Stefan Appelhans has been managing partner at Sorpetaler since 2021 – a family-run, responsibility-owned company that he leads in the fifth generation. The traditional company with 140 years of history manufactures high-quality wooden windows and front doors in the middle of the Sauerland region. Previously, Stefan Appelhans co-founded the digital education platform meinUnterricht.de in Berlin and played a key role in building it up as co-managing director for six years.

Gregor Ernst studied economics at the University of Witten/Herdecke. Since then, he has been involved in the topic of responsible ownership/fiduciary entrepreneurship and its potential for entrepreneurs, within the framework of GTREU – Gesellschaft treuhändischer Unternehmen. He is the founder of a software start-up focused on data sovereignty. Since 2019, he is a founding board member and member of the executive board at the Responsible Ownership Foundation.

Ann-Katrin Weidling is the fourth generation to run the family business WEICON GmbH & Co. KG in Münster. After completing her bachelor’s degree in business administration at Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität (WWU) Münster, she completed a postgraduate diploma at UCT in Cape Town. She has been working for the adhesives and sealants manufacturer WEICON for seven years and has been managing the company together with her father Ralph Weidling since 2020. Here, she is primarily responsible for the areas of marketing and human resources and is responsible for the expansion of the e-commerce area.

Dr. Irène Kilubi holds a doctorate in industrial engineering and management consultant and has worked for renowned companies such as BMW, Deloitte, Amazon, and Siemens. After many professional stations, she now follows her very personal passion and dedicates herself to the topics of JOINT GENERATIONS, Community Building, and Corporate influencer strategy. She is also an Expert Advisor for the European Innovation Council Accelerator of the European Commission. Dr. Irène Kilubi is a university lecturer in Digital Marketing and Entrepreneurship and a sought-after keynote speaker and anchorwoman at conferences and events.

Gabriela Carolina Jimenez is from Iquique, Chile and has an academic background in business administration. As a social entrepreneur, she has worked as a lecturer at the professional technical institute INACAP for the last five years. She teaches subjects such as statistics, economics, human resources, management, marketing, innovation and entrepreneurship. With over twenty years of experience, she has worked with entrepreneurs* from a variety of business sectors. She is married and the mother of one son and two daughters. She enjoys spending her free time volunteering, knitting, recycling, and advocating for inclusion.

Nick Reimer is a renowned German journalist and book author with a background in fuel and environmental process engineering. He became known for founding “ÖkoStroika”, the first national environmental magazine in the GDR, during the political transition of 1989/1990. His journalistic career took him from the Berliner Zeitung and the Morgenpost in Saxony to the taz, where he was business editor responsible for climate and energy. After his time as editor-in-chief of the online magazine klimaretter.info, he now writes as a freelance journalist for various media. Together with fellow journalist Toralf Staud, he won the Salus Media Prize 2021, among others, for the book “Germany 2050”. In addition, Reimer teaches sustainability and journalism at the University of Lüneburg.

Photo by © Joachim Gern

Dr. Christina Willerding is a consultant for the topics “sustainability” and “securing skilled workers” at Wirtschaftsförderung Münster GmbH. She hosts the podcast “Mindshift MS,” a format in which the topic of “sustainability and business” is discussed with exciting personalities from Münster and the Münsterland region. Christina Willerding is always a welcome guest in panel discussions and an interested developer for social entrepreneurship in the region.

Laura Berkemeyer and Christian Berlin have been performing improv theater together for 6 years at Peng! Together they have established several successful formats such as the City Walk or Improcracy. They enjoy performing on stages while plunging into the unknown. In their workshops, they fuse expertise from improvisation, work psychology, and philosophy. Through improvisation, they teach leaders, among other things, constant readiness for change, mindfulness, constructive handling of mistakes, and solution-oriented and empathic communication.

Harshitha Polathula holds a degree in Development Economics (MSc) and has a unique professional experience in developing solutions for different socio-economic landscapes in the Indian development sector. In her current role at ACEEU in Münster, her work focuses on research and quality assurance of Erasmus+ EU projects on topics such as female entrepreneurship, community enterprise development, rural resilience and digital literacy.

apl. Prof. Dr. Niko Paech studied economics, received his PhD in 1993, habilitated in 2005 and represented the Chair of Production and Environment at Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg from 2008 to 2016. He currently researches and teaches at the University of Siegen in the master’s program in Plural Economics. His main research interests are post-growth economics, climate change mitigation, sustainable consumption, sustainable supply chain management, sustainability communication and innovation management. He is active in various sustainability-oriented research projects, networks, initiatives as well as cooperatives.

Andreas Schmucker, co-founder and CEO of sustainable mobile company WEtell GmbH, is an activist social entrepreneur for climate protection and fairness. Under his leadership, WEtell combines privacy, transparency and sustainability to promote positive economic transformation. In addition to his management, Schmucker is responsible for marketing, sales and stands for the core value “fairness and transparency”. As an expert in responsibility ownership and thanks to his close connection with the Purpose Foundation, he played a crucial role in WEtell’s transformation into a responsibility ownership in 2022, and his efforts for sustainability and privacy in digital communications are underlined by his active role in the FairTEC initiative. With a background in microsystems engineering and renewable energy, Schmucker strives for companies to take a public stance on climate change.

Inna Gabler works at the North Westphalia Chamber of Industry and Commerce as an officer for corporate sustainability. Her tasks include both the sustainable orientation of her own company, in order to serve as a role model for member companies, and the support of IHK companies on their way to sustainable development. Through information events, webinars, public relations work and the highlighting of best practice examples, she helps to anchor the topic of sustainability and the need for corresponding transformative steps more firmly in the consciousness of the companies. Particular focus is placed on supporting smaller companies without their own expertise in the area of sustainability.

Andreas Seiferth looks back on almost 15 years in professional basketball, during which he played more than 330 games in the Bundesliga and over 50 games for the German national team. At the same time, he completed a master’s degree in sports economics and was part of the coaching team at the REACH EUREGIO Start-Up Center until summer 2023, where he competed for the WWU Baskets in the ProA in the 2nd Bundesliga on the side. Today, the Berlin native provides insights into the performance society of professional basketball and takes a critical look at the role of athletes in this system and the role of sustainability of professional athletes.

Monika Wacker is the founder of the online community paartherapie-direkt.de (pt-d). pt-d is the digital expert network for people looking for professional and serious counseling on sexuality and partnership. Monika Wacker is a Master of Counseling, Dipl. Päd., Dipl. Theologin (non-denominational), has been a couple and sex therapist in Telgte and Münster for over 10 years and is committed to de-tabooing sexuality in everyday life. According to Wacker, happy relationships lead to happy employees.

Photo: Grit Siwonia, Berlin

Photo: Grit Siwonia, Berlin

Jan Quaing is an expert on the topics of digitization and sustainability (in short, the double transformation). At the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (German Federal Foundation for the Environment), he explains the two topics in a practical way and thus makes the transformation more accessible. He also focuses a great deal on the question of how the gap between knowledge and action can be closed and thus how sustainable forms of economy can be put into practice through digitization. His academic interests focus on alternative economic models, especially the circular economy, business ethics and resource economics.  As a host of the podcat Code:Green, he not only speaks regularly about innovations, but is also passionately dedicated to disproving AI myths.

Dr. Volker Oshege is a member of the Executive Board and shareholder of the IT consultancy viadee AG. Before the sports scientist joined viadee in 2011, he worked for more than ten years as a consultant and project manager for an international software company. At viadee, the 51-year-old entrepreneur is responsible for sales, and has been a member of the Executive Board since 2020. In May 2023, he also assumed responsibility for Market Development in his role on the Executive Board.

As a graduate ecotrophologist and sustainability scientist, Sophie Löbbering is committed to food systems that are suitable for grandchildren, resilient and equitable. But that’s not all. An imperfectionist doer by passion, the social entrepreneur has co-founded three organizations: A Solidarity Agriculture in Münsterland (www.crowdsalat.eu), a social-ecological, transformative organizational development (www.iniciato.de) and the CSX Network for Community-Based Business (www.gemeinschaftsgetragen.de).

Dr. Udo Westermann is managing director of the entrepreneurial initiative future e.V. – verantwortung unternehmen and head of the CSR Competence Center Münsterland. future e.V. was founded in 1986 by predominantly medium-sized entrepreneurs with the aim of promoting corporate environmental protection through practical examples and suitable instruments. future companies did not want to wait for appropriate framework conditions, but to act proactively. The CSR Center supports medium-sized companies in the region in ambitiously designing their CSR processes. His personal fields of work are sustainability assessment and strategy development of companies, environmental and climate protection management as well as sustainability reporting, among others he is responsible for the quality assurance in the SME ranking of German sustainability reports.

Sabrina Lorenz is an author, speaker, consultant and activist on the topics of inclusion, Ableism and medical communication. On her blog Fragments of Living, she provides education and writes about disablity empowerment, reaching over 23,000 people every day. With her expertise as a chronically ill and disabled person, she supports clinical research in doctor-patient communication and advises companies on making businesses and content in public media more inclusive and diverse.

*The book is available for purchase at our congress.

Mona Neubaur, born in 1977 in Pöttmes, came to North Rhine-Westphalia from Bavaria in 1997 and quickly made herself at home in the Rhineland. After graduating with a degree in education in 2003, she worked first in the energy industry and then at the Heinrich Böll Foundation NRW, including four years as managing director. From 2014 to 2022, she was state chairwoman of the Greens in North Rhine-Westphalia. In December 2021, Mona Neubaur was elected top candidate for the 2022 state election. She has been a member of the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament since May 15, 2022. On June 29, 2022, she was sworn in as Minister for Economy, Industry, Climate Protection and Energy. At the same time, she was appointed by Minister President Hendrik Wüst to deputize for him.

The brothers Carsten and Samuel Waldeck founded SHIFT GmbH in 2014. Their modular and repairable SHIFTPHONES are lovingly developed in Germany and final assembled in their own small technology factory in Hangzhou, China. In the focus of their company philosophy you can find values like sustainability, fairness or waste avoidance instead of pure economic interests and financial success. They have firmly anchored meaning instead of profit maximization in the life and actions of the company.

For Daniel Decker, people are at the center of his work. He is a development facilitator for people and organizations and in this way works on the transformation of the economy towards a people-centered sustainable working world. Through many years of experience in the international economy, as well as in the educational context, he combines both worlds and is committed to exchange and synergies.

Dr Ansgar Buschmann is the 6th generation to run the family business Buschmann Büroorganisation from Münster. He founded his first company in his early 20s and has been active in both entrepreneurial and academic environments ever since. His research and activities always revolve around the question of how current developments influence business models and entire environments. He teaches at the University of Münster and at the Münster University of Applied Sciences. He is also involved in various voluntary activities, e.g. as spokesperson for the Initiative starke Innenstadt Münster (Strong Inner City Münster Initiative).

Prof. Dr. Isabelle Franzen-Reuter has been Professor of Immission Control and Chemistry at the Department of Energy – Buildings – Environment at Münster University of Applied Sciences since 2015. Since October 2021, she has also been Vice President for Teaching, Sustainability and University Planning. In this role, she coordinates and develops, among other things, the activities of Münster UAS in the field of sustainability.

Christoph Salzig is the founder and partner of the communications agency pr://ip – Primus Inter Pares GmbH based in Münster. With his team, he advises, accompanies and supports mainly family and owner-managed companies through the double transofrmation in order to position them well and fit for the future in terms of PR, marketing and internal communication. Christoph was a co-initiator of the TEDxMünster ideas conference.

Alexandra Conrads (she/her) – social scientist, trainer, consultant and systemic coach. She has been active in political education work for several years with a focus on anti-racism, criticism of racism and empowerment and works with a wide range of target groups.

Andrea Hansen is a journalist. She works from Münster, comes from the Ruhr area and studied in Düsseldorf – quasi NRW made human. After graduating from university and a traineeship in a television production company, she set up her own business, writes and works in front of and behind the camera for public broadcasters and on podiums when her journalistic expertise and open manner are needed for presentations. She has always enjoyed discussions and learned on the job that listening and asking questions is just as important as talking. Andrea Hansen belongs to Generation X and knows that a turnaround is possible: In her youth, people believed the last tree would soon be in a museum because of air pollution and its consequences. Today, “acid rain” is less of a problem because it has been reduced by three quarters in the EU through appropriate measures – most severely in Germany.

Tobias Daur is a GWÖ consultant, educational trainer, impulse generator, author and coordinator of the GWÖ Regionalgruppe Münsterland. With his company lands, he offers consulting, concepts and strategies for common good-oriented companies, communities and projects.

Photo: Sandra Konold

Prof. Dr. Martin Klein is Vice-Rector for Studies and Teaching at the Catholic University of Applied Sciences NRW and Professor for Theories and Concepts of Social Work. His research interests focus on operational social counselling, social work, digitalisation and case management. Since 2021, he has also been active in teaching social entrepreneurship – new perspectives for social work. In the summer of 2018, Martin Klein was elected as the first chairman of the Bundesfachverband Betriebliche Soziale Arbeit e.V. (Federal Association for Social Work).

Felix Landmesser is the founder and CEO of the start-up HealthX Future. The young social impact company develops solutions for the care catastrophe in elderly care. At the core of its activities is a platform with which professional and informal caregivers can organise everyday care and distribute care work digitally and easily among many shoulders. To this end, a holistic concept is being developed for all actors in the social space. The idea for the start-up arose from the three founders’ own experience as family caregivers. Felix Landmesser studied European Studies in the Netherlands and Sweden and also holds two Master’s degrees in Innovation Management & Entrepreneurship and Business Administration. While still a student, he co-founded his first impact start-up, an online gallery for affordable art. For several years, he has been involved with the interdisciplinary junior think tank humenta.

Sustainability economist and social entrepreneur Dr Christoph Harrach has been practising integral yoga in the tradition of Swami Sivananda for almost 30 years. As a scientist, he researches sustainable and healthy lifestyles as well as responsible business. In 2010, he received the German Sustainability Award for his work. He is one of the project promoters of the UN Decade for Sustainable Education of UNESCO and is an ambassador for the common good economy.

For many years, he has accompanied people and organisations in various roles on the path to sustainable development in the sense of the United Nations’ Agenda 2030.

Together with his team, Jens Thormeyer deals with a wide range of tasks: from competition design to implementation planning, from small-scale residential construction to urban development concepts. However, the focus of his work over the past 20 years has been on the planning of retail properties, as new buildings, in revitalisation and increasingly in conversion.

Two things characterise Jens Thormeyer’s work: the human scale and the unconditional pursuit of quality. The majority of his projects start on an urban scale. It is always a question of the interaction between public open space and the structural layout. Jens Thormeyer sees it as his duty to work with his clients to find sustainable solutions for implementation.

At viadee spark, Michael Effertz is committed to helping teams achieve more job satisfaction with modern, collaborative working methods. In doing so, Michael uses sociocracy methods to convey a lot of clarity in participatory structures. Michael is active in the association of German-speaking sociocracy centres and he holds lectures, training sessions and workshops on this topic.

Tim Krösche accompanies teams in agile roles and as a coach for viadee spark. His goal is to use the appropriate methods and models for the individual goals and needs of teams and organisations. Sociocracy is a method Tim likes to use, and he also offers seminars and workshops on it.

Christian Wiencierz is head of Scouting, Coaching and Shared Services at REACH – Euregio Start-up Center. Wiencierz, who holds a doctorate in communication science, is responsible for the operational implementation of REACH’s tasks as a service and competence centre in the field of innovation and spin-offs.