40 Over 40 Mentorship Program 2022

The Program

The program will take place between September 1^st and November 30^th 2022. Over these three months, the mentees will have three to six sessions at their disposal, where their chosen mentor will share insight on their field and talk about their career. Each mentor will zero in on a particular aspect of their expertise, from building a successful network to increasing visibility. The sessions will be offered in German and English, but applicants must be based in Germany.

The Mentors

Nina Strassner

Her background: Nina is Global Head of People Initiatives SAP SE. Under her leadership, SAP has repeatedly been named the best employer for women and the LGBTQIA+ community. She has driven issues like the "menopause" initiative, and has championed co-leaderships, with the number of tandems increasing from 17 to more than 40.

Her expertise: Leadership, networking, branding and visibility on core personal values, communication

Languages: German and English

Vidya Munde-Mueller

Her background: Vidya is a Founder of Givetastic.org and a passionate Product Manager. She has been in the start-up world for sometime after leaving a cozy corporate job at a big telco provider. She was an Ambassador at 'Women in AI' and helped motivate many women to work in new technologies and level the playing field. 

Her expertise: Entrepreneurship, design thinking, and product management

Languages: German and English

Gabriele Fanta

Her background: ​​Gabriele has worked for many large international corporations as a manager in the field of HR, currently serving as Head of Group at KÖRBER AG. She has a varied past in a number of industries: automotive, energy, mobility, and system catering, and has grown her experience in people management at brands including McDonald’s and Sixt SE.

Her expertise: Human resources and communication, inner independence, appearance and external impact

Languages: German and English

Lunia Hara

Her background: At diconium, Lunia is Director Project Management, a role where she manages a diverse team of 15 project managers. She is also one of LinkedIn's top voices, a keynote speaker, and a columnist for Der Spiegel magazine.

Her expertise: Empathetic leadership, advice for women in tech, goals and purpose, personal branding, family planning

Languages: German and English

Diana Knodel

Her background: Diana has a background in computer science, psychology, and educational research and has spent time working in the IT industry. In 2014, she founded App Camps, a nonprofit with the goal of getting young people excited about digital topics and programming, and in 2018 Fobizz, the largest German-language professional development platform for teachers.

Her expertise: Entrepreneurship, EdTech, start-up, product management, platform business models

Languages: German and English

Judith Muster

Her background: Judith studied Sociology and Psychology at the Universities of Potsdam and Hamburg, spending countless hours studying the theories of society by Niklas Luhmann and organization and systems theory. For the past 11 years, Judith has been putting theory into practice at management consultancy Metaplan, where she became their first female partner in 2017. On top of this, the sociologist is also Chair Member of Organizational and Administrative Sociology at the University of Potsdam.

Her expertise: Organization design (reorganization, strategy), stakeholder management, micropolitics (interests, trust and power games), leadership (hierarchical, lateral or from below)

Languages: German and English

Prof. Dr. Katharina Hölzle

Her background: Katharina is an industrial engineer and professor for technology management and human factors at the University of Stuttgart. She is co-director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering and member of the German Government’s expert commission for research and innovation. She is a mentor for various start-ups (especially in the digital sector) and regularly advises companies in the fields of technology and innovation. She has lived and taught abroad (China, Australia, US, Sweden). 

Her expertise: advice for women in STEM, Entrepreneurship and business models, collaboration and leadership

Languages: German and English

Claudia Feiner

Her background: Claudia is esports Project Manager at Porsche, using cultural change to strategically position the Porsche brand outside of the automotive sector. In 2018, she founded the LGBT*IQ community Proud@Porsche to represent employees and friends and support diversity at the automotive company. On top of that, Claudia is making all of Stuttgart more diversity-friendly with her cross-company network #0711LiebtBunt.

Her expertise: Networking, how to build a community and a tribe, leadership, diversity, LGBT*IQ /out at work; working in a tech environment, visibility

Languages: German and English

Angela De Giacomo

Her background: Angela studied business administration with a focus on tax law in Stuttgart, followed by various roles at KPMG. From 2013, she managed the family office of Bissell in New Delhi part-time and eventually full-time, commuting between Germany and India. In 2019, she brought Germany the women's network: WunderNova. 

Her expertise: Investment/fundraising and networking

Languages: German and English

Andrea Wasmuth

Her background: Andrea has more than 20 years of experience in the media sector, including time at Verlagsgruppe Milchstrasse and Burda. Today she is CEO of Handelsblatt Media Group and is a top voice for female empowerment.

Her expertise: Cultural change & transformation, New Work, communication and media, leadership

Languages: German and English

Olga Nevska

Her background: Olga Nevska is CEO of Telekom MobilitySolutions, member of the Board of Directors at T-Mobile Czech Republic, a guest lecturer at the University of St. Gallen, and Founder of the network 'Power Women@Deutsche Telekom'. She stands for digitization as an enabler for connected, sustainable, and demand-driven mobility for everyone and manages the transformation of one of the largest German corporate fleets into an innovative mobility provider.

Her expertise: Future mobility, digital transformation, business model development, general management, finance and controlling, diversity, personal branding

Languages: German, English, Ukrainian, and Russian

Julia Kovar-Mühlhausen

Her background: Julia Kovar-Mühlhausen is the leader of the newly founded Climate Protection Foundation at Baden-Württemberg Stiftung. Before this she was leading the communications team for ten years. Since taking office she has already helped offset more than 5,000 tons of CO₂. 

Her expertise: Communication, personal branding and visibility in social media, leadership in the public sector, political work and coordination, compatibility of career and family

Language: German

Ines Imdahl

Her background: In 2000, Ines Imdahl joined the market research agency rheingold, and in 2011 she founded rheingold salon with her husband. She has a background in psychology, and the topic of diversity is a matter close to her heart.

Her expertise: Emotional/social skills, leadership, self-awareness, empathy

Languages: German and English

Claudia Pohlink

Her background: Claudia is the woman behind the founding of #startupnight, #DigitalWanderlust and #AI4DiversityHackathon and spent time at T-Labs (Deutsche Telekom’s research unit), MTV Networks, and Jamba/Rocket Internet. She is now driving the Deutsche Bahn’s central data topics (data governance, data management, and data catalog.) Additionally, Claudia is an active speaker and author on several innovative topics including artificial intelligence, machine learning, and quantum tech.

Her expertise: Women in Tech/IT, AI/data analytics, servant leadership, agile/scrum, innovation management, how to identify future trends and turn them into business (e.g. quantum computing)

Languages: German and English

Dr. Dilek Gürsoy

Her background: Dr. Dilek Gürsoy is Germany's best-known heart surgeon. In 2012, she became the first woman in Europe to carry out an artificial heart implantation and, in 2019, was named “Medical Doctor of the Year.” One of the projects she holds near and dear to her heart: technically reworking the artificial heart.

Her expertise: Creating networks (medicine, economy, politics, media), empowerment, diversity, new work, founding

Language: German

Carina Kontio

Her background: Carina spent 12 years at Handelsblatt as contributing editor, was host of the Handelsblatt Mindshift podcast, and was the driving force behind the famous Rolemodels interview series. She is a LinkedIn Top Voice 2020 and, at the beginning of this year, became Editor of Investment Management at Flossbach von Storch.

Her expertise: Authentic visibility in social media, LinkedIn-networking, talking about mental health (why you shouldn't hide your mental illness at work!), dealing with your Impostor-Syndrom and how to survive as a woman in the male dominated financial world, Go or stay? How to find out if you need to quit!

Language: German

The Application Process

Candidates will be selected on the basis of their motivation. You will be able to pick your favorite mentor, and on the application form, you will be asked about your reasons for applying and why you want to work with her. The application form can be filled out in English or German. Applications are open until June 24^th, 2022.

Click here to apply!