Dr. Gerhard Timm grew up in East Berlin and left the GDR in 1976 in the wake of Wolf Biermann's expatriation. He studied economics, political science and sociology in Cologne. In 1983 he wrote his doctoral thesis on scientific advice for environmental policy.

After holding positions in the Federal Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians and the Federal Ministry of the Environment, he was Chief Executive of the Berlin Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians from 1993-1998. From 1999-2008, he worked as Executive Director of the Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz (BUND). Since 2009, he has been Managing Director of the Federal Association of Independent Welfare Organisations.

Timm was a founding board member of the DESERTEC Foundation and the BUND Foundation.

He is closely connected to the issues of the Heinrich Böll Foundation in several respects. In all stages of his professional and civic engagement, he has campaigned for a "social-ecological turnaround". The challenges of climate change and comprehensive nature conservation can only be met if the social aspects are always taken into account. Recently, the issue of safeguarding democracy has also increasingly come into focus. He considers the Heinrich Böll Foundation - to whose friends and supporters he has belonged since its foundation - to be the ideal place to discuss these questions of the future and to advance their solution within the framework of a worldwide network.

He lives in Berlin, is married to a Polish woman and has four children.