You can find our personal descriptions here, our contact details are on the contact page.
Even before we found each other as a team, each of us was looking for ways to reorganize and reshape learning. Our approaches and experiences have been different, but have led us down a common path. We bring different competencies and perspectives to the table, united by our shared enthusiasm for education. We have a very clear idea of where we want to go and see the founding of lila.school as the first big step in this direction.
The members of our team (in alphabetical order):
Niels Hansa
I am 48 years old, married and have two wonderful children. For more than 20 years, I have been able to acquire important professional skills in project management, product management, business development and sales, and have gained a lot of valuable experience. Now I have reoriented myself professionally to strengthen the meaning and value of my work, putting my skills as an entrepreneur at the service of a non-profit mission – to promote human education through innovative projects.
My roles in the team
IT, Finance, Public Affairs
Personally I am enthusiastic about
Cycling instead of driving, my wife and kids, social entrepreneurship, education, education, education.
Gabriel Ionescu
I was born in 1977 into a family of teachers in Romania. After graduating from high school in Salzburg, I started a university degree in technical studies in Linz. Unraveling the mysteries and riddles of this world I found very exciting, so I decided to do physics. I found it particularly fulfilling to share insights with my friends and fellow students, and I experienced that by engaging with other people’s perspectives and views, not only can there be a better understanding of the topic being discussed, but also of the person in front of me.
I took these insights with me when I started private tutoring in math and physics. Especially the one-to-one lessons filled me with great joy, as I could fully relate to another person and understand how he or she understands a certain topic (and thus a part of the world). Each lesson and learning path became as unique as the people involved, and together we were able to make great progress in a short period of time.
When I was given the opportunity to teach mathematics in the senior level of a Waldorf school, I joyfully accepted the challenge. I realized that through the setup of a traditional school (fixed classes, fixed subjects, fixed schedules, etc.) the individual learning path is very difficult to realize, and at the same time I saw how important it would be for many young people. Since then, I have been involved with the idea and realization of a place of learning where young people can follow their own learning path in a community at their own pace.
My roles in the team
Learning guide, IT, learning platform
Personally I am enthusiastic about
Exercise, nature, people, good conversation, clear thinking, aikido, zazen, basketball, all open source.
Veiktour Khalil
Already during my studies I discovered my love for working independently, for economics and for mathematics.
Nothing in our lives is rigid – everything around us is in motion and always creating itself anew. We, too, have the ability to continually reshape our lives and ourselves.
With this in mind, after 14 years of self-employment and with the birth of my wonderful children, I sold my company. I have been working in the elementary education field as a kindergarten operator for the past 7 years.
I am 41 years old and have worked in product management/sales in wholesale, where I gained valuable experience. The love for my children led me to found a non-profit association – a kindergarten. Working in the kindergarten is very meaningful for me personally and fills me with a lot of joy every day.
My roles in the team
Finance and Legal, Public Affairs
Personally I am enthusiastic about
Running, Wing Tsun, my family, education, reading, exercise in nature, philosophizing.
Peter Kogler
Life is learning – in this sense I have been gathering experience with learning from different perspectives for over 40 years. Already during my school years I discovered my love for physics and mathematics, which I then developed during my studies. In addition, I began to give private lessons, with which I soon became self-employed. Since training as a Waldorf teacher, where I also met my wife, I have also taught for several years at a Waldorf secondary school. In the meantime, we are parents ourselves and our daughter is just starting her school years.
I feel enthusiasm is at the core of any true learning experience and love to share it to help others develop. I see individualization as a key element of the education of the future. For several years now, I have been looking at ways to actively help shape this future.
My roles in the team
Learning guide, concept development, organizational structure, website, personnel, learning platform
Personally I am enthusiastic about
Our family, learning new things, bouldering, being outside together, biking around the city, dancing, running, time to reflect and meditate, vegan cooking and eating, my thinkpad running Ubuntu
Wolfgang Neigenfind
I have now spent more than 40 years of my life in various schools. What keeps my passion for the field of education so fresh and alive are the relationships with people that fascinate me.
Aside from my studies in education, psychology and philosophy for the teaching profession, I am still learning and interested in topics such as family, education, relationships, personal development and spirituality.
A place for education, which everyone visits with joy and which is carried by development, curiosity, appreciation and love, that has always been my dream. I am delighted that we are now realizing this dream together.
My roles in the team
Learning guide, school principal, marketing
Personally I am enthusiastic about
My family, personal development, writing, meditation, helping other people to be happy, love, adventure and travel
Christine Weinkopf
Learning in the protected space of trusting relationships – that is important to me. People have important impulses that can be experienced through their own trial and error and insights gained externally and also consolidated through practice. For me, giving space to these impulses and meeting each other at eye level with respectful regard means creating a framework in which learners and teachers can develop together. During my travels through various school systems around the world (Australia, South America, Vietnam, Tanzania, etc.), I have dealt with the questions: How do we learn? What helps people in the process of learning? What does learning have to do with my social and spatial circumstances? My analytical skills, which I was already able to put to very good use in my international business studies and in the private sector, as well as my experience show that a balance is needed between a benevolent network of the community and individual freedom to develop one’s own potential.
I feel that the individualized community (expression coined by Gerald Hüther) is the means of choice to let young people discover their self-determination with curiosity in a loving, boundary-setting framework. To be able to accompany this journey of discovery of one’s own personality is like a gift for me. Therefore, after 4 years in a Viennese middle school, I now want to help create this learning atmosphere in our own school.
My roles in the team
Learning guide, marketing, sales, location
Personally I am enthusiastic about
Accompanying the development of my daughter, nature & naturalness of people, mountain biking, swimming, climbing, philosophizing, lying in the grass looking at the sky, serenity and humor.
Supporters
A heartfelt thank you goes to those people who are already helping us, through their active support, to make our dream come true (also listed alphabetically):
Pia Entenfellner
Pia studies teaching English and Russian, she is also passionate about literature, theater and horses.
She collects teaching materials, translates the website to English and would like to work with us as a learning facilitator.
Christian Gaunersdorfer
Christian designs web presences and brandings with spick+span.
He designed our website and helped us to continue to maintain it ourselves. If any questions come up, he is always happy to help.
Deborah Heiss
With Seven Edges Media, Deborah works as a marketing consultant, primarily in social media.
She supports us in developing and implementing a sound and meaningful marketing concept.
Margit Lilli
Margit is an artist and art therapist with experience working with the blind and visually impaired, is currently working on her master’s thesis, and is completing teacher training in Ashtanga Yoga.
She supports us in the topic of inclusion and would like to work with us as a learning guide.
Michaela Liaunigg
Michaela teaches at the University of Vienna at the Institute for Slavic Studies.
She always gives us valuable feedback on the concept, helps us to improve the texts, and referred Pia, Barbora and Dimitri to us.
Sophie Luger
Sophie is an architect and teaches at the Department of Architecture at the Angewandte.
It helps us with site evaluation and design concept.
Sean McGuire
Sean works as a UX architect and is an expert in design thinking.
In his professionally designed workshops he helps us to make our ideas of a software platform more and more reality.
Flo Panhölzl
Flo teaches computer science and biology at a Waldorf school and is part of the team of the Permaculture Academy in the Alpine region.
He will develop the concept for the garden design with us and always supports us with feedback.
Helmut Röhle
Helmut worked for a long time as a tax consultant and auditor.
He supports us with his profound know-how in legal and tax issues.
Barbora Simkovicova
Barbora studies History, Social Studies and Political Education, Slovak and Inclusive Education, she likes drawing and loves plants.
She collects teaching materials, translates the website in English and would like to work with us as a learning guide, also she could help us with the gardening.
Dimitri Szabo
Dimitri studied Slavic studies and works as an illustrator.
He designed the graphics on the website and supports us in the development of our corporate identity.