Thorsten Diercks is currently the Director of German Raw Materials and Mining Association (Vereinigung Rohstoffe und Bergbau, VRB) and the director of German Lignite Mining Association (Deutscher Braunkohlen-Industrie-Verein). Earlier he was the Secretary-General of the European Association for Coal and Lignite (EURACOAL). He studied law in Cologne (Köln) as well in Lausanne/Switzerland and received his PhD in 1992.