Female Allstar Boardroom Session
On March 9, 2023, we invited the Female Allstar Board 2022 to their first joint board meeting. We wanted to find out how the female winners tackle the most important items on the agenda of German companies together.
To this end, the Handelsblatt Research Institute has investigated which issues are of particular concern to companies in Germany today and will shape the future of the economy. Based on this, we discussed the following agenda items with the top players in the German economy:
1: Drive decarbonization
2: Counteracting labor shortages
3: Develop strategies for dealing with the changing geopolitical environment.
How are board members addressing these issues in times of energy crisis, Ukraine war and supply chain bottlenecks?
The language of the discussion in the livestream is English.
Female Allstar Board – The Initiative
With the Female Allstar Board initiative, Handelsblatt and Bain & Company are creating a unique stage for women in leadership positions. The enrichment of companies by women has been scientifically proven, but is still not a lived standard in many companies.
With the Female Allstar Board, we are not only making a statement in the business world, but also for young committed women in particular: The leaders of tomorrow.
Every year, female managers who revolutionize the C-level in German companies are honored in five categories. In addition to sustainably strengthening the topic of women in leadership positions, the initiative aims to promote young talent and create a network for these same women.
“Female Allstar Board – A look at women in leadership positions & career paths.”
In the joint report by the Handelsblatt Research Institute and Bain & Company, you can learn more about the Female Allstar Board and its members in 2022. In addition, the current status quo of women in management positions will be highlighted on the basis of facts and figures, and the development of young talent will be outlined. Let us inspire you.
Live recording
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Host

Hans-Jürgen Jakobs
Until October 2022, Hans-Jürgen Jakobs was Senior Editor at Handelsblatt, where he was Editor-in-Chief from 2013 to 2016. Previously, as head of economics at the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" newspaper, he had dealt intensively with small and medium-sized enterprises and family businesses.

Mareike Steingröver
Female Allstar Board 2022

Anna Dimitrova
Anna Dimitrova (born 1976) has been Group Financial Controller of the Vodafone Group since November 2022.
Previously, she was Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer at Vodafone Germany since March 2022 after serving her role as Managing Director Finance & Strategy (CFO) there for almost four years.
In previous years, she was already a member of the Executive Board and initially responsible for Strategy & Digital, and later for Strategy & Innovation at Vodafone Germany.
Born in Bulgaria, she started her career in 2001 in the marketing department of Vodafone Germany and has since held various management positions in the Consumer, Enterprise and Finance business units. Since 2011, she has been responsible for Finance Enterprise and Enterprise Marketing. She had been Chief Financial Officer of Vodafone Czech Republic since December 2012.
Anna Dimitrova holds a degree in business administration and studied marketing, business informatics and controlling at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg. She also holds a Diploma of Management from Henley Management College, United Kingdom. In addition to her role as Managing Director Strate-gy & Transformation at Vodafone, she is a member of the University Council of the Cologne University of Applied Sciences.
Anna Dimitrova is married and has one daughter.

Melissa Di Donato
Melissa Di Donato is Chief Executive Officer of SUSE and is responsible for all aspects of the SUSE business and its worldwide growth.
She has spent more than 20 years in technology as a leader delivering innovative and transformative cloud solutions and software technologies for customers around the world. She is dedicated to building high performing teams, ensuring diversity across the business, and developing multi-channel go-to-market strategies.
Prior to SUSE, Melissa was the Global Chief Operating Officer for the Digital Core at SAP and Area Vice President at salesforce.com for EMEA and APAC. Melissa continuously receives awards and accolades; throughout her career these have included CEO Today Magazine’s Europe Awards 2020, one of the Top 10 most influential women in U.K. Technology, and the Technology Woman of Achievement award by Women in the City, among many others.
She is a Non-Executive Director at J.P. Morgan Europe Limited and an Executive in Residence at Notion Capital. She is the Founder of Inner Wings, a charity that was created to help build confidence and courage in young girls with the goal of creating a world of empowered and determined women. She is also the author of three children’s books and was the inaugural Chair of the 30% Club’s Technology Working Group.
Melissa is SUSE’s first female CEO and completed her education at American University, graduating with an MBA in International Business and a Master’s degree in Russian.

Saori Dubourg
She is responsible for the global businesses in Monomers, Performance Materials and Petrochemicals, and Intermediates. She is also responsible for the Europe region, the startup trinamiX and the BASF Corporate Sustainability Board. Saori Dubourg is a member of the German Council for Sustainable Development, which advises the German government on the implementation of the sustainability strategy. Since July 2021, Saori Dubourg has been a member of the steering committee of the G7 Impact Taskforce, which was established in 2021 under the G7 Presidency.

Melanie Kreis
Finance department
Functions:
Corporate Accounting & Controlling
Investor Relations
Corporate Finance
Corporate Audit and Security
Taxes
Finance P&P
Finance Global Forwarding, Freight
Finance EXPRESS
Finance SUPPLY CHAIN
Finance DHL eCommerce Solutions
Finance Corporate Center & Services
Other functions:
Legal Services
Resume
Training
1994: Master’s Degree in Physics, State University of New York at Stony Brook, USA
1997: Diploma in Physics, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-University, Bonn
2000: Master of Business Administration, INSEAD, France
Professional career
1997-2000: McKinsey&Company, Inc., Cologne, Germany
2000-2004: Apax Partners & Co., Munich and London
2004-present: Deutsche Post DHL:
2004-2006: Various functions at DPDHL
2006-2009: Executive Vice President Corporate Office, Corporate Organization
2010-2013: Executive Vice President, Corporate Controlling DPDHL
2013-2014: CFO, DHL Express
2014: Member of the Board of Management

Amanda Rajkumar
Amanda Rajkumar was born in Northampton, UK in 1972 and is of British nationality. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Goldsmiths College, London University, United Kingdom, before beginning her career with London-based executive search firm JM Management. From 1998, she held various senior HR management positions at JPMorgan Chase. In 2009, she joined BNP Paribas, where she worked for over eleven years in Global Human Resources for various business units in Europe and the US. Most recently, as Chief Human Resources Officer, she led Human Resources for the Americas region and was responsible for BNP Paribas’ Intermediary Holding Company in the Americas with responsibility for Retail and Wholesale. Amanda Rajkumar was appointed to the adidas Executive Board at the beginning of 2021 and is responsible for Global Human Resources. She was appointed Labor Director in May 2021.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at: fab@anmeldung.me
With kind regards
Your Handelsblatt Team