The Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft is a European banking institution headquartered in Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany. It offers services to private and entrepreneurial customers as well as corporate clients. The Commerzbank Group also includes the German brand Comdirect Bank and the Polish subsidiary mBank.
Roland Berger is an international management consultancy headquartered in Munich. With 2,400 employees and 52 offices in 35 countries, it has a presence in all major industrialized and emerging markets. As the market leader in Germany, Roland Berger is the only European consultancy with an international presence and is one of the leading representatives of its industry. Annual sales in 2018 were around EUR 600 million, the most successful financial year to date.
Hubert Burda Media Holding is a German media group with headquarters in Offenburg. It originated as a small printing business, founded by Franz Burda Snr in Philippsburg, in 1903.
Focus is a German-language news magazine published by Hubert Burda Media. Established in 1993 as an alternative to the Der Spiegel weekly news magazine, since 2015 the editorial staff has been headquartered in Germany's capital of Berlin. Alongside Spiegel and Stern, Focus is one of the three most widely circulated German weeklies. The concept originated from Hubert Burda and Helmut Markwort, who went from being Editor-in-chief to become publisher in 2009 and since 2017 has been listed in the publication's masthead as founding editor-in-chief. As of March 2016 the editor-in-chief of Focus was Robert Schneider.
Gruner + Jahr is a publishing house headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. The company was founded in 1965 by Richard Gruner, John Jahr, and Gerd Bucerius. From 1969 to 1973, Bertelsmann acquired a majority share in the company and gradually increased it over time. After 2014, the company was a fully owned subsidiary of the Gütersloh-based media and services group. Under the leadership and innovation strategy of Julia Jäkel, Gruner + Jahr evolved into a publishing house producing cross-channel media products for the digital society.
Kaevan Gazdar is a journalist and lecturer writing about economic and socio-economic issues.
VapianoSE is a European restaurant franchise company headquartered in Cologne. The chain's restaurants offer Italian food adhering to the fast-casual principle. Vapiano was established in 2002 in Hamburg. Its largest shareholder since 2011 is the private equity firm, Mayfair Vermögensverwaltung. Roughly one-third of the restaurants are operated by the company itself, but the majority are run as franchise or as joint ventures. In April 2017, Vapiano had 180 locations in 31 countries, including Australia, China, Egypt and the United States. On 20 March 2020, Vapiano announced its cash-flow insolvency due to a sharp drop in sales after most restaurants had to close due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Miriam Meckel is a German journalist and professor for Corporate Communication, editor and publisher of the German magazine Wirtschaftswoche and Director of the Institute for Media and Communication Management at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland.
Burkhard Schwenker is a German business consultant. He was CEO of Roland Berger from 2003 until July 2010, when he was appointed head of the supervisory board of the firm. He was CEO again from May 2013 to July 2014, after his successor/antecessor Martin C. Wittig stepped back for health reasons. He again was chairman of the supervisory board until he was appointed chairman of Roland Berger's advisory council in July 2015.
Christoph Gerlinger is a German venture capitalist and Internet entrepreneur. He is best known as the founder and CEO of the former venture capital investor German Startups Group, which is publicly listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and was transformed into a Private Equity firm in late 2020. Prior to that he was a senior executive and entrepreneur in computer and online games companies since 1996. He was CEO of the MMO Games publisher Frogster Interactive Pictures AG, listed at Frankfurt stock exchange from 2006 until its takeover in 2010. Gerlinger was named one of Germany's most 50 interesting young entrepreneurs by a leading German business magazine.
Eveline Lemke is former German politician and member of the Alliance 90/The Greens. From 18 May 2011 until 18 May 2016, she was vice minister president of Rhineland-Palatinate and Minister for Economics, Climate Protection, Energy and Regional Planning. On 27 March 2011, she was elected into the Landtag of Rhineland-Palatinate. She was the leading candidate for her party in the 2016 Rhineland-Palatinate state elections along with The Greens faction leader in the Landtag, Daniel Köbler, after having been leader of the party since 2006. As vice minister Lemke represented the state of Rhineland-Palatinate in the German Bundesrat. As author and speaker in green technological issues and Circular Economy, she founded Thinking Circular in 2017. This thinktank is listed in the Sustainable Development Goals Help Desk, a platform by the United Nations since July 2018. She is also working as consultant together with Prof. Michael Braungart, chemist and inventor of the design philosophy Cradle-to-Cradle, Martin Lees and David Wortmann (DWR-Eco-Innovation-Alliance).
sonnen GmbH is a company in the energy industry headquartered in Wildpoldsried in the district of Oberallgäu, Germany. It produces home energy storage systems for private households and small businesses. The company is considered the market leader in Germany and additional international markets. Moreover, it is the center of a community for supplying power from renewable energies.
Jörg Dräger is a German physicist, non-partisan economic conservative politician and manager. From 2001 to 2008 he served as a senator in the Hamburg state government. From 2008 to 2021 he has been a member of the Bertelsmann Stiftung Executive Board where he is responsible for the areas of education and integration. Dräger is considered a leading education expert and is the author of numerous books on education policy, including the impacts of digitization.
The EOS Group is a holding company that operates financial services companies with locations in Europe, the United States and Canada. Its core activity is receivables management including receivables purchasing and debt collection. The group, which has its headquarters in Hamburg, is part of the Otto Group.
Roland Tichy is a German author, economist and journalist.
Oliver D. Doleski is a German economist, author and management consultant.
Gerald Lembke is a German business economist with focus on digital media and non-fiction author.
TeamViewer SE is an international technology company headquartered in Göppingen, Germany. The company became known for the TeamViewer remote access and support software of the same name. TeamViewer offers its customers a global platform for connecting, monitoring, and controlling computers, machines, and other devices. TeamViewer's software is used in companies of all sizes and from all industries, for example, to digitalize processes along the industrial value chain. The company is listed on the stock exchange and is a member of MDAX and TecDAX.
Matthias Herbert Hartmann was a German Professor of Business Administration and the Dean of the Department of Economics and Law at the Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin. As an expert for innovation and technology management, he worked as a business consultant. In his function as staff officer of the reserves, he was a consultant in Germany's Federal Ministry of Defense.
