the philosophy of Seelige-Steinhoff and so he founded the International Hotels & Resorts GmbH in 2018 together with his business partner Walter C. Neumann.

Rolf Seelige-Steinhoff has been a friend of the Succow family and the Michal Succow Foundation for many years. The development of the Kinderresort Usedom project was also accompanied by Prof. Dr. Michael Succow. Seelige-Steinhoff is now supporting the Foundation Board in the analysis, especially the economic analysis, in strengthening the formalities, in legal issues and contributes his extensive network.

Ulla Succow, a graduate biologist and wife of the founder, was an active member of the Succow Foundation's Board of Trustees from its inception until 2007 and shaped its work. From 2008 until her death, she continued to support the development of the foundation as an honorary member. She was the good soul of our foundation, always benevolent and supportive of our concerns with sensitivity and an overarching view. On November 30, 2021, Ulla Succow, mother of our current foundation board chair Kathrin Succow, passed away.

Dr. Lebrecht Jeschke is a well-known Greifswald biologist. Together with Hans Dieter Knapp, Matthias Freude and Michael Succow he developed the national park programme, which is meanwhile considered exemplary worldwide. He directed Mecklenburg-Vorpommern's National Park Administration from 1991 to 1998.

Until the age of 70, he was an active member of the foundation board. Since then, he is a honorary member with expertise on forest issues and nature conservation areas in Germany.