Everybody has a say when it comes to helping refugees and asylum seekers in Europe. That’s why Anne Kjær Riechert co-founded the ReDI School of Digital Integration to harness the expertise of the tech community and help migrants. Riechert is coming to TechCrunch Disrupt Berlin to tell us the story behind this school.
As a student, you can sign up for free and attend classes for a semester. It’s not too demanding as classes take place two evenings per week. You’ll learn about basic computing, developments in various languages (web, Java, Python…) and meet people in the industry who might be hiring. If you work in the tech community, you can volunteer and give back by becoming a teacher or a mentor.
And it’s working. Even Mark Zuckerberg had to visit when he was in Berlin:
Riechert also has an impressive list of jobs. She worked in corporate social responsibility and helped Samsung in Scandinavia. She moved to Japan for a research project. She worked on the Stanford’s Peace Innovation Lab in Berlin.
It’s clear that she understands that too many tech companies are focused on profits without looking at the bigger picture. Everyone could use a little more empathy, and the tech community could use a lot more empathy.
That’s why I personally can’t wait to hear Anne Kjær Riechert at Disrupt Berlin.
Buy your ticket to Disrupt Berlin to listen to this discussion and many others. The conference will take place on November 29-30.
In addition to fireside chats and panels, like this one, new startups will participate in the Startup Battlefield Europe to win the highly coveted Battlefield cup.
Anne Kjær Riechert
Co-founder & CEO, ReDI School of Digital Integration
Anne Kjær Riechert is CEO and co-founder ReDI School of Digital Integration. She is a 2006 graduate from KaosPilot in Denmark, a hybrid of a business and a design school. From 2006-2009, she worked as a corporate social responsibility consultant. In that capacity, she developed and implemented Samsung Electronics’ award-winning corporate social responsibility strategy for Scandinavia. In July 2010, Anne moved to Japan, where she spent 2 years researching open social innovation and received the prestigious Rotary Peace Fellowship. In 2012, she moved to Berlin to set up the Berlin Peace Innovation Lab, which is associated with Stanford University. The lab focuses on how technology is facilitating emerging and measurable social change toward global peace.
In 2015, in response to the refugee crises, Anne co-founded ReDI School of Digital Integration, a vocational training program teaching programming and tech skills to asylum seekers. In 2016 and 2017 Anne was recognized by Capital Magazine as “Young Elite – Top 40 under 40” in Germany, in 2017 she won the “Victress Award” for outstanding female leadership, and in 2018 she was recognised by Edition F as 25 women revolutionising German industry.