Dominique Otten-Pappas was born in 1979 as second oldest of 14 cousins making up the third generation of a German business owning family. She graduated with a BA in French Studies and Psychology from Lancaster University in the UK in 2003. Afterwards she worked as HR project manager in a family owned retail business before completing her MBA in the Netherlands in 2010.  

​She finished her doctoral dissertation about the career decisions of male and female successors in German family businesses at the University of Witten/Herdecke in 2014. Additionally, she is head of the family council and chair of the advisory board to her family's business assisting the ownership and governance transition from the second to the third generation. She has been part of FBN Germany since 2010 and is currently a member of the German FBN board as well as academic advisor to FBNi.