Dr. Julia Freudenberg
Founder & Managing Director · Strategy & Partnerships
Julia has been CEO of Hacker School gGmbH since 2017 – one of Germany's best-known non-profits for digital education. Co-author of the 2024 book „Hack the world a better place" (with Karen Funk) and recipient of multiple awards including the Impact of Diversity Award and the Digital Female Leader Award. Before that she spent over 14 years in trade and key account management at Unilever, including the launch of Ben & Jerry's in Germany. She is also a guest lecturer at INU. At Hacker School Services GmbH she leads strategy and partnerships as Managing Director – with a deep understanding of how the corporate world and the non-profit sector can work together.
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Publikationen & Vorträge (8)
- Buch: „WAS IST WAS Naturwissenschaften easy! Schlau, schlauer, KI? Künstliche Intelligenz erleben" (Co-Autorin mit Matthias Feldmann, Tessloff Verlag, 2025, ISBN 9783788677954)
- Buch: „Hack the world a better place – So gestalten Unternehmen die Zukunft" (Co-Autorin mit Karen Funk, 2024, ISBN 9782496715095)
- Podcast-Host: „Talk about IT" (Hacker School)
- Medienpräsenz: FAZ, Handelsblatt, CIO Magazine, Carl's Zukunft Podcast #176
- Award: Impact of Diversity Award 2023 (Women in STEM/MINT)
- Award: Digital Female Leader Award 2022
- Award: Digital Social Award
- Award: WIN-Award für Outstanding Diversity Engagement
Joana Eisenhardt
Founder & Managing Director · Finance & Controlling
Joana is the bridge between business and IT. For over eight years she supported accounting projects at an international retail group, most recently as a Business Analyst – focusing on SAP ERP and the optimisation of IT-driven processes. Since late 2021 she has advised non-profits and companies as an independent management consultant (Eisenhardt Consulting UG) on financial accounting, controlling, tax and non-profit law questions as well as strategic direction. She has guided the introduction of efficient accounting processes and tools as well as the implementation of HR software – always with an eye on what actually counts in day-to-day operations. At Hacker School Services GmbH she leads financial accounting and controlling as Managing Director. She also runs requirements analysis with clients, connecting operational business with IT there too.
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Andy Freudenberg
Founder · Project Consultant & Mentor
Andy brings years of experience in IT consulting, having worked at macros Financial Technology Consult GmbH with a focus on digital transformation projects. At Hacker School Services GmbH he works as a project consultant and mentor.
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Rachel-Sarah Sircar
Founder · AI & Innovation
Rachel combines IT consulting, artificial intelligence and design. As IT Team Lead at Hacker School gGmbH she is building out the technical foundations for digital education. At Studio Slooos she works on a game project as CPO/CMO and is co-author of the textbook „IT für Anfänger" – with the chapter on artificial intelligence. Before that she worked as an IT Consultant (Agile Coach, Scrum Master) and AI+Digital Project Manager. At Hacker School Services GmbH she shapes AI strategies and user-centred solutions for the non-profit sector.
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Publikationen & Vorträge (1)
- IT für Anfänger – Die Grundlagen der Informatik einfach erklärt (Co-Autorin, Kapitel: Künstliche Intelligenz – Eine Reise durch die Zukunftsfabrik)
Matthias Feldmann
Founder · Data Analytics, AI Engineering & Solutions
Matthias is Vision Officer at Hacker School gGmbH and a multi-time founder – including BitBeaver UG (since 2019). As co-author of the children's non-fiction book „Schlau, schlauer, KI? Künstliche Intelligenz erleben" (Tessloff Verlag, 2025) he explains artificial intelligence in a way that even children understand. At Universität Hamburg he taught Collaborative Distributed Software Development, Process Mining, Business Intelligence and Data Analytics across several years. Before that, he led IT at a Hamburg mid-sized company and built up his own IT-services ventures. At Hacker School Services GmbH he leads data analytics, cloud application development and solutions engineering – from architecture through to implementation. He builds the current software solutions, data models and test infrastructure with AI support.
LinkedIn →
Publikationen & Vorträge (1)
- Buch: „WAS IST WAS Naturwissenschaften easy! Schlau, schlauer, KI? Künstliche Intelligenz erleben" (Co-Autor mit Dr. Julia Freudenberg, Tessloff Verlag, 2025, ISBN 9783788677954)
Nico Ender
Developer · Fullstack & AI Integration
Nico is a senior fullstack engineer with more than 20 years of hands-on experience – self-taught, covering UI/UX, scalable architecture and self-hosted deployment. He has helped build platforms serving several hundred thousand users, including the HR-tech platform JOBMATCH.ME and the portfolio system foliodrop, and modernised undocumented systems that had grown over 20 years at empro. He is currently building Slooos, a gamified family app, single-handedly – including architecture, security reviews and AI features. At Hacker School Services GmbH he implements web applications and AI integrations: TypeScript, SvelteKit, Node.js, Astro and PostgreSQL with pgvector.
