PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Léa Steinacker

Léa Steinacker is a German social scientist and entrepreneur who studies how artificial intelligence systems affect society. After degrees from Princeton and the Harvard Kennedy School, she became Chief Innovation Officer of the business magazine WirtschaftsWoche in 2017 and co-founded the learning company ada Learning in 2020. Her 2022 doctoral thesis introduced Code Capital, a framework for analyzing AI systems from design to deployment, and her surveys with Miriam Meckel and Genia Kostka examined public attitudes toward facial recognition. With Meckel, she wrote Alles überall auf einmal, a 2024 bestseller on AI that appeared in English in 2025 as Everything Everywhere All At Once. Today she is CEO of the Swiss AI company GaiaLogic AG, sits on the board of Weleda AG and lectures on AI at the university where she earned her doctorate.

Now at
University of St.Gallen, Weleda AG and GaiaLogic AG
Born
1989
Badges

Years link to their sources.

Timeline

  1. 2005–2011

    UWC Atlantic and Princeton

    Raised in Walsrode, Germany, she moves to Wales in 2005 to attend UWC Atlantic and earns an International Baccalaureate Diploma in 2007. Princeton awards her a BA with honors in International Affairs and a minor in African Studies in 2011, and she wins the Henry Richardson Labouisse Prize in 2011.

  2. 2015–2018

    Innovation chief at WirtschaftsWoche

    She earns a Master of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School in 2015 as a McCloy Fellow, then joins Handelsblatt Media Group as a Digital Scout for the business magazine WirtschaftsWoche. In 2017, she becomes its Chief Innovation Officer, and her bi-weekly column Code Capital analyzes how algorithms affect markets and democracy. Forbes names her to its 30 Under 30 list in 2018.

  3. 2018–2020

    Co-founding ada

    In 2018, WirtschaftsWoche creates ada, a learning community on technology topics, with her as Chief Strategy Officer. She founds ada Learning GmbH in October 2020 with Miriam Meckel, Verena Pausder and Handelsblatt Media Group, and serves as its Chief Innovation Officer.

  4. 2020–2022

    Surveys on facial recognition

    In July 2020, she and Miriam Meckel, Genia Kostka and Damian Borth publish a cross-national survey on public acceptance, privacy and discrimination in the use of facial recognition in China, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, presented at the ICML 2020 Law and Machine Learning Workshop. Follow-up articles with Kostka and Meckel appear in Public Understanding of Science in 2021 and Government Information Quarterly in 2022.

  5. 2022

    The Code Capital thesis

    She completes her PhD at the University of St. Gallen in 2022 with the thesis Code Capital: A Sociotechnical Framework to Understand the Implications of Artificially Intelligent Systems from Design to Deployment, advised by Damian Borth in artificial intelligence and Veronica Barassi in digital anthropology. Code Capital analyzes AI systems along four dimensions, Conception, Operations, Data and Environment, and two case studies apply it to facial recognition and synthetic speech generation. Nomos publishes the thesis as a book in 2022.

  6. February 2024

    Alles überall auf einmal

    In February 2024, Rowohlt publishes Alles überall auf einmal, her book on artificial intelligence with Miriam Meckel; it becomes a national bestseller and sells 30,000 copies. She becomes Executive Chairwoman of ada in February 2024. An English edition, Everything Everywhere All At Once: How Artificial Intelligence Impacts Our World, follows in 2025.

  7. June 2024

    A seat on Weleda's board

    In June 2024, she joins the board of directors of Weleda AG in Arlesheim, and she still holds the seat in April 2026.

  8. Since 2025

    CEO of GaiaLogic

    By November 2025, she is a registered director of GaiaLogic AG in Freienbach, and she leads the Swiss AI company as its CEO. She also lectures at the University of St. Gallen, where she has taught courses such as "Social and Economic Impacts of Artificial Intelligence" since 2021, and she is a former Executive Chairwoman of ada.

Career

  1. Since 2025GaiaLogic AGCEO
  2. Since 2024Weleda AGBoard member
  3. Since 2021University of St.GallenLecturer on AI
  4. From 2020ada Learning GmbHCo-founder and Chief Innovation Officer
  5. 2018–2025adaChief Strategy Officer, Executive Chairwoman
  6. From 2017WirtschaftsWocheChief Innovation Officer
  7. 2015–2017Handelsblatt Media GroupDigital Scout

Education

  1. 2022University of St.GallenPhD
  2. 2015Harvard UniversityMaster of Public Policy
  3. 2011Princeton UniversityBA
  4. 2007United World College of the AtlanticInternational Baccalaureate Diploma

From the biography.

  1. 11% of AI doctorate holders from 2010 to 2016 founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after graduationIncludes Léa Steinacker. We estimate how often AI doctorate holders founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after graduation, how waiting times compare between founders and top jobs, and which universities trained the most.
  2. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes University of St.Gallen. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.
  3. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes Harvard University. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, recent citations, dual appointments and job moves across 2,420 university researchers and 308 frontier-lab researchers.
  4. Companies supply the most prior-work hires at 7 of the 9 frontier AI labsIncludes Harvard University. Our estimates of the organizations where 550 people worked directly before joining 9 frontier AI labs across 620 career transitions, comparing the main feeder organizations per lab.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Léa Steinacker yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Léa Steinacker - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  2. about | Léa Steinacker leasteinacker.com. Checked 20 October 2026.
  3. Léa Steinacker | Falling Walls falling-walls.com. Checked 20 October 2026.
  4. Léa Steinacker | turi2 turi2.de. Checked 20 October 2026.
  5. [2008.07275] Facial Recognition: A cross-national Survey on Public Acceptance, Privacy, and Discrimination arxiv.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  6. Code Capital - 978-3-8487-8890-3 | Nomos nomos-shop.de. Checked 20 October 2026.
  7. EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE – How AI is Changing Our World and What We Can Gain - Miriam Meckel, Léa Steinacker | Rowohlt Verlag rowohlt.de. Checked 20 October 2026.
  8. Léa Steinacker in Meilen from Germany | Moneyhouse moneyhouse.ch. Checked 20 October 2026.
  9. Léa Steinacker, Social Scientist & Bestselling Author Keynote Speaker at Speakers Associates speakersassociates.com. Checked 20 October 2026.