My Mission

Hi there. I am Olla Jongerius!

Moscow-born, New Zealand-raised, Spain & Germany- educated, Dutch-married, Berlin-based; with working experience across Asia and an unhealthy obsession with anything South American, I have always been drawn towards different cultures and unique experiences. An outsider in my childhood and teens, I've learned the hard way what it means to be excluded and not accepted.

In 2014 I was selected from over 3000 applicants from all over the world to represent New Zealand at UNAOC where I, among others, presented a draft resolution on the topic 'Unity in Diversity' to the former UN Secretary-General Ban-ki-Moon.

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Since then, my mission had become connecting the differences, building inclusive communities and supporting  corporates, startups, business schools and embassies in bridging the gaps between cultures, generations, departments, personalities and life experiences.

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I am passionate about organisational learning and development and founded BerLearn in 2019, a network of L&D specialists, HR managers, instructional designers, university professionals, trainers, coaches, facilitators and edtech startup founders, passionate about impactful and innovative people development.

I am also active in Berlin startup ecosystem and was part of European Commission Mission in Silicon Valley and Boston in 2018 and 2019 respectively.