Speakers
Marc Opelt (he/him), Chairman of the Divisional Board, otto
Marc Opelt is Chairman of the Divisional Board of OTTO, Germany’s largest online store. He joined the Otto Group in 1990 and was promoted to the management of OTTO Office in 1996. In 2000, he moved to the management of Eddie Bauer, for which he worked in Seattle (USA) from 2002. He joined the management of the Baur Group in 2005 and was appointed Chairman in 2009. In 2012, Marc Opelt was appointed to the OTTO Divisional Board, which he has chaired since 2018.
Sofia Strabis (she/her), Head of Diversity, Health and Employer Branding, Commerzbank
Sofia Strabis has been with the Commerzbank Group since 2006 and previously worked for various banks in different functions. As Director and Head of Diversity & Inclusion, Health and Employer Branding, she is responsible, among other things, for Commerzbank’s new employer positioning, which was also designed with diversity in mind. Her motto: People don’t have labels & diversity rocks!
Duke Duong (he/him), Queer Activist & Social Media Lead, borisgloger consulting GmbH
Duke is a communications professional and agile leader of East Asian descent. He uses his reach on social media to raise awareness of intersectional, queerfeminist issues. He communicates content in an approachable, personal and understanding way. As a leader in a management consultancy in the field of social media, he is committed to a respectful, transparent and self-organised corporate culture at eye level and thus also brings expertise on existing corporate structures.
Susanne SIkora (she/her), Head of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Deutschland, Deutsche Bank
Susanne Sikora has been working in HR at Deutsche Bank for over 20 years. As Head of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Germany, she supports the bank and its employees in understanding and implementing diversity, equal opportunities and participation as holistically as possible. With her experience from various regional and central line and project tasks as an HR officer, remuneration specialist and coach in the company, she advises and accompanies people in a needs-oriented manner as a sparring partner, source of inspiration and feedback.
Dr. Antonia Wadé (she/her),Diversity Managerin, Audi AG
Antonia Wadé studied business administration in Regensburg and in the US. After completing her doctorate, she joined AUDI AG in 2000 in the Investor Relations department. This was followed by positions at the Audi Forum Ingolstadt and in Corporate Strategy with a focus on sustainability. She has been a manager in the Diversity & Inclusion department since 2017. She is involved inside and outside the company as an ally in the field of LGBT*IQ and has been a member of the PROUT AT WORK Foundation Advisory Board since 2021.
Elizabeth Anderson (she/they), Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Consultant, VENN DEI
An underground tour guide and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Consultant, Elizabeth was originally a History and English teacher. She eventually moved out of academics and into business, supporting communications at an early-stage VC firm while also creating the company’s first DEI strategy. She went on to manage Internal Communications and DEI at a climate tech scale-up before starting her own business, Venn DEI.
Dr. Beyhan Şentürk (she/her), executive Coach & Diversity Trainer
Dr. Beyhan Şentürk is an executive coach and diversity trainer. The political scientist prefers to talk about Muslim lifestyles in Germany and about (anti-Muslim) racism. The Berliner-by-choice particularly enjoys coaching career-oriented people who feel attracted by “diversity”. In addition to her specialist knowledge, Dr. Beyhan Şentürk also shares her experience as a lesbian woman of color from a working-class family with a fascination for religions.
Dr. Adrian Hector (he/him), Mitglied der Hamburgischen Bürgerschaft für die GRÜNEN
Adrian Hector has been a member of the GRÜNEN parliamentary group in Hamburg since August 2022, where he is the spokesperson for gender diversity. He is the first trans* man to hold such an office at state level. Adrian’s goal is to improve the living situation of trans, inter and non-binary people in Hamburg. For him, this includes strengthening peer structures, needs-based healthcare, combating hate crime, as well as the legal recognition and equality of all genders.
Alex Gessner (she/her), Chief Operating Officer, ACI Consulting
Alex Gessner is Managing Director at ACI Diversity Consulting. She spent 14 years as a senior product and tech executive in the financial industry, responsible for innovative and disruptive projects. Her specialty: organizational design and building scalable teams/companies. A financial disruptor by day, diversity activist by night, she has been recognized for her achievements as a Future Maker by Business Insider, Executive #1 by PROUT AT WORK and many more.
Brix Schaumburg (he/him), Artist
Brix Schaumburg is Germany’s first officially outed trans actor. If you’re looking for the ordinary, you’ve come to the wrong place. He is committed to a world without labels. As a diversity coach, he advises companies and brands. With his very personal story and his commitment as a media person, he wants to sensitize, educate, promote discourse and create more awareness in dealing with people from different backgrounds. He is also an active ambassador for the DGTI (German Society for Transidentity and Intersexuality), among others.
Simone Christ (she/her), Project & Change Manager Corporate Social Responsibility, Communications & CSR, Deutsche Bank
Simone Chris has been with Deutsche Bank for over 30 years and has worked in various roles and regions. Today, she uses her experience as Project & Change Manager in the area of social responsibility (CSR) and supports the bank and its employees in becoming socially involved and promoting values such as democracy, equal opportunities and education.
ISabelle Mayerhofer (she/her), Jr. Machine Learning Engineer,
OTTO
Isabelle Mayerhofer has been working at OTTO in the field of artificial intelligence since the beginning of 2023. She has a degree in computer science and English. Before switching to IT, the American native taught German as a foreign language for many years. She also gained editorial experience in media companies and was active in student radio. At OTTO’s MORE* network, she campaigns for the rights and visibility of queer employees.
Christopher Herden (he/him), Social Media Specialist, OTTO
Christopher Herden has been working at OTTO since 2022 in the Corporate Communications team as a Social Media Specialist and expert for LinkedIn and the company podcast. Before OTTO, he worked for various companies and agencies in marketing, social media and PR for consumer and lifestyle brands. He is a part-time cycling instructor. Since starting at OTTO, he has been involved in the queer employee network MORE*.
Sy Legath (he/They), Projekt lead, PROUT AT WORK
Born in Augsburg in 1982, Sy Legath studied ethics of text cultures (Elitenetzwerk Bayern) and has been working in various fields of professional communication for around 20 years. He received in-depth training in mediation, coaching and supervision at the IMK Berlin, among others. Parallel to his work as a coach and trainer, Sy works as a non-medical practitioner for psychotherapy with a focus on queer/trans. In political education work, he is involved in various projects in the field of democracy-building and anti-discrimination. His approach is power-critical and intersectional. Sy currently works as a project lead at PROUT AT WORK in Munich.
Jo Labecka (no pronoun), Corporate Relationship Manager, PROUT AT WORK-Foundation
Jo is an expert in the inclusion of all dimensions of diversity, with a particular focus on LGBT*IQ, and works with companies and organizations at PROUT AT WORK to create a culture of belonging in the workplace and influence change in society at large. Jo identifies as non-binary and believes that deconstructing gender is part of our evolution.
Shortly, get in insight into this year’s PROUT AT WORK conference.