The team behind beabee has decades of experience in community building (online and in real life), public-interest media and independent technology. 

Julia Hildebrand

Project lead beabee & CORRECTIV.StartHub

Julia worked on community-engagement for over 10 years. At Deutsche Welle she worked with more than 30 newsrooms on developing new social media strategies, guidelines and workflows for more user participation.

With the social startup ChangeX.org Julia developed community-software, that allows people to start their own local projects.

Julia has her roots in Duisburg, where she worked for the local newsroom of Rheinische Post. In 2019 she founded the community organisation “Du bist Rheinhausen” there.

E-Mail: julia.hildebrand@correctiv.org

Svenja Schilling

Community Managerin beabee & CORRECTIV.StartHub

Svenja has been part of the beabee and CORRECTIV.StartHub team as a Community Manager since June 2025. She is building a vibrant network for people who want to launch community-centered local media projects.

Svenja developed her interest in social innovation during her studies in economic development at DHBW Mannheim and through an interdisciplinary master’s program at Ruhr University Bochum.

She has worked with organisations such as the incubator S-Hub Mannheim, Social Entrepreneurship Netzwerk Deutschland e. V., and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, as well as on her own startup. Throughout her career, she has focused on hybrid business models, social impact, and community building.

E-Mail: svenja.schilling@correctiv.org

Sara Cooper

Head of Digital Product

Sara Cooper works at CORRECTIV as a Product Owner for digital projects, including the engagement platform beabee. Originally from Chicago, she moved to Berlin in 2016 to complete a Master’s degree in Public Policy at the Hertie School of Governance.

After graduating, she built the business intelligence team at Opinary. Before joining CORRECTIV, Sara led the award-winning dialogue format My Country Talks at ZEIT ONLINE.

E-Mail: sara.cooper@correctiv.org

Will Franklin

Head of Engineering

Will is Head of Engineering at CORRECTIV, where he is dedicated to fostering a vibrant technological environment within the organisation. He oversees the development of long-term technology strategies across CORRECTIV’s projects and is responsible for building and leading the engineering team to achieve these goals. He also serves as Tech Lead for the beabee project.

Will brings extensive experience from his six years at The Bristol Cable, where he held various roles including Developer, Operations Lead, and Membership Coordinator. Prior to that, he worked as a Developer at The Guardian, first contributing to the core digital technology team and later creating data visualisations and interactive content within the newsroom.

E-Mail: will.franklin@correctiv.org

Pascal Garber

Senior Software Developer

Pascal studied Media Computer Science in Wedel and started working as a freelancer during his studies. After graduating, he worked for several years as an independent developer.

Since November 2023, he has been working at beabee.

E-Mail: pascal.garber@correctiv.org