Since 2005 Thorsten Jahnke is CEO of iq consult GmbH, an agency working on social innovation and also Co-founder of Social Impact gGmbH in 2010.
Social Impact provides expert start-up consultancy. Since 2011, Social Impact gGmbH, has been developing Social Impact Labs offering the start-up programs. There are already Labs in 8 german cities. The labs provide scope for co-working, networking and events. To date, several thousand companies have been set up with the support of Social Impact.
After his vocational training as an industrial clerk and studying economics, education and politics (FU Berlin) Thorsten Jahnke gained experience as a CEO and as a member of various managing boards within a broad range of social businesses and organisations. He has been working for more than 25 years in the field of Inclusive and Social Entrepreneurship. This includes both leading different start-up support programs for disadvantaged people and business incubators for socal start-ups.
He worked in senior positions in several European projects, such as ADAPT, EQUAL I + II and Leonardo. He also taught at various universities and published professional articles and guides for social start-ups. Currently, he heads the Social Impact Labs Berlin and Potsdam, which run various national and international programs supporting Social Entrepreneurship.