“In tech, there are no stupid questions – nor in financial planning”

Our ERGO colleague Nakeema Stefflbauer is founder and CEO of the German non-profit organization FrauenLoop. The tech expert leverages her decades of digitalisation experience to address an immigrant, refugee, and women's marginalization from the technology industry. At this year's re:publica, Nakeema will discuss with Daria Suvorova (WAA Podcast) how to make women financially independent and protect them from poverty in post-retirement years.

Nakeema Stefflbauer, Division Director at ERGO Technology & Services

Dr. Stefflbauer, not only are you a Division Director at ERGO Technology & Services, managing our Digital Client Services portfolio – you are also the founder and CEO of FrauenLoop. In which of those capacities will you be on stage at re:publica and what will your topic and your key messages be?

At re:publica, my role is to leverage the experience I’ve had as a tech professional working in the insurance industry and as the CEO of FrauenLoop. At FrauenLoop, I often run workshops for women that focus on identifying and prioritising financial targets - not just on programming skills. In reality, even the strongest programmer needs a financial strategy to maximise their security over the long term – and that’s especially true for women.

Which situation are you trying to tackle with your organisation and, specifically, with your talk at re:publica? Are there any statistics or examples that underline these circumstances that need improvement?

Across Germany, 34% of STEM first-year students (short for: Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) are women, but women comprise only 17% of tech start-up company employees. We’re only 15-20% of startup founders. Beyond these disparities, there is a financial component: Women who change careers and enter full-time technical roles often see their income rise significantly. At FrauenLoop, our graduates achieve, on average, an 86% rise in salary. This says a lot about the earning power of people in women-dominated industries versus earnings in industries where men hold the majority of positions...