Rainer holds a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University and looks back on a 15 year international career as a professional and executive in the social innovation sector. For the global NGO Ashoka, he founded and initiated more than 10 organizations and programs supporting social entrepreneurs and the purpose economy – together with foundations, investors, the federal government and companies like Google, Zalando and McKinsey. He has also personally advised and supported more than 100 social entrepreneurs all over Europe.

As CEO of Ashoka Germany, Rainer transformed his own organization into a completely distributed leadership model, abandoning all formal hierarchies. The resulting model was a finalist of the German New Work Award 2020. Also in 2020, he co-founded a network of experts, the Inner Work Alliance, to share his experience around self-managed organizations – and to raise awareness of the key role of “inner work” for organizational transformation.

As a coach, Rainer works with executives, entrepreneurs, leaders and top professionals in the for-profit and non-profit sector.