About
25+ years of C and VP level experience in leading next-gen consumer internet companies through the growth stages: From seed/start-up => through scaling and hyper growth => to maturing high-EBIT businesses. Special expertise in international expansion e.g. AOL Europe, eBay Europe, Monster Europe, Nextdoor Germany, Turo Germany. Deep experience across different domains/verticals: 1) Mobility and carsharing: Turo 2) Online marketplaces and ecommerce: eBay, Turo, iversity 3) Online education: iversity 4) Social networks and community: Nextdoor, studiVZ, eGroups 5) Media content and distribution: Bertelsmann I have also been an angel investor and have held non-exec board positions e.g. at ISSUU. Born in Germany, I was raised and educated in Germany, the UK (University of London) and the US (University of California at Berkeley).
Experience
Ceo
CheMondis · Berlin/Cologne
CheMondis is the leading B2B online marketplace for chemicals in Europe.
Consultant
Turo · Berlin, Germany
Like so many other travel and mobility offerings, Turo was hit by the Corona pandemic and forced to execute global lay-offs and cut-backs in Q2/2020, including the closure of the German business. I continue to be an advisor to Turo.
Managing Director, Germany
Turo · Berlin Area, Germany
Turo is the world’s largest online marketplace for private car sharing. Often referred to as “the Airbnb for cars”, Turo empowers car owners to offset the cost of car ownership by sharing it with others when they don’t need it. Turo’s mission is to put the world’s 1.5 billion cars to better use. I lead Turo’s Germany launch in January 2018 and the German team based in Berlin. During 2019, we grew the German business in terms of numbers of cars, number of trips and revenue by more than 7X.
Managing Director, Germany
Nextdoor · Berlin Area, Germany
The private social network for neighbours. I launched Nextdoor in Germany and built and lead the German start-up team.
Ceo, Investor, Co-Founder and Board Member
Inspired by US start-ups Coursera and Udacity, who set off "the MOOC revolution" in online education during 2011 - 12, I invested in and became CEO of iversity to build a leading European online education and MOOC platform. In October 2013, iversity launched with a curriculum of 2 dozen online courses and 120.000 students/users. Since then, iversity has grown the user base to more than 1 million students. iversity was acquired by SpringerNature in Q3/2016.
Vice President & General Manager, Central Europe
Monster · Frankfurt / Zurich / Vienna
P+L and GM responsibility for Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Lead Monster's 2nd largest region and P+L globally (after the US) with € 130 million in revenue, 30% year-over-year growth, and 40% EBIT margin. #1 market position in online recruiting in Germany and Austria. Team of 350 in 6 offices in 3 countries Reporting line into EVP Europe. I resigned after 18 months because I wanted to find a more early-stage and entrepreneurial adventure than Monster could offer.
Chairman
ISSUU is the leading global print-to-online publishing platform on the web and mobile for high-quality magazine and prospectus content.
Ceo @ Studivz
studiVZ
Largest and most successful Facebook-type social network in Germany, Austria and Switzerland at the time. P+L and GM responsibility for the business with a team of 150. Grew user base 3X from 4 to 12 million active users within 12 months, at a time when Facebook had less than 500k users in Germany. Grew market share to 28% reach of the German online population, making studiVZ one of the most highly trafficked consumer web destinations in Europe. Drove monetization from zero to eight € digits. Succeeded in getting Facebook to make a takeover offer - resigned after majority shareholders Holtzbrinck failed to make the deal with Facebook.
Vice President
eBay · Berlin / Zurich
eBay Europe, Zurich, 2005 - 07 Vice President P+L and GM responsibility for eBay's businesses in 7 markets: Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, Sweden, Netherlands and Belgium. Delivered gross trading volume of € 1.5 billion, revenues of € 120 million and year-over-year growth rates of 50% across the portfolio. Lead M&A of (i) Marktplaats in the Netherlands in 2004 for € 225 million and (ii) Tradera in Sweden in 2006 for € 50 million. Lead a team of 300 in 8 offices and countries. Reported into SVP & GM eBay Europe. eBay Germany, Berlin, 2002 - 05 Senior Director Built and lead sales and category management team of 50 at eBay Germany, eBay's most successful franchise globally at the time. Drove gross trading volume of € 8 billion, revenues of € 600m and year-over-year growth rates of 100%. Lead eBay's expansion from a pure C2C auctions platform for used goods to a multi-category online marketplace also for new products sold by professional sellers and retailers at fixed price. First m…
Sabbatical/Year Off
Sabbatical/Year Off
Vice President International
eGroups - today Yahoo Groups · Hamburg / San Francisco
eGroups was the world's largest community of email-based discussion groups and communities with 20 million users globally, a predecessor of today's social networks. P+L and GM responsibility for eGroups' business and operations outside the US, namely Europe and Japan. I was European employee #1 at eGroups and built and lead the international team and presence from scratch to a total staff of 50 with offices in Hamburg, Paris, London, Tokyo and San Francisco. Reported into the CEO. In Q4/2000, eGroups was acquired by Yahoo! for $ 430 million and is since then Yahoo! Groups.
Education
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Candidate for Master of Arts - MA, European History
University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business
M.B.A., General Management
University of London
B.A., Royal Central School of Speech and Drama
German School Association - Deutsche Schule London
Abitur
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