As a member of the board of trustees, Marie Theres Fögen's special area of responsibility was the foundation's activities in the humanities and social sciences.

When she retired due to ill health at the end of 2007, before subsequently passing away on 18 January 2008, Gebert Rüf Stiftung lost a member of the board of trustees who had been an outspoken advocate of the deployment of support funds to provide start-up assistance for innovative projects.