Dr. Markus Freiburg

Together with Ashoka, Markus founded FASE in 2013 and grew it to become the leading social finance intermediary in Germany and Europe, providing an open pipeline of investment-ready social enterprises. Markus structured some of the first hybrid models in Europe and mobilized over EUR 25m for more than 50 social enterprises, distinguishing as a thought leader for social finance across Europe. He is an active contributor to European and German policy making in the field of social finance and social innovation, as  member of Expert Group on Social Entrepreneurship of EU Commission (GECES), of the German Advisory Board of the G7 Impact Investing Taskforce, and of the Advisory Board of EVPA Research Center. He is also contributing to the development of two impact bonds in Germany, was assigned by the EU to provide technical assistance to organizations preparing impact funds across the continent and is the author of a wealth of articles, reports and case studies on best practices in social finance. He was also selected for the 40 under 40 European Young Leaders Class 2017. Prior to this, Markus worked for more than 7 years as consultant for McKinsey & Company (2005-2013) and was a Town Council Member in Xanten for 5 years. Markus received his Ph.D. from the WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management (2011) and studied Business Administration and Economics at the Universities of Witten/Herdecke (2005) and Cambridge (2004).