The Board of Directors is a collegiate body composed of the heads of the scientific departments and the Administrative Director.
As part of the Board of Directors, the Acting and the Administrative Director form the management. They judicially and extrajudicially represent the IPK in line with the rules of the internal procedure. As a general rule, the Governing Board appoints one of the heads of the scientific departments as Acting Director for a period of three years. An immediate re-appointment is possible.

The Acting Director represents the foundation in public, chairs the Board of Directors and manages the current affairs within the scientific departments. The Administrative Director self dependently manages the current affairs within the administration on the basis of the joint responsibility of the Board of Directors. He is responsible for the budget.

Members of the Board of Directors:

• Prof.  Andreas Graner (Acting Director and head of the Genebank Dept.)
• Sybille-Andrea Lorenz (Administrative Director and head of the Administration and Central Services Dept.)
• Prof. Ingo Schubert (head of the Cytogenetics and Genome Analysis Dept.)
• Prof. Thomas Altmann (head of the Molecular Genetics Dept.)
• Prof. Nicolaus von Wirén (head of the Physiology and Cell Biology Dept.)