We are living in times of drastic changes in the world of business. And fortunately, this is accompanied by a shift in perspective towards diversity in every regard.

Companies need to build creative intelligence in order to survive. And all skills are needed to make this happen. To this day there is so much untapped potential in what a society has to offer, given that you look beyond norms and standards.

The company we will present you in our Creative Leadership Salon N°10 did look beyond: the auticon Group trusts in the qualities and skills of its mainly autistic employees and therefore it is exceptionally successful — not despite, but because of the extraordinary social responsibility it fulfills.
‍
The key for the success is probably already rooted in the company‘s history. In 2007, one of the children of auticon‘s founder Dirk Müller-Remus was diagnosed with autism at the age of 14. During a visit at a self-help group, bearing the title "Autism and Work", twenty autistic people between the ages of 25 and 50 presented their professional careers. All were unemployed even though they had a high level of education. In fact, around 85% of all autistic people in Germany are unemployed.

This insight and the narrow minded, deficit-oriented perception of autistic people in public were the initial spark of the foundation of auticon. The company was conceived and specifically tailored to the needs of professionals who suffer from autism. We believe that there are plenty of take-aways for social innovation in other industries, tapping into all society has to offer.
‍
It is time to broaden the idea of talent!

auticon is an international IT consulting company that exclusively employs people in the autistic spectrum as consultants. More than 250 people are employed worldwide, 170 of them with autism. Since its start in 2011, auticon has seen an annual increase in turnover of over 50%.The company operates offices in Germany and Europe: Berlin, Hamburg, Bremen, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Munich, Edinburgh, London, Paris, Zurich and Milan, as well as in the USA and Canada (Santa Monica, Culver City and Montréal). The Group is currently expanding its US business.

Christian Mangold has been Chief Financial Officer of the international auticon Group since summer 2019. He is responsible for the markets in Germany, France, Italy, Great Britain, the USA, Canada and Switzerland. The 47-year-old fully qualified lawyer is an experienced growth manager. Most recently he was Managing Director for the D/A/CH region at the NASDAQ-listed NET1 Group.

Previous management positions include Klarna, the market leader for internet invoice purchases, and SOFORT GmbH, which is part of the Klarna group and offered the internet payment method SOFORTÜberweisung. For more than four years Christian Mangold expanded SOFORTÜberweisung significantly. As Sales Director, he accompanied the sale of the company to the Swedish Klarna and integrated the market activities of the two companies for the D/A/CH region into a leading provider of internet payment methods.