Nina Straßner is the “Global Head of People Initiatives” at SAP Deutschland. She passed her first state examination after studying in Dresden, Sydney and Kiel. Her second state examination followed at the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf in 2008. Since then, she has been a barrister. After an international master’s degree program in media and copyright law at Stellenbosch University/S.A. and professional training as an international business mediator, she co-founded “Die Advocatur” law firm in Kiel with a focus on labour and insurance law, lectured at the business academy and at the same time started a family.
She has been a specialist in labour law since 2015. Thus, she has developed the legal and societal aspects of diversity management for herself into vocation, profession, and passion all at the same time. Her book “Keine Kinder sind auch keine Lösung” [No Children – Also Not a Solution], published in 2017, was nominated for the Women’s Business Literature Prize of the Handelsblatt, among others. Since 2020, she has taken great pleasure in writing a regular column in the Wirtschaftswoche.
In the fall of 2019, the DAX-listed corporation SAP invited her to join its management team. Today, as the “Head of Diversity and People Programs”, she is responsible for the corresponding human resources programs for 25,000 employees at SAP in Germany.
Dr. Eva Voß is the Head of Diversity, Inclusion and People Care Germany & Austria at BNP Paribas. Previously, she was responsible for Diversity & Inclusiveness, Health, Work-Life Dynamics and Employee Listening at Ernst & Young (EY) for several years, working as New Ways of Working team lead.
Dr. Voß studied political science, history and gender studies at the Universities of Freiburg and Brest. She received her doctorate in political science at the University of Freiburg; after obtaining her doctorate, she worked there for several years as head of the gender and diversity office.
As a keynote speaker and panelist, as well as author of several specialist publications, her focus is on unconscious bias, inclusive leadership, the culture of belonging, employee activation and governance structures to address equality. With her “Diversity Check” column in the Human Resources Manager magazine, she sheds light for professionals on the most important trends and developments in the area of diversity.
Rafael Cruces is Senior Manager Labor Relations, Social Affairs & DEI at McDonald's Germany. The trained business economist began his professional career at the Sparkasse in Detmold - in 2007 he joined McDonald's in the HR department. The native Spaniard is now married, a father of two children, and lives with his family in Munich.
Over the past 16 years at McDonald's, he has, among other things, defined the DEI strategy, implemented DEI & Speak-Up trainings as standards, and conducted the first company-wide Diversity Survey in 2022. The Diversity Week 2022 marked the beginning of a DEI network from which four ERGs have since emerged. In 2021, he received the DEI Franchise Partner Award for his strong commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion for all people, regardless of their background, gender, sexuality, and much more.
Rafael Cruces's next goal: To ensure that nothing is left to chance in the development from the restaurant to the C-level or as franchisees, and to enable transparent career paths. He aims to establish clear criteria and tools that can be easily understood in the talent process at the personnel and management levels, as well as for oneself - at any time - without needing to ask anyone or disclose one's desire to grow.
At Sanofi, Frank Rusko is the Diversity Lead for Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and his employer’s inclusion officer for Germany. He is a member of Generation X, cisgender, hetero, married, father and grandfather. His social background: working class. His ethnicity: half Hessian and half Carpathian German.
He gained cross-functional experience during his working life in the areas of production, finances, purchasing and HR. He has a degree in business administration (FH-Mainz) and an M.Sc. in Consumer Health Care (University Medicine Berlin – Charité), and is a systemic coach.
In recent years, he was able to implement a number of topics at Sanofi, including initiating an action plan to implement the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, launching a father network, developing Sanofi diversity weeks, introducing “Living and Working at Sanofi Awards” to promote role models with a number of categories (lived diversity, social responsibility, modern working and dream team), participating in the women and careers index, participating in PRIDE Champion “best workplaces” certification, and most recently kicking off a “Vereint in Vielfalt” diversity network.
The Federal Government Commissioner for Migration, Refugees and Integration, who is also the Federal Government Commissioner for Anti-Racism, Reem Alabali-Radovan, has a permanent seat on the board of Charta der Vielfalt e. V.