My name is Stefan Hensel. I am a partner and managing director of the Hamburg PEDIA gGmbH as well as KINTA -Immobilien der Sozialwirtschaft, a company which specializes in real estate for the social economy sector. I am pleased to be able to give you a brief insight into my work and commitment.

I have been working in the areas of education, consulting, training and international project development for over fourteen years. I began with a study of Pedagogy with a focus on Social Management at the University of Lüneburg, where I acquired my diploma. In 2009 I founded the non-profit education company PEDIA GmbH, which currently runs ten kindergartens and nurseries in Hamburg. The linguistic focus is Chinese, Russian and Spanish, and in addition PEDIA also operates an all-day school. One of our kindergartens is a specialised institution in which refugee children learn the German language. Our educational institutions have received numerous awards. These include, amongst others, receiving the Hamburg Education Prize from the Hamburg Senate and receiving recognition from the “Little Scientists’ House” (Haus der Kleinen Forscher) and several awards by KITA21.

Another key ambition of my work is to bring together education and business administration. I have established the Kinta – Immobilien der Sozialwirtschaft to enable start up day-care centres and international education providers looking to enter the German market, as well as existing providers to expand their structures. Additionally, I advise educational institutions in the fields of concept design and concept development.

For me in particular, developing international and bilingual education is close to my heart. I regularly visit educational institutions and professional conferences at home and abroad. It is my wish to promote the international exchange of teachers and to enable mutual learning.

The promotion of German-Israeli and German-Chinese relations in the field of education and early childhood education is one of my priorities. Until mid 2021, I was chairman of the German-Israeli Society in Hamburg for many years. In July 2021, I was appointed by the Hamburg Senate to be Commissioner for Jewish Life and the Fight against and Prevention of Anti-Semitism for the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. During my studies, I worked intensively with the study of Confucianism and Chinese education, and in preparation for the opening of the German-Chinese kindergarten in Hamburg 2012, I attended a variety of educational institutions in Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and New York to learn from successful models.

By now, every year I travel to Asia with an own workshop and lecturing programme in order to present trends in the early childhood education and international education market and combine them with topics of German pedagogy. In this context, I conduct training days for Chinese and international pedagogues together with my team and in cooperation with the governmental education authorities on site. Currently I am working on a book project on German-Chinese education issues.

In Germany I lecture on a regular basis on topics of early childhood education and bilingual education, on the education system, and on topics of social economy and the education market.

It is my belief that every person has a right to free development of their personality and that each and every one is equally valuable. At the same time each person will have their own individual requirements, and will have obtained different experience, knowledge and perspective along the way. One of the biggest and most important challenges is therefore to engage with people in all their diversity, thus creating the basis for exciting encounters and sustainable learning processes.

For me, this openness to the other and to the common communicative process is one of the most important prerequisites for a successful partnership – with my team as well as with my business partners.

I look forward to getting in touch with you to develop ideas and projects.