Big leadership news at Impact Hub Berlin
After 11 remarkable years as CEO and Co-Founder, Leon Reiner is transitioning out of daily operations. We’re excited to welcome back former CEO and Co-Founder Nele Winn, who will guide us into the next chapter of making impact work.
This founders’ baton handover is our commitment to stability and focus at a time when the impact sector is at an inflection point, and must prove itself rising to new levels of seriousness and professionalism.
To guarantee stability going into this new phase, our leadership shift builds on shared founder expertise: Leon Reiner will remain deeply engaged as a committed shareholder and will take the role as Chair of our newly established Advisory Board. His involvement will focus on supporting the leadership, stewarding our strategic development and representing Impact Hub Berlin in relevant arenas as well as ensuring continuity during this transition.
Nele Winn (née Kapretz) is returning to take over from Leon after her parental leave, in a natural transition within the founding team, bringing deep experience and trusted leadership. As our Co-Founder and former CEO for ten years (2012-2022), she has played a key role in the growth of Impact Hub Berlin. Even during her time away from daily operations, Nele remained a steady, supportive force in the background. To strengthen us for the future, and given Nele’s family commitments, she will return as CEO from December, while Impact Hub Berlin will begin the search for a Co-CEO in January 2026.
More than a decade of shared founder expertise and focus on our core services
For more than a decade, Nele Winn and Leon Reiner have shaped Berlin into a hotspot for social and sustainable innovation, championing its potential as a global centre for impact powered by entrepreneurship, innovation, and cross-sector collaboration.
Over the past year, this shared founder expertise has been translated into a clear strategic focus around our core services — Programmes and Coworking. To strengthen this focus, we consolidated our leadership structure and appointed two new directors: Harsha Jagasia as Director of Programmes and Alicia Feig as Director of Coworking. Together with the founding team, they are shaping the next phase of Impact Hub Berlin.
This founders’ baton handover now builds on those efforts, providing continuity in our leadership team and completing the final step in our transformation — reinforcing stability and focus at a time when the impact sector is at an inflection point, while positioning Impact Hub Berlin to grow, innovate, and create even greater impact in the years ahead.
How vision, partnerships, and persistence built a new era for Impact Hub Berlin
Under Nele and Leon’s leadership, Impact Hub Berlin scaled from local initiatives to international partnerships with global companies and the German government, grew its revenues from a €50,000 crowdfunding campaign to a multi-million-euro annual turnover, and gained national and international visibility — from visits by King Charles to support from Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus and Dr. Robert Habeck.
Most recently, Leon has been the key driving force behind the organisation’s last major growth phase, shaped by three decisive pillars: the development of the award-winning Circular Coworking Space in Neukölln, the successful financing and financial stabilisation of the organisation, and the strategic growth and professionalisation of the team.
During this phase, the coworking space evolved from a 600 m² space into the 3,500 m² award winning circular coworking space recognised by the Financial Times as one of “Europe’s Leading Startup Hubs 2024,” while Impact Hub Berlin’s programmes expanded to encompass incubators, accelerators and innovation initiatives in close partnership with organisations such as the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, GIZ, Miele, TikTok, and the Berlin Senate.
"I’m proud that Impact Hub Berlin has become a leading organisation in Germany’s impact sector. That’s the legacy I was lucky enough to contribute to. I’m absolutely confident that Nele, Harsha and Alicia are the right people to navigate this next phase of growth.
To everyone who contributed to this success story over the past 11 years: The incredible impact entrepreneurs, our partners, the impact hub network and the amazing people in our impact community. Each of you has made this journey possible, and each of you has played a part in shaping the person I am today. Thank you!” says Leon Reiner.