A citizen of Germany, Matthes Buhbe studied economics and social sciences at the Universities of Göttingen and Regensburg and received a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Dortmund in 1979.

Before joining the international department of Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) in 1985, Dr. Buhbe taught microeconomics and macroeconomics at Dortmund University. In 1986, he was sent to the Royal Scientific Society of Jordan as an economic advisor and founded the FES Amman office for Jordan. He continued to work as FES country director with the following assignments: Turkey, 1990 – 1995; Israeli Occupied Territories of Palestine, 1998 – 2002; and Russia, 2003 – 2007. Returning to Germany, he was appointed head of the FES-department for Central and Eastern Europe, including South-Caucasus and Central Asia. 2010 – 2014 he was the director of FES Geneva. After retirement, FES assigned to him shorter terms as director of FES Amman (November 2014 – March 2015), FES New York (August 2015 – October 2015) and FES Ukraine and Belarus in Kiev, April 2016 to July 2017. He is currently resident director for Jordan and Iraq in Amman.

Dr. Buhbe received an honorary Ph.D. from the Financial Academy of the Government of the Russian Federation in 2006. He has published a number of books and articles on various topics in macroeconomics and political analysis. He is married and has three children.