Gladys V. Ntim Abankwa-Meier-Klodt, was brought up in North America and Ghana by two career diplomats. A microbiologist with an M.Sc. from McGill University, she belatedly discovered her affinity for the creative arts, and having nominally defected from the natural sciences, spends her time travelling, designing, writing and painting, when not conducting cross- cultural workshops for the German Federal Foreign Office.

Married to a German diplomat since 1988, Gladys has two children, one of whom lives with her and her husband in New Delhi.