Konstanze Frischen co-leads Aspen Digital. She brings over two decades of leadership experience in Europe, North America, and beyond. Before joining the Aspen Institute, she was a Vice President with Ashoka, a global organization that invests in transformative ideas for social change, where she launched and led its global Tech & Humanity portfolio after leading the organization in North America and co-founding Ashoka in Europe. She was a founder of the Globalizer, an accelerator for social entrepreneurs, and a board member for GLS bank, a large credit union and one of Europe’s leading ethical banks with a focus on sustainable investments.
Konstanze started her career as a journalist focused on business, and finance, and has done journalistic work in three languages: for CNN in London, for Die Zeit and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in Germany where she was a reporter, editor, and a founding team member of its award-winning Sunday paper, and for Canal 7 in Costa Rica. She studied at the University of Heidelberg, holds a Master of Science degree in Social Anthropology from the London School of Economics, and is an alumna of the prestigious German Academic Scholarship Foundation.
Throughout her career, Konstanze raised funds to invest in social entrepreneurs, and helped them grow their strategy and impact. She has built partnerships with businesses, philanthropists, and universities to scale innovations, and has done field research in multiple countries.
She is an advisory member of CASE at Duke University, and the author of “America’s Path Forward” by Georgetown University Press.
