Where Effectiveness Meets Altruism

My career started in the private sector. For a decade I worked where things moved fast but I knew the values weren’t great, so I volunteered for charities where the mission was good but everything moved slowly. After I discovered Effective Altruism (EA) I had a ‘goldilocks’ feeling of things being just right.

How Networking Sparked the Journey

I went to the EAG conference Oxford in 2016 and felt I had found my tribe, without even knowing I was looking for one. I was inspired by a talk by David Goldberg from Founders Pledge and approached him after, saying I wanted to help. This conversation showed me how impactful networking can be; when the team still consisted of six people I became the CTO of Founders Pledge and managing director of the German branch.

EA Meta: Building Impact Behind the Scenes

I have worked in EA meta for the past 9 years. The meta cause area focuses on improving EA efforts through directing research and supporting movement building. Dedicating myself to meta included working as COO at Ambitious Impact and co-founding High Impact Professionals.

But EA has changed my life in numerous ways. I’ve taken the 10% pledge to donate ten percent of my monthly income. Usually I donate to EA meta causes, in particular to effective giving organisations, as I think there are really high leverage opportunities that can be much more effective than object level charities. I also sit on a couple of boards and mentor folks – so a lot of my time goes toward EA initiatives in the broader sense.

The Challenge of Constant Optimisation

I feel that I am on a good track doing the most good I can with my limited resources and EA got me on this track. It is a double-edged sword though, because I can take the logic too far – I notice it is sometimes hard to switch off and things that I previously thought were purely ‘fun’ like playing a board game can get called into question: why should I play a game when there is a large opportunity cost to doing something impactful? Why solve a fake problem in a game when I could solve a real problem?

So I have to be careful not to let this logic go too far! I know that this is a more widespread problem within EA and maybe reading this portrait can serve as a reminder to take selfcare and leisure time seriously as well.

My Book: Seven Paths to Greater Professional Impact

My most recent approach to creating impact was writing an EA book, which was released in early 2026. The High-Impact Professional’s Playbook: How To Turn Your Career, Income, and Influence into Doing Good is a practical guide to having positive impact across what I call the 7 paths to impact. It contains exercises for the reader to help them move forward with an impact action plan and also contains case studies of inspiring individuals who have lived the paths to impact.

I hope that impact-hungry professionals read the book and take action, including applying to High Impact Professionals’ programmes.