Natalya Nepomnyashcha

Natalya Nepomnyashcha was born in Kyiv in 1989 and grew up in a disadvantaged neighborhood in Bavaria. Without a secondary-school diploma, she went on to study international relations in the United Kingdom by taking an unconventional route. She subsequently worked for, among others, a West African NGO and one of the world’s largest management consultancies. In 2016, she founded the social enterprise Netzwerk Chancen alongside her main career. Its program supports people from disadvantaged backgrounds and involves employers. In 2024, Nepomnyashcha was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.