How her new social start-up is helping organisations foster diversity, equity, inclusion and anti-racism.
Yolanda Rother (MPP 2015) co-founded the social start-up The Impact Company in Berlin in 2021, which consults organisations on how to foster diversity, equity, inclusion and anti-racism. Yolanda discovered her interest in public sector digitalisation and innovation while studying public policy at the Hertie School. Her start-up aims to put digitalisation to work to help implement strategies that bring BIPoC and other marginalised people into decision-making processes, and to ensure all members of society are represented in the public sector. Yolanda is also active in the Stiftung Zukunft Berlin, a forum that engages citizens on social and political issues in Berlin.
Since you graduated from the Hertie School in 2015, where did your career lead you?
For the last seven years, I have worked in digital consulting for clients such as the digitalisation initiative Deutschland sicher im Netz, as public policy officer for AirBnB and project manager for the renowned digital innovation fair re:publica. When I started my Master of Public Policy, I soon realised my interest in digital transformation. Looking back, it was no surprise I explored open governance and digital transformation in my master’s thesis. Germany has not yet managed to transform its public sector. After I graduated, I wanted to tackle this challenge.
Last year, your career took you on a different route. You co-founded your own social business, The Impact Company. Could you tell us more about it?
With The Impact Company, I tackle a huge socio-political issue I noticed while working for the public sector: the need for representation of all members of society. My co-founder and childhood friend Shawn Williams and I support organisations navigating what we call the “diversity era”. We are a diversity, audience and culture consultancy founded in 2021. In 2022, people from the BIPoC (Black, Indigenous, People of Colour) community and other groups continue to be underrepresented in decision-making. Policy results, business strategies, services or even products thus contain a bias. At The Impact Company, we guide our clients through the cultural change happening right now – to include diversity, equity and inclusion and to be anti-racist. With success. We recently consulted a leading energy company on their human resources strategy. We also joined rehearsals of the world-famous theatre Berliner Ensemble to advise whether their play The Servant of Two Masters reproduced racist tropes and narratives, and even just consulted an organisation in Silicon Valley.
Not only are you your own boss, but you are also a board member of the Stiftung Zukunft Berlin, a forum that engages citizens on social and political issues in Berlin. Where does the motivation for your political commitment come from?
Well, that’s a tough question. I see myself as a person who participates in decision-making processes. This accounts for my life now as it did while I was still back at the Hertie School. I have always liked to point to issues that could be more inclusive. I believe that change can be co-managed, meaning I am not a rigid person in the system, but my voice counts. My thoughts count. An issue might not always be in my area of expertise, but sometimes it is.
Which skills from the Master of Public Policy helped your professional development?
When looking back at my time at the Hertie School, I guess it was the unique skill set and network that helped me most. There are a lot of fond memories I can still recall. The Hertie experience made me get to know a different education system, compared to the one in Brazil for instance. I also travelled to a leading global public policy conference (GPPN) in Japan where a fellow student and I were awarded Best Paper for our policy proposal on immediate actions on the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe. But it is not only the knowledge of hard facts that helps me today. I stayed in touch with many fellow alumni. The community spirit was and continues to be a driving force of its own. In fact, it was our cohort which coined the hashtag #hertielove that many people from the Hertie School community still use today.
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