Born in 1988, she studied business psychology at Leuphana University Lüneburg from 2007 to 2011, and psychology at Ruprecht-Karls University of Heidelberg from 2011 to 2013. Following her PhD at Leuphana University in 2017 and a stint at Warwick Business School in England, Prof. Dr Mona Mensmann has been Professor of Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship at the University of Cologne since 2021.

Her research focuses on the psychology of entrepreneurship and the promotion of entrepreneurial thinking and behaviour. A particular focus is on developing countries and supporting disadvantaged social groups. She has been honoured with several prestigious awards for her work, including the Academy of Management’s Best Social Entrepreneurship Paper Award and the Responsible Research in Management Award. As part of her academic work, she is involved in international projects aimed at promoting entrepreneurship in developing and emerging economies. Her focus here is on experimental training approaches.

Since 2023, Prof. Dr Mona Mensmann has been a board member of the Centre for Social and Economic Behaviour (C-SEB) at the University of Cologne and holds the academic directorship of the internationalisation initiative at the Gateway Excellence Start-Up Centre.