Board and Team

Have you ever wondered who the people are that you interact with at Arche Noah Tenerife? We’d like to put faces to the names and briefly introduce our team:

Board

Elmar Lobüscher, founder and chairman of the board, established Arche Noah Tenerife together with his wife Ute in 1992. No one knows the Arche as well as he does. For three decades, he has regularly commuted between Germany and Tenerife, dedicating every spare minute to the Arche. He doesn’t really have a private life, as everything happening around him revolves around our animal shelter. The number of cats he has provided with a temporary or permanent home is beyond counting. There have simply been too many.

Anna Branner, board member and shelter manager, began her journey with Arche Noah in 2004 as a volunteer cat cuddler in Bensheim. In 2013, she spent six months in Tenerife, learning a great deal from Arche founder Ute Lobüscher. In 2015, she was elected to the board, and since 2017, she has been managing our animal shelter in Tenerife. She oversees everything related to the daily shelter operations and handles all emergencies involving humans and animals. Her own animals include the dogs Curry and Kenai, the cats Lola and Lotte, and two chickens.

Torsten Lembke, board member, has been working with Arche Noah since 1993 and has been on the board since 1995. He focuses on the organization’s technical infrastructure, particularly in the areas of computers, networks, telecommunications, databases, and direct debit transactions. He has spent many vacations at the shelter, assisting with construction and caring for the animals. From the very beginning, he has frequently provided a home to cats that were difficult to rehome. Currently, the feline companions Speedy and Spicy live with him.
Daniela Lobüscher, board member and founding member, is the daughter of founders Ute and Elmar and has been part of Arche Noah from the very beginning. She spent many vacations at the shelter, witnessing the development of the shelter, including the sanctuary, firsthand. In Bensheim, she often steps in as a substitute during illness or vacations to care for the foster cats and assist with their needs. She, too, has given many Arche cats a permanent home. Currently, the cats Dora, Kiki, and Punto live with her and her family.

Team Germany

Natascha, head of the association’s office, was a volunteer helper from 2004 to 2016 and has been a permanent staff member since 2016. She is responsible for everything that comes up in the office, including home checks, adoptions, donor relations, coordinating helpers in Bensheim, airport transports, marketing/press work, and maintaining the website. She is also in daily contact with Tenerife. For 14 years, Arche cats Carioca and Rojo lived with her. Nowadays, her heart is fully dedicated to our Arche foster cats.
Anja has been working with us part-time since 2016. She is responsible for accounting and donation receipts but also helps with all other office tasks whenever her schedule allows, such as maintaining contact with our supporters or decorating our moving van for the annual Winzerfest parade. Additionally, she is highly skilled in handiwork, earning her the affectionate nickname “the janitor” 😊. She has a dog and a cat.
Sylvia has been supporting us on a mini-job basis in Bensheim since March 2022. She manages our sponsorships and membership applications, handles incoming in-kind donations, and assists in many other administrative areas. She has also become indispensable in maintaining contact with our donors and takes on additional tasks in the association’s office whenever time allows. Sylvia has always had animals, including dogs, cats, and even horses. Currently, Arche dog Gerda lives with her, whom she personally picked up and adopted from the shelter in Tenerife in February of this year.
Ligia has been strengthening our volunteer Arche team since the end of 2020 in the areas of digitalization and IT. She is responsible for maintaining and continuously improving our website. Additionally, she is approachable for all other technical matters and always finds a solution. Together with her wife, she occasionally flies empty transport boxes to Tenerife and brings animals back to Germany. Naturally, Ligia also has pets: furry friend Frida and Arche dog Cora.
Andrea has been strengthening the team as a mini-jobber since January 2024. She is responsible for processing and publishing the many photos we take of our animals during their time with us. Andrea spends part of her time in Tenerife, where she also helps by walking our dogs, driving to the vet or airport. In 2020, she and her wife took in the Pointer dog Cora, who now shares her home with Beagle girl Frida.

Team Tenerife

Linda has been working with us since 2018. As a former veterinary assistant, she is responsible for the medical care of our animals, including administering injections, drawing blood, and determining dosages. She also steps in for shelter management, handles administrative tasks with authorities, translates Spanish documents, and manages everything related to the Spanish language. Additionally, she takes care of ordering food and medicine. Linda lives with her family in the north of the island, along with her dogs Floki and Glosoli, her cat Malinka, and her sheep Coco and Curry.
Marlen, head of the dog team, has been living at the shelter since the end of 2019. She originally joined us as a volunteer for four weeks but fortunately decided to stay. She and her team care for our dogs and handle their training. Marlen also manages our social media channels alongside Anna. She has a big heart for anxious dogs and a real knack for working with them. In addition to Keeper, a former Arche adoption dog, she shares her home with a stray dog, two cats, and three chickens.
Kim has been working and living at the shelter since the beginning of 2024. His first visit to Arche Noah was in 2020 as a volunteer, initially planned for four weeks. However, he enjoyed it so much that he ended up staying for an entire year. In 2022, he worked at Arche for six months, and now, after satisfying his wanderlust, he has returned to stay. Kim cares for our dogs and is also involved in their training. Currently, our adoption dog Bella-Belka is living with him in the camping area.
Else has been volunteering with us for over 20 years. She takes care of our cats and handles everything that needs to be done on the finca: from laundry and cleaning the cat rooms to vet visits and caring for bottle-fed kittens, including night shifts. Thanks to her years of experience, she is the best cat mom one could imagine. She keeps an eye on everything and is a true rock of stability. Else shares her living space with a dozen sponsor dogs and cats—she definitely doesn’t need any additional pets of her own.
Hedi has been volunteering for Arche since 2017. One day, she packed up everything in Germany and moved directly to the shelter in Tenerife. She also takes care of our cats, tackles the endless piles of laundry, and handles vet visits. Together with Else, she cleans the many cat rooms in the finca, the cat house, and the hospital, and provides medical care for the cats when needed. She shares her room with her dog Lola and her cat Cassy.

Micha has been working with us since 2003 and is a long-standing member of our small Arche family. He is responsible for all manual tasks at the shelter. Whether it’s repairs in the dog house, replacing fences, building wooden cat houses, or plastering walls, there’s nothing Micha can’t do! Privately, he is also involved with the Spanish non-profit organization EcoOceanos (www.ecooceanos.org), which is dedicated to marine conservation.

Obituary

Ute Lobüscher, former chairwoman and founder of Arche Noah, passed away in 2015 after a long and severe illness. She firmly believed that every living being has the right to a dignified existence, and through her dedicated work, she saved the lives of countless dogs and cats. With the support of her family and many animal lovers, she created a place with Arche Noah where animals could feel safe and cared for. The Arche Noah team honored her and her life’s work with this obituary (German Version).