Bestselling author, thought leader of 2020, ex-supervisory board member, entrepreneur and one of the most important opinion leaders in the start-up scene and in the field of education in Germany: Verena Pausder's life is more tightly scheduled than the London Underground. There is hardly anything free between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. and she usually only answers emails later, when the children are in bed. Despite everything, she tries to read two books a week, a large pile piling up in view of her bed. As Rudolf Delius' eldest daughter, she would have been predestined to take over the family business, but decided against it. She had other plans - and lots of them.

Ms. Pausder, what have you done recently?

Six weeks of complete offline time at the beginning of the year. So offline on all channels. No WhatsApp, no emails, no social media. Instead, I read 16 books. It wasn't as if time had stood still, because we also have four children and are struggling with homeschooling, but somehow it was a gift to myself to have some peace and quiet.

That sounds like more than six weeks of digital detox would also do you good.

Digital detox only works for a limited time. Firstly, I can't go more than six weeks without reading emails because I still have a job somehow. And of course I'm in all the school, nursery and sports club groups on WhatsApp. I can't switch that off permanently. But at least: as easy as the six weeks were for me, I can now say with confidence and certainty that I'm not a social media addict.

So what is your biggest addiction?

Sugar. I somehow have to eat something sweet after every meal. I've already passed this on to my children, which my husband thinks is terrible. Even when I'm stressed, I have chocolate first.

There is probably no shortage of stress. You juggle dozens of projects. Are you worried that you won't be able to do them all justice?

I don't have a single mandate or advisory board position that I don't get involved in. I'm not someone who doesn't show up anywhere, doesn't make an appearance and then just appears on the website. That's why I turn down 95 percent of requests, otherwise it wouldn't be possible. I also know how to relieve stress for myself: by doing sport and spending time with my children. They just want to play and they don't care what kind of stress I'm under. My children are actually the best protection against myself, because I simply have to slow down.

One of last year's projects was your book "Das Neue Land", which also won Entrepreneur Book of the Year. Was that planned or were you bored?

I've always wanted to write a book, even when I was 18. I love writing, I have 100 diaries upstairs, I've always written speeches. Over the last few years, I've had offers to write a book from time to time, but every time I've listened to myself and said: "No, this is the wrong time, I don't even know what I should be writing about right now." Then a publisher approached me again in October 2019, two months before I left my company. I thought that was the right time. We then signed the contract without knowing exactly what the topic was.

Was that exhausting?

I wrote the book in three months and if it hadn't been for corona, it would probably have taken me a year. There was nothing going on from March to June last year. No weekend trip, no travel, nothing at all. I was able to do a lot of research, read a lot and write a lot.

You were also a member of the Supervisory Board at Comdirect until it was merged into Commerzbank. Can you just do that on the side?

Being a supervisory board member is not a job you do just to make yourself sound good. It's a lot of work and you are liable with your private assets. Nobody does it on the side.

As a woman on the Supervisory Board, you were still an exception. Why is that the case?

I think things have changed a lot on supervisory boards since the 30 percent women's quota was introduced, at least for large companies. Women have also joined the boards accordingly. But there are many factors that still make it difficult to become a member of a supervisory board and to be good at it.

Which ones come to mind?

Lack of informal knowledge. One example: there are committees and they have different levels of importance. The Nomination Committee is important because it decides on successors and the Executive Committee because it is responsible for the agenda of the Supervisory Board meeting. But if you're a woman just joining the Supervisory Board, especially if it's your first mandate, then you don't know all these things.

After all, it's well paid.

If you take it seriously, it's a lot of work, with lots of meetings and workshops. The pay isn't bad, but that's not why you should do it.

That's easy to say when you've grown up in a wealthy household. You are the daughter of Rudolf Delius, owner of a more than successful family business. What role did money play in your childhood?

We didn't talk about money. I didn't know how much money we had, whether it was enough or who owned what. Nor did I know whether my parents had a joint account or each had their own. That was also a form of privilege, because money often only becomes a big issue in everyday life when it becomes an existential concern, and that wasn't the case with us.

Delius is a company with a long tradition. Is this not reflected at home?

My parents were thrifty. We didn't have any status symbols. My father drove an ancient Passat, but usually came to the office by bike anyway. And yes, we lived in a big house, but it was more of a curse than a blessing because it was built in 1880, was totally cold, draughty and not insulated. We also lived right next to the railroad tracks. It was terribly loud when a train passed by. As a child, I didn't realize that I didn't have to worry about running out of money.

How did you come into contact with finance?

My father sent my sister and me to the local savings bank when we were eight or ten years old and told us to buy federal treasury notes with money we got for our birthdays or confirmation. I can still remember how my sister and I stood in the banking hall and then went up to the counter. 'Hello, we would like to buy Federal Treasury Bonds Series A'. They were still paying ten percent interest back then, which was crazy compared to today. Of course, neither of us had any idea what they actually were.

Did you have to earn money yourself?

I didn't just have to, I actually wanted to. When I was 13, I delivered the church newsletter, and at 16 I started working at Ikea. I baked cookies in a show kitchen with children, that was the best job. Later, I worked in my mother's advertising materials business, where I got five pfennigs per box. Then I had various other jobs. I always liked earning money.

Is money your motivation?

Earning money gives me the feeling of being in control of my own life. That's why it was always important to me to work and earn my own money. But money is not what drives me. But I can only say and feel that because I don't have any money worries.

You studied in St. Gallen, which is not entirely favorable.

My parents paid for my apartment and learning materials, and I had to earn the rest. And there was also a lesson in currency risk: they transferred the money to me in Deutschmarks and I had to pay my rent and everything in Swiss francs. The exchange rate was constantly deteriorating and so I got fewer and fewer francs for my Deutschmark.

Are you still on Team Save?

If I have money left over, I use a third of it. I then use a third to support crowdfunding campaigns or make donations. I spend a third on short trips or restaurant visits. And a third goes on the high side.

After graduating, you could have taken over the family business, but you didn't do it. Was that not even up for discussion?

Not immediately after my studies, but later it was always a discussion because I am the eldest daughter and the eldest granddaughter. We will now be 300 years old next year, I would be the first woman, it's the tenth generation, actually everything speaks for it, at least on the face of it. But I think what you also learn in a family business is that the development of the company and your own path can diverge. In the last 300 years, there have certainly been one or two people who have been appointed to the company, even though it may not have suited their life plan. But then they were just loyal enough to do it.

You didn't have to be faithful to the Nibelung?

In my childhood and youth, succession was more of an abstract topic because my father was still very young and succession was still a long way off. When I was 26 years old, I was at a crossroads and could have turned in the direction of the family business, but it wasn't the right time in the company. So I became a digital entrepreneur and went my own way. Today, our company is run very successfully by external management and I am a shareholder and advisory board member.

Wouldn't your father have wished for something else?

My father is a modern father and manager. He didn't see the succession as automatic, but took a close look at who I am and what makes me happy. I'm sure he would have loved it if I had succeeded him. But is he disappointed now? No. He is proud of the path I am now taking.

Was it just the life situation that stopped you or was there more?

A family business entails the risk of living very much like your parents. Living in the same city, possibly in the same street, having the same routines, following in their footsteps and already knowing what life will look like when you're 65. And to be honest, I don't even want to know what life will be like in three years' time. That's why I'm happy to be building my own life, which has plenty of surprises in store.

You founded your own company instead. How did you come up with the topic of education?

I founded Fox & Sheep in 2011 out of a market opportunity. At the time, I saw how the app store was exploding, the iPad was new on the market and there were relatively few good apps for children. I was already deeply involved in this scene and already knew many developers, which was a huge opportunity. As a result, I spent a lot of time working on digital education and realized that many good digital projects simply didn't reach children from less affluent families. There were always only those who had already played the cello or field hockey. I then founded the association "Digitale Bildung für alle e.V." (Digital Education for All) and made this my focus.

A few months ago, you gave politics a school grade of four-minus in the area of digital education. Are you sticking to that?

Politicians have slept through building the infrastructure: Fiber optics, school clouds, all that is still needed. I would say we are now at a 4+, but still a long way from a good grade. Ultimately, we need a cultural change in the classroom. They need to switch between blackboards, iPads and whiteboards as a matter of course. And we need the freedom to teach new learning methods and future skills. That's what I'm fighting for.

Thank you very much for the interview.

Personal details: Verena Pausder was born in Hamburg in 1979. She is an expert in digital education, founder of Fox & Sheep and the HABA digital workshops and an entrepreneur. In 2016, she was named a "Young Global Leader" by the World Economic Forum. Handelsblatt and BCG named her Thought Leader of the Year in 2020. Her book "Das Neue Land" is a Spiegel bestseller. She lives in Berlin with her husband and three children.

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