Your CLIMATE News: best practices to decarbonize, exclusive CHOICE events and insights into our CLIMATE team!
We at
The Climate Choice
are working jointly on the decarbonization of companies and their supply chains.
Our Mission
We enable every company to transition to a low carbon economy through data-driven collaboration and individual climate transformation.
Our Vision
Every company a climate champion!
Our Team
Lara Obst
Co-Founder & Chief Climate Officer
At THE CLIMATE CHOICE, Lara is responsible for Operations, Sustainability as well as Communications and can answer any question about climate change.
Lara, after her B.A. in Art & Culture Organization, did her double Master in Innovation Management at TU Berlin & UT Twente, and received an additional Masterlabel in Sustainability. Lara’s master’s thesis was recognized by the Philippe de Woot Award for CSR. In recent years, Lara gained extensive experience in the Climate Tech industry as Co-Founder of MOWEA (modular wind turbines), Venture Developer of Weeve.network (IoT Data Platform) and Corporate Accelerator Manager DACH at Climate KIC.
Yasha Tarani
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer
At THE CLIMATE CHOICE, Yasha is responsible for business development, finance and sales.
He holds his Bachelor’s degree in Media Economics from Hochschule der Medien and a Master’s degree in Management from Leuphana University. Yasha previously founded the SaaS company resmio.com and built it into one of the leading restaurant software providers in Germany as CEO until 2017. Afterwards, he supported various tech start-ups in fundraising, management and sales issues.
Dr. Reyhood Farhan
Co-Founder & Chief Data Scientist
At THE CLIMATE CHOICE, Rey is responsible for Product Development and Data Science.
He holds a Master’s degree in Physics and a PhD in Bioinformatics. After working as a Data Scientist at PwC and SoundCloud, Rey most recently led the Data Science team at Silicon Valley product development firm Originate.com as a Director, working on data-intensive products for companies in the financial sector such as Blackrock, Pimco, Prudential.
Nikolas Martens
Head of Engineering
At THE CLIMATE CHOICE Nikolas is responsible for Software Development and Operations.
After his diploma in Information Technology at the TU München, Nikolas was working as Software Engineer, Coach and Consultant with several internet-companies in Berlin, employed as well as freelancing. His core areas are product development, software design and Agile methods.
Chun-Ching Su
Customer Success Manager
At THE CLIMATE CHOICE, Chun is responsible for improving customer satisfaction and product development.
She holds the B.C. in Geography and did her M.S. in Environmental Planning in TU Berlin, after a few years of working in the Berlin startup scene, she collects her operation experience in Supply Chain and Customer service, now she will apply her experience at THE CLIMATE CHOICE to assist customer experience improvement and product development.
Isabelle Fischer
People & Talent Manager
At THE CLIMATE CHOICE, Isi is responsible for People & Talent.
After her studies in Psychology, she started her career at a Berlin-based HR consultancy, but after a while she decided to go back to Lisbon for her Master in Organizational Consulting & HR. In the meantime, she supported various startups in the area of Talent Acquisition and People Operations.
Florian Schmiedler
Climate Communication Lead
At THE CLIMATE CHOICE, Florian is responsible for communication.
He holds a Master’s degree in German Literature from HU Berlin. As a project coordinator at Freunde fürs Leben e.V., he first led awareness campaigns on mental health for two years. He then worked as a PR consultant on the agency side for various startups and digital companies.
Alice Novello
Content Marketing and Event Manager
At THE CLIMATE CHOICE, Alice is responsible for content marketing and leads the CLIMATE TRANSFORMATION Summit.
They hold a BA in Media and Information from the University of Amsterdam and a MA cum Laude in Media Culture and Gender Studies from Goldsmiths University of London. Alice’s professional background is in IT Consultancy, and they are a co-founder and creative director of art and music festival Teste Mobili since 2018.
Enya Elstner
Junior Marketing & Social Media Manager
At THE CLIMATE CHOICE, Enya supports the Marketing & Communication department.
She completed her Bachelor’s degree in Media Management with a focus on Digital Media at the Berlin School Of Popular Arts. Since 2016, she has also worked as a writer for various music magazines and supported the editorial work of the ARD Studio Paris for four months.
Christos Atzinas
Frontend Engineer
At THE CLIMATE CHOICE Christos is responsible for Frontend Web Development.
He holds a Diploma in Product and Systems Design Engineering, and has worked for several years in the field of advertising and multimedia applied arts. For the past two years he brings his combined experience into web development.
Rafael Savastürk
Backend Engineer
At THE CLIMATE CHOICE, Rafael is responsible for the development and maintenance of our backend systems.
At the end of his higher education for Computer Science, he had already been able to gather up to three years of experience in several technical frameworks used by the company.
Shramana Takur
Backend Developer
At THE CLIMATE CHOICE, Shramana is responsible for the development and maintenance of the backend systems.
Shramana found her love for programming during her Bachelor’s in Physics and has pursued two consecutive Masters in Computer Science since. She started as a Java developer in Accenture and eventually started learning Python, and she hopes to get better at it with every passing day. She is also a data science enthusiast with a keen interest in knowledge graphs.
Steven Hein
Product Development
At THE CLIMATE CHOICE, Steven is responsible for product development.
Steven has a degree in Bioengineering and has been working in various areas of IT for over 10 years. He is an experienced javascript developer and web app builder, having honed his skills through work as an employee, freelancer, and volunteer. Steven is passionate about using technology to solve difficult problems in the world, and is always eager to take on new challenges and projects that aim to make a positive impact.
Do you want to work with us?
Join our Team of passionate climate and tech enthusiast who want to have a positive impact on climate change.
Our Team Values
Growth
Challenge yourself, grow beyond!
People
Responsibility, all together!
Impact
Drive real change, today!
Advisory Board
Christopher Keefe
CMO & Entrepreneur
As Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Omidyar Network, Christopher led global marketing for an investment firm founded by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. Previously, he was Sr. Vice President at GMMB, a renowned U.S. consulting firm whose clients included “Obama for President,” the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Visa and the United Nations Foundation.
Corinna Weinmiller
Sustainability Manager at Nestlé Deutschland
As Sustainability Manager at Nestlé Germany, Corinna has more than 15 years of experience in sustainable supply chains and is currently focused on the climate roadmap for the company. As a driving force, Corinna was instrumental in getting Nestlé Germany to join a petition on CO2 labeling of food products.
Tilmann Silber
Climate Expert and Strategist
As South Pole’s Director Sustainable Supply Chains, Tilmann built a leading consulting team that develops climate strategies for some of the world’s largest companies. His focus is on supply chains and the consumer goods industry. As a former Board Member of the International Platform for Insetting (IPI), he is one of the pioneers of “insetting”, the development of climate change projects in supply chains. His experience includes companies such as Nestlé, Unilever, L’Oréal, Chanel, Mondelez, Beiersdorf, Mars, Coop and Lidl.
Yvonne Jamal
Founder & CEO at JARO Institute for Sustainability and Digitalization (e.V.)
As Chairwoman of the Board of the JARO Institute for Sustainability & Digitalization, Yvonne and her committed JARO members want to make sustainable action the standard for business, and she is focusing intensively on capacity building and networking among the various stakeholders. In particular, the establishment of sustainable procurement with responsible supply chains is close to her heart. To this end, she recently developed a complete e-learning program with the JARO Institute. Her previous professional positions were with companies such as Zalando, TUI, Hilton and Accor.
Alexander Grosse
Advisor & Entrepreneur
Alexander Grosse has been active in the software scene for 25 years. He started as a developer, founded two startups and was head of development at SoundCloud, among others. After his last job at BCG’s Digital Ventures (a corporate venture builder), Alexander works as a business angel and startup advisor. He is co-author of the book ‘Scaling Teams’, which is about how to best address startup growth pains.
Armin Iskander
Founder & CEO, Iskander Business Partner
Armin Iskander, a computer scientist, is an entrepreneur with a passion and an expert when it comes to implementing product and customer ideas in the company. He started his career at Roland Berger and founded Iskander Business Partner in 2005. Today he is CEO, supervisory board member and investor. In his day-to-day business, he works as a management consultant. His clients include well-known start-ups and medium-sized companies as well as international corporations.
Our actions, transparency & network
THE CLIMATE CHOICE also does not want to release even more emissions, but rather prevent them as far as possible and operate in a climate-neutral manner. We want to save more emissions than we release. To this end, we use solutions that allow us to do this from the very beginning. We host this website at biohost.de, use GLS Bank for finances, we use green electricity in our home office and use co-working offices that are equipped to be as sustainable as possible, we cover all distances in Berlin by bike, we travel in Germany only by train, we pay attention to predominantly vegetarian, regional and seasonal food and we offset our footprint according to the guidelines of Leaders for Climate Action. Nevertheless, we are only at the beginning of our journey and will keep you informed about our progress towards becoming a “climate positive” company.
We are part of several entrepreneurial networks and initiatives for climate action in business. Among others, we are allowed to support Leaders for Climate Action, Entrepreneurs4Future as well as the EntrepreneursPledge and are members of the German Sustainable Business Association. We are also particularly pleased to be honorary members of the Impact Hub Leipzig!