Though we may be spread out all across Munich, we are united by our passion for empowerment through Social Entrepreneurship. We are a dynamic team, and not just because we all have to hop on our bikes to attend a team meeting! We come from different fields and disciplines, and we all believe that education paves the way to the future.
Team members
Anna Kapusta is a great example of what SEA alumni can become. During her studies, Anna acted as chairwoman of a student-run business consultancy. After obtaining her Bachelor’s degree, she worked as a volunteer with a social educational project in Uganda. Through SEA, she then learned that “social” and “entrepreneurial” are not opposites, but rather wonderfully compatible, when she came across us by chance during her studies in Sustainable Resource Management Studium at the Technical University of Munich. She became inspired by the idea of Social Entrepreneurship through SEA:start, dove deeper into the topic by taking the SEA:certificate course, and beginning in 2016, she also got to know SEA inside and out first as an intern, then as a working student. Today she is part of the team as project manager for the F-LANE accelerator, while also working on the Act for Impact funding contest and on many other projects. She is motivated by the diversity of the start-ups she works with, by their founders’ new and exciting ideas and by SEA’s operations in general.
Contact: anna.kapusta@seakademie.de
// “To me, SEA is an inspiring, flexible and exciting organization that offers everyone room to flourish – whether you’re a student, a social entrepreneur or an employee.”
Since 2011, Anne Doerner is in charge of the areas of start-up support and Corporate Social Responsibility at SEA. A trained industrial engineer, she worked for many years at Siemens as a Marketing Manager on international projects. In 2003, she became acquainted with the CSR initiative startsocial and since then has worked to pass on her knowledge to social projects. In 2008, she started her own business as a consultant in strategic marketing, innovation and entrepreneurship. Parallel to her consultancy, she also implemented her own social projects and experimented with new working concepts within self-organizing networks. Anne has long been focused on identifying the success factors for innovation processes in social intra- and entrepreneurship.
Contact: anne.doerner@seakademie.de
// “SEA is truly close to my heart and is, to me, the place to be for inventing the future yourself. Social Entrepreneurship is an essential component of moving the world forward, but it is not enough for there to simply be entrepreneurship in the name. At SEA, we are reinventing ourselves daily, and this spirit of reinvention fascinates me.”
Christina Hunn is in charge of the Europe-wide implementation of SEA:start since 2014 and leads the international Global Entrepreneurship Summer School (GESS).
Christina first came into contact with Social Entrepreneurship in Argentina, where she worked with street kids as a volunteer for an NGO and witnessed the need for socially entrepreneurial business models. Her passion for developing financially viable and socially sustainable solutions was reinforced by her studies in business administration at the University of Passau and the PSG Institute of Management in India. Before she came to SEA, she worked two years in Colombia for Nobel Peace Prize winner Professor Muhammad Yunus. There, she led the strategic development and implementation of Yunus Social Business Colombia’s Social Business Incubation Centers and worked intensely on developing the social enterprise Campo Vivo together with Colombian potato farmers.
Christina first came into contact with Social Entrepreneurship in Argentina, where she worked with street kids as a volunteer for an NGO and witnessed the need for socially entrepreneurial business models. Her passion for developing financially viable and socially sustainable solutions was reinforced by her studies in business administration at the University of Passau and the PSG Institute of Management in India. Before she came to SEA, she worked two years in Colombia for Nobel Peace Prize winner Professor Muhammad Yunus. There, she led the strategic development and implementation of Yunus Social Business Colombia’s Social Business Incubation Centers and worked intensely on developing the social enterprise Campo Vivo together with Colombian potato farmers.
Contact: christina.hunn@seakademie.de
// “We offer space to inspire people to take social responsibility and make a difference. The sparkle in our participants’ eyes gives me new motivation every day.”
Ryan Grant Little is Managing Director of SmileBack, a software-as-a service company working in the B2B customer satisfaction feedback space. He also leads RGL Strategic, a Berlin-based consultancy working in the fields of impact investing, social innovation, technology for good, and corporate social responsibility. Wearing this hat, his work ranges from startup acceleration through to impact investment strategy. Previous roles include leading the social finance practice at the BMW Foundation, and co-founding StormFisher Biogas, one of the earlier energy-from-organics companies in North America. He is co-founder of and advisor to CanadaHelps, a donations platform that has facilitated more than $1 billion in charitable donations, for which he was awarded E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year (Social Enterprise, Canada) in 2016. He holds an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.
Shortly after co-founding the Akademie, Dr. Dominik B. Domnik had already begun working on the topic of financing for SEA. It was clear to him from the beginning that though SEA began as a project far removed from development budgets or fundraising, it was important that one’s own organization be financially sustainable. Promoters of Social Entrepreneurship should also know how an exemplary social entrepreneur approaches the topic of finances. Based on this premise, Dominik set up the areas of finances, fundraising and organization development for SEA. He also forms as Executive Director SEA’s leadership team, together with Kristina. Dominik studied economics at the University of St. Gallen and completed his PhD thesis on the topic of “Decision-making in companies”. At St. Gallen, he worked on the university reform team before becoming a manager at a family office. During this time, he also became managing director at the MyHandicap Foundation and was significantly involved in founding the Center for Disability Integration. Dominik became a social entrepreneur himself with the founding of the social enterprise seif in Zürich.
Contact: dominik.domnik@seakademie.de
// “To me, SEA is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! There comes a time when you just know that you’re home – both in terms of the work and when it comes to your colleagues. SEA is my home, it’s incredibly fun and it makes me happy.”
Bringing ideas, talent and resources together to generate impact has long been Kristina Notz’ hobbyhorse. This is why she has been at SEA since 2012 and is quite appropriately in charge of networking. As the team’s spokesperson, she represents SEA in and outside of universities and is the voice of Social Entrepreneurship Education at the Social Entrepreneurship Netzwerk Deutschland. She and Dominik form SEA’s leadership team as Executive Directors. Prior to her work at SEA, Kristina was in charge of network expansion as Community Manager at Munich’s Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU). Like many of her SEA colleagues, she has personal experience in Social Entrepreneurship, as she helped develop Germany’s GENERATION-D ideas competition. Before this, she worked at a think tank. Until 2005, Kristina Notz studied political science, European law and French at the LMU and the Institut d'Études Politiques in Aix-en-Provence, France.
Contact: kristina.notz@seakademie.de
// “Over ten years ago, I found my way into social entrepreneurship. Then as now, for me, SEA is the place I want to work. I am very happy with our amazing team and with being able to work with so many exciting and committed people.“
Dr. Sebastian Planck has a passion for unlocking people’s potential for Social Entrepreneurship. As the head of qualification, he has been sending students on a sustainable Impact Journey since 2017. Sebastian has taught for many years on the subjects of business ethics, CSR, storytelling, gender & diversity management and intercultural communication, and is now focusing his love for education on the area of social innovation. Thanks to his background in communications and consultancy, including campaigning in an agency for sustainability processes, Sebastian is not only well-acquainted with communication in its many aspects, but can also tell you the modal share of bike traffic in Munich, the Radlhauptstadt (bicycle capital). And last but not least: as a co-founder of the Munich-based educational project wolkenschlösser, Sebastian can tell you a thing or two about the highs and lows of Social Entrepreneurship.
Contact: sebastian.planck@seakademie.de
// “Even though I’ve only recently joined SEA, I already feel like I’m part of the family. It’s as though, over the past few years, I’d never been anywhere else.”
Dr. Barbara Scheck is the head of education and training at the Social Entrepreneurship Akademie and as such drives the development of our educational and training offers for students and businesses. After studying administrative sciences at the German Federal Foreign Office as well as international business administration in Paris, Oxford and Berlin, she obtained her PhD at the Technical University of Munich on the topic of Social Entrepreneurship and impact-oriented reporting, under the supervision of Dr. Ann-Kristin Achleitner. She has worked for the German Federal Foreign Office and a Swiss bank, as well as for Allianz’ CSR department and the social venture capital fund BonVenture. Most recently, she held the junior professorship for business administration, specifically social investment, at the University of Hamburg. In June 2016, she answered the Munich Business School’s call for a professor for entrepreneurship.
Contact: barbara.scheck@seakademie.de
Anja Graßl is responsible for marketing and communication at the Social Entrepreneurship Academy Munich. Already at the LMU Entrepreneurship Center she got to know the world of start-ups and their importance for our society. The starting point for her creative and committed work was the study of business education with a minor in English at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU) Munich. Her engagement at MTP - a student association for marketing between theory and practice - as well as further internships at ProSieben and in England has inspired and motivated her to support social entrepreneurship.
Contact: anja.grassl@seakademie.de
//As part of the team at the SEA I experience now daily that it is possible to work on a positive future for us young people and create something lasting.
Founders and directors
Since 2006, Klaus Sailer is a professor for entrepreneurship at the Munich University of Applied Sciences (HM) and managing director of the Strascheg Center for Entrepreneurship (SCE). He is a co-founder of the Social Entrepreneurship Akademie and a board member of the Munich Network. Klaus studied physics at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich and went on to obtain his PhD. at the German Research Center for Environmental Health. At Infineon AG, he was in charge of project management and the marketing of new technologies in the area of semiconductors. He co-founded a high-tech company in the field of communications and successfully established it on the market as CEO. He is especially interested in social innovation processes, sustainable business models, networking and co-creation.
Andy is Co-Founder and Executive Director of the LMU Entrepreneurship Center & German Entrepreneurship GmbH. He is also a Partner at Deloitte and Co-Founder & Managing Director of Deloitte Digital Ventures, an entity dedicated to building digital businesses for Fortune 500 level firms.
A serial entrepreneur with 34 years of experience in founding, financing, building and accelerating companies, Andy sold his software company to the publicly listed Avanquest Software in 2003, served as COO Europe until 2009 and as a Board Member until 2014. Andy served for 3 years as a Board member at Carpooling.com (acquired by Bla Bla Car) and 4 years at Feingold Technologies (acquired by ShareCare). His accelerator at the LMU, the top ranked university in Germany, has spawned over 220 companies in 10 years and the German Accelerator, a project of the German government has graduated over 100 companies in 4 years. Andy is Co-Founder and Board Member of the Social Entrepreneurship Akademie in Munich and started the “Global Entrepreneurship Summer School” in 2008. He a founding member of 4Entrepreneurship, the Entrepreneurial Think Tank of the 4 Munich Universities and holds teaching positions at the LMU and at the EM Lyon Business School in France.
A serial entrepreneur with 34 years of experience in founding, financing, building and accelerating companies, Andy sold his software company to the publicly listed Avanquest Software in 2003, served as COO Europe until 2009 and as a Board Member until 2014. Andy served for 3 years as a Board member at Carpooling.com (acquired by Bla Bla Car) and 4 years at Feingold Technologies (acquired by ShareCare). His accelerator at the LMU, the top ranked university in Germany, has spawned over 220 companies in 10 years and the German Accelerator, a project of the German government has graduated over 100 companies in 4 years. Andy is Co-Founder and Board Member of the Social Entrepreneurship Akademie in Munich and started the “Global Entrepreneurship Summer School” in 2008. He a founding member of 4Entrepreneurship, the Entrepreneurial Think Tank of the 4 Munich Universities and holds teaching positions at the LMU and at the EM Lyon Business School in France.
Dr. Bernhard Katzy was a professor for Technology and Innovation Management at the Bundeswehr University Munich, as well as founder and managing director of the university entrepreneurship center CeTIM (Center for Technology and Innovation Management). Professor Katzy’s main area of research interest was innovation management, with a focus on high-growth tech companies. He dedicated himself to expanding the CeTIM into an internationally-oriented center for the support of innovation and start-ups. After obtaining his PhD in engineering at the RWTH Aachen University, Professor Katzy completed his post-doctoral work and habilitated at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland. From 1990 to 1994, he worked as a researcher in the RTWH Aachen’s Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering (WZL). Following this, he began to teach at the University of St. Gallen’s Institute for Technology and Management.
In addition to his professorship at the Bundeswehr University, which he held from 1999 onwards, Professor Katzy taught at the School of Management at Leiden University in the Netherlands. In 2015, Professor Katzy passed on far too soon, to our great sorrow. In loving memory of him, we award the “Bernhard-Katzy prize“ for unconventional thinkers every year during the Global Entrepreneurship Summer School.
In addition to his professorship at the Bundeswehr University, which he held from 1999 onwards, Professor Katzy taught at the School of Management at Leiden University in the Netherlands. In 2015, Professor Katzy passed on far too soon, to our great sorrow. In loving memory of him, we award the “Bernhard-Katzy prize“ for unconventional thinkers every year during the Global Entrepreneurship Summer School.
Shortly after co-founding the Akademie, Dr. Dominik B. Domnik had already begun working on the topic of financing for SEA. It was clear to him from the beginning that though SEA began as a project far removed from development budgets or fundraising, it was important that one’s own organization be financially sustainable. Promoters of Social Entrepreneurship should also know how an exemplary social entrepreneur approaches the topic of finances. Based on this premise, Dominik set up the areas of finances, fundraising and organization development for SEA. He also forms as Executive Director SEA’s leadership team, together with Kristina. Dominik studied economics at the University of St. Gallen and completed his PhD thesis on the topic of “Decision-making in companies”. At St. Gallen, he worked on the university reform team before becoming a manager at a family office. During this time, he also became managing director at the MyHandicap Foundation and was significantly involved in founding the Center for Disability Integration. Dominik became a social entrepreneur himself with the founding of the social enterprise seif in Zürich.
Contact: dominik.domnik@seakademie.de
// “To me, SEA is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! There comes a time when you just know that you’re home – both in terms of the work and when it comes to your colleagues. SEA is my home, it’s incredibly fun and it makes me happy.”
Bringing ideas, talent and resources together to generate impact has long been Kristina Notz’ hobbyhorse. This is why she has been at SEA since 2012 and is quite appropriately in charge of networking. As the team’s spokesperson, she represents SEA in and outside of universities and is the voice of Social Entrepreneurship Education at the Social Entrepreneurship Netzwerk Deutschland. She and Dominik form SEA’s leadership team as Executive Directors. Prior to her work at SEA, Kristina was in charge of network expansion as Community Manager at Munich’s Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU). Like many of her SEA colleagues, she has personal experience in Social Entrepreneurship, as she helped develop Germany’s GENERATION-D ideas competition. Before this, she worked at a think tank. Until 2005, Kristina Notz studied political science, European law and French at the LMU and the Institut d'Études Politiques in Aix-en-Provence, France.
Contact: kristina.notz@seakademie.de
// “Over ten years ago, I found my way into social entrepreneurship. Then as now, for me, SEA is the place I want to work. I am very happy with our amazing team and with being able to work with so many exciting and committed people.“
Co-founder
Since 2001, Dr. Ann-Kristin Achleitner holds the chair for Entrepreneurial Finance and is Scientific Co-Director of the Center for Entrepreneurial and Financial Studies (CEFS) at the Technical University of Munich. In 2010, she co-founded the Social Entrepreneurship Akademie and since then has continued to actively support us.
Dr. Achleitner completed her studies, her two PhDs and her habilitation at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland. From 1994 to 2000, she was a professor for banking and finance at the European Business School (ebs) in Oestrich Winkel, prior to which she worked as a business consultant for McKinsey & Company, Inc. and the MS Management Service AG in St. Gallen. Her preferred fields of research are venture capital/private equity, family businesses and Social Entrepreneurship. Dr. Achleitner has received many awards and honors for her accomplishments in research and teaching, including the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.
