Sylvia Schenk

Sylvia Schenk is a lawyer based in Frankfurt am Main, specialising in compliance, human rights, and sports law.

In 1972, she became German champion in the 800 metres and competed at the Summer Olympic Games in Munich. At the same time, she studied law and subsequently worked as a labour court judge for ten years. In 1989, she became a full-time city councillor in Frankfurt, responsible for legal affairs, sport, women’s affairs, and housing, a position she held for twelve years. Since 2006, she has served as an arbitrator at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Sylvia Schenk is a member of the Data Protection Advisory Board of Deutsche Bahn AG and the Board of Trustees of the Wittenberg Center for Global Ethics. From 2012 until the end of 2023, she served as spokesperson for the Advisory Board for Integrity and Sustainability of Daimler AG, later Mercedes-Benz Group AG. From 2016 to 2025, she was a member of INTERPOL’s Ethics Committee.

In a voluntary capacity, Sylvia Schenk served as President of the German Cycling Federation from 2001 to 2004, as a member of the Management Committee of the Union Cycliste Internationale from 2000 to 2005, as Senior Advisor for Sport at Transparency International from 2006 to 2014, and as a member of FIFA’s independent Human Rights Advisory Board from 2017 to 2021. Since December 2022, she has been an independent member of the IOC Human Rights Advisory Committee. After twelve years as Chair of the Working Group on Sport at Transparency International Germany, she co-founded the SPIRIT network — Sports Policy for Integrity, Respect, Innovation and Transparency — in early 2026.