Breakout session on the topic of radical honesty

As the founder and CEO of a multi-award-winning tech start-up, Anna has spent the last nine years constantly thinking outside the box and doing her bit to develop smart digital solutions in an extremely fast-moving but also extremely human working environment. Digitalisation, female leadership, people tech and new work are some of the topics that are close to her heart and on which she advises players in politics and business, for example as a member of the “Young Digital Economy” advisory board of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, founding member of the HR-Tech Ethics Advisory Board or Chairwoman of the “Future of Work” department at the Federal Association of the Digital Economy (BVDW e.V.). With the founding of the tech company Tandemploy in 2013, the female investor network encourageventures in 2021 and the merger of Tandemploy with the global tech company Phenom in 2022, she has shown more than once what is possible when we dare not to leave our ideas of a better working world in theory, but to tackle them with heart and mind.

Robert has been working for the sustainable outdoor outfitter VAUDE for eight years and has a passion for sustainable business as well as cycling and mountain sports. He led an interdisciplinary research project on the reduction of microplastics of textile origin and has been focussing on the design of circular business models since 2021. Robert is particularly motivated to further advance the decoupling of resource consumption and economic growth through business models such as rental services, second-hand and repair services. Robert holds a Master’s degree in Integrated Design Engineering from the University of Magdeburg and was a lecturer for Circular Economy in the Master’s programme Sustainable Business Management at the University of Ulm.

Born in 1965 in the Waldviertel (Lower Austria) as the son of a farmer. In 1988, he founded the company “Sonnentor” to market herbal specialities from organic farmers in the Waldviertel region under the logo of the laughing sun, both regionally and internationally. Twenty years later, he has 100 employees, 600 products in his range and the luck of the brave on his side. Johannes Gutmann is original in his ideas and gifted with an eye for what can succeed. “He has always remained Hannes,” say “his” farmers, who have been his most important partners since the very beginning. Johannes Gutmann lives by values that make a good life possible: Fairness, partnership, courage, creativity and humour.

Alma Spribille brings experience from science and research to entrepreneurial practice in order to drive sustainable transformation in the economy. In 2019, together with Andreas Schmucker and Nico Tucher, she founded the sustainable mobile communications provider WEtell, where she has been Managing Director ever since. At the same time, the 39-year-old has been a board member of the German Sustainable Economy Association since 2021, was appointed to the SME Advisory Board of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection by Robert Habeck in 2022 and is an ambassador for the Economy for the Common Good. Before founding WEtell, Alma Spribille worked in solar cell research at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems for 12 years. Her passion for sustainability began during her studies of energy and environmental management in Flensburg.

Josua is a social entrepreneur who campaigns for the rights of workers with the aim of counteracting systemic injustices in global supply chains with digital systems. He is co-founder of atlat GmbH, a digital complaint and redress system that helps workers to draw attention to grievances. At the same time, it supports companies in taking remedial action and complying with legal requirements.

So far in her life, Walburga Fröhlich has founded a kindergarten, a centre for the development of innovative social projects, the social enterprise atempo and capito, an international company for comprehensible communication and AI. The latter is one of the first social enterprises in Austria with an international AI-based business model. Together with her team, she combines social impact with technology, economic sustainability with inclusion and volunteers in various social entrepreneurship networks for an improved eco-system for social entrepreneurs and female CEOs. Walburga Fröhlich has already won many prizes in her life as an entrepreneur, including the EU Prize for Women Innovators, the only Austrian woman to do so to date. She has a Master’s degree in Social Work and Social Management (Joanneum University of Applied Sciences Graz) and a diploma in Integrative Supervision and Organisational Development (Fritz Perls Institute Düsseldorf). Incidentally, the above-mentioned organisations founded by her still exist today, some of them for more than 20 years.

Charly Kleissner is an impact investor. He believes that the true meaning of wealth is to make a positive contribution to humanity and the planet. He is one of the leading proponents of the “deep impact” movement that addresses not just the symptoms of our failing economic system, but its causes – with an awareness and consciousness that is not anthropocentric and recognises that humanity is part of the evolutionary process, not outside of it. He sees impact investing not as an intellectual exercise, but as an expression of what it really is. Dr Kleissner is co-founder of the KL Felicitas Foundation, Social-Impact International, the Central European Investment Ready Program, Hawai’i Investment Ready, pioneer:impact, Toniic, the 100% Network and the Impact Hub Tirol. He is a full member of the Club of Rome, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Alia, on the Board of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, ImpactAssets and Proof of Impact, as well as on the Advisory Board of Chi Impact Capital, Industree Foundation, MCI Business School, Commonland and Rainfall. Dr Kleissner has more than twenty years of experience as a technology executive in Silicon Valley, working for companies such as NeXT and Ariba. Dr Kleissner received his M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Vienna University of Technology.

Kristin Siegel is an independent impact investment consultant with more than 10 years of global expertise in multi-asset portfolio management and client advisory, as well as Head of EMEA at Toniic, a global community of asset owners seeking deeper net positive impact across the capital spectrum. Prior to Toniic, Kristin worked as a private wealth and multi-asset portfolio manager at Deutsche Bank and Bank Julius Baer Europe in Germany and Switzerland. Kristin holds an MBA from Hult International Business School in San Francisco, a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Zurich and is a Certified International Investment Analyst (CIIA) and Wealth Manager.

Tillmann has been working for many years on the question of how to make the world more sustainable – and the role of finance in this. Before founding Inyova, Tillmann worked for more than 6 years at the strategy consultancy McKinsey & Company. In addition, Tillmann was CFO at Benefiit, a network of impact investors, and is the founding director of the Sustainability-in-Business-Lab at ETH Zurich. He holds a PhD from ETH Zurich and studied mathematics and computer science at the universities of Heidelberg and Santiago de Chile. In his spare time, Tillmann enjoys skiing, mountain biking and other outdoor activities.

Nora Wilhelm is a social innovator, entrepreneur and researcher committed to a world where people and planet can thrive. A changemaker since her teenage years, she has a background in youth engagement and active citizenship. From 2014-2016, she chaired the European Youth Parliament Switzerland and organised an international session of the EYP in Laax (GR) under the patronage of the then Federal Councillor Didier Burkhalter. In 2017, she co-founded collaboratio helvetica, an initiative that catalyses systemic change towards the 2030 Agenda in Switzerland by cultivating a cross-sector innovation ecosystem, building the necessary capacities, sharing open knowledge and empowering leaders for systemic change. She has been recognised for her outstanding contribution by Forbes (30 under 30), UNEP, UNESCO and the Swiss government, among others. She has spoken at events such as the Swiss Development Cooperation Conference, the Swiss Conference of Mayors, TEDx and on global stages alongside high-level changemakers such as Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus. She holds a BA in International Affairs from the University of St. Gallen and an MSt in Social Innovation from the University of Cambridge. In 2023, she co-founded the well – change atelier to develop art-based processes and tools to cultivate connection, creativity and well-being and make them accessible for more people.

Joanna is a social scientist, trainer, adult educator and organisational developer in the field of social change and sustainable development. She has lectured at various universities on the topics of transformative education, UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Inner Development Goals (IDGs)

Christian Lutz is co-founder and managing director of Tree.ly. He and his team enable the realisation of climate protection projects in Austrian and European forests through cooperation between Tree.ly, regional partners and companies. Christian is an experienced entrepreneur in building and scaling innovative technology companies and has made it his mission to utilise the climate protection potential of our forests through a digital platform, to drive active climate protection and to ensure a sustainable future for our forests.