Nuremberg – November 13, 2026 -- The administrative board of the Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit, BA) has elected Dr. Anna Robra as its new chair. She succeeds Christina Ramb, who left the body at her own request because of a professional move, according to BA press release no. 45.
Robra has sat on the board since 2017, about nine years by FairsOnline's calculation to the 2026 start of her new BDA role. The release does not say how long her term as chair runs.
Robra holds the chair while serving in BDA executive management
Since 1 November 2026, Robra has been a member of the executive management (Hauptgeschäftsführung) of the Deutsche Arbeitgeberverbände (BDA), the German employers' associations. She joined the BDA in 2008, 18 years before that appointment and nine years before she joined the BA board. She previously headed the BDA's labor market department.
The BA says the chair rotates annually between the employer and employee sides and is elected by the board.
Robra backs automation reforms, Piel stresses trust across the board
Robra says the BA must become organizationally and financially resilient to preserve the social partners' role in running unemployment insurance. According to her, the reforms already under way, including the standardization and automation of administrative processes, are meant to make procedures more efficient, reduce workload and strengthen the insurance's effectiveness. She says this would let the BA concentrate on getting people into work.
Anja Piel, who also comments in the release, calls Robra an established labor market expert who has known the BA's self-administration for a long time. Piel says the social partners carry particular responsibility in a labor market she describes as strained after successive crises. She says trusting cooperation on the board will continue despite differing positions.