The Speakers of the Masterclasses 2024
Discover the inspiring speakers who shared their knowledge and experience in this year's masterclasses.
As Chief Strategy Officer, Stefanie Kuhnhen is responsible for the Serviceplan Group's strategic product and, as initiator, for the Serviceplan Group's integrated sustainability marketing programme ‘The Good Line’. Her core expertise lies in brand and corporate strategy in order to make brands fit for the future and thus successfully shape the future economy.
The consumer psychologist is a strategic transformation researcher for cultural change. He researches and develops strategic guiding narratives and unifying cultural practices for transformative corporate consumer and employer brands. He uses cultural science methods to support companies in developing their positioning and evolution strategy for a desirable future economy in a visionary way. As co-initiator of the Protopia Lab, he has set himself the task of innovating consumer culture on the way to a regenerative market economy.
Johannes Winter has been Head of Global Corporate Communications at Leica Camera AG since January 2024.
Before joining Leica, Johannes Winter worked for around 15 years as Director Communications and Director Public Affairs at the leisure airline Condor. During this time, the airline rose to become the most popular airline in Germany and successfully overcame numerous crises. Prior to that, he was responsible for corporate communications and politics at the internet and media provider AOL Germany. Johannes Winter is a fully qualified lawyer and began his professional career as a press spokesman in the European Parliament.
Clemens Pflanz is the founder and chairman of the MEISTERKREIS, a corporate platform of companies for companies in the top segment that stand for the highest quality, creativity and sustainability in and from Germany. The MEISTERKREIS is part of the ECCIA, European Creative and Cultural Industries Alliance, with over 900 companies and institutions that characterise European excellence. Clemens Pflanz, Diplom-Kaufmann, University of Cologne, worked for over 10 years at LVMH as Managing Director Parfums & Cosmetics, Dior and Moët Hennessy and began his professional career at Mars/Effem in Sales & Marketing.
Felix Bartels is CMO of the Serviceplan Group and is responsible for all of the Group's marketing communications. His career at Serviceplan began more than 14 years ago. Since then, he has held various positions within marketing and business development and has been involved in internationalisation projects such as the introduction of a global website ecosystem, the CRM tool landscape and the creation of new standards for international collaboration. The current focus is on aligning the Group's services to the individual needs of customers and working with them, as well as supporting the current 20 markets in the area of marketing and sales.
Eva Simone Lihotzky is General Manager of the Serviceplan AI Lab in Munich. In this role, she is responsible for the AI strategy and manages its implementation at agency group level. Her task is to connect the AI competences of the Serviceplan Group’s agency brands - Serviceplan, Mediaplus and Plan.Net - to create cross-functional capabilities for both the agency group and its clients. In her previous position as Director Group Corporate Strategy at Serviceplan Group, the 33-year-old was responsible for the strategy of the agency group within the Serviceplan Group Holding - with a particular focus on all topics relating to AI. Eva Simone Lihotzky is active as a speaker and author in the field of artificial intelligence.
Timo started his career back in 2002 as a film producer. He worked in Frankfurt, London and Shanghai producing tvc’s and corporate films for well know international brands like p&g or Volkswagen. In 2007 he was a founding member of the design studio visual catering in Germany and crowed the lable to become a worldwide leading player for large scale visual installations on fairs and events.. 2013 he took over the German business of Sweden based chimney group expanding his expertise also to asset production at scale. Timo calls him self a storyteller by heart with a passion for finding the right environment to tell those stories.
Since 2017 he is part of the serviceplan family, running the Frankfurt office since then and became a managing partner in January 2023.
Kevin Prösel has been part of the Serviceplan Group since 2008. His journey into the frontiers of artificial intelligence began with the AI revolution in 2022, which led agencies to explore the enormous potential of AI for client solutions and creative amplification. As General Manager of Max3 at Saint Elmo's Hamburg since 2023, Kevin Prösel has been instrumental in the integration of AI, spatial computing, experiential marketing and the metaverse and has significantly expanded the group's digital offering. He is currently working on the opening of the Serviceplan AI Lab, which aims to harness AI for ground-breaking marketing solutions. Kevin Prösel's strategic vision is to foster a collaborative environment that uses AI to optimise customer projects and internal processes.
Sebastian Küpers is Chief Transformation Officer at Plan.Net Group. In this role, he is responsible for digital transformation projects such as the introduction of artificial intelligence, spatial computing, blockchain technology, new operating systems and data-driven marketing for the Group and for clients. Sebastian Küpers is also Managing Director of Plan.Net Studios, a creative unit that develops spatial experiences and other client solutions for the next generation of the internet.
Jens-Christian Jensen is Chief Strategy and Sales Officer at Plan.Net Group. His responsibilities include the strategic direction and development of the Group's consulting, experience and technology portfolio as well as agency-wide sales development and management. Before joining the Plan.Net Group in 2024, he held various positions at Digitas Pixelpark, most recently as Chief Strategy Officer. Prior to that, he was Managing Director of Pixelpark's Berlin office. A graduate in business informatics, he lives with his family in Berlin.
From agency to start-up to various software manufacturers, Thomas Kraehe has a diverse background in the digital industry. He began his career in a digital agency, designing and implementing innovative projects ranging from e-learning and e-commerce to multichannel marketing. He also taught courses at the Munich adult education centre and contributed to books and specialist articles on the subject of web development. Since switching to the DX software manufacturer side, he has been responsible for high-performance and secure solution architectures there for several years.
At Adobe, Thomas Kraehe supports the implementation partners in the EMEA region with technical and sales issues in order to achieve joint success.
Carina Müller is General Manager Marketplaces & Retail Media at Mediaplus Performance. As an expert in retail media, marketplace services and commerce strategy, she and her team have been developing data-driven retail media strategies for endemic and non-endemic clients since the end of 2023. The aim is to effectively and profitably combine their digital and bricks-and-mortar advertising activities, use retail data in overarching strategies and leverage insights in a targeted manner.
Carina Müller has built up a strong network in the German retail sector over the course of her career, both at agencies and in the corporate world. Before moving in-house from Plan.Net Impact to Mediaplus Performance in the same position, she worked at EssenceMediacom as Director E-Commerce and Retail Media. There she was responsible for building a consultancy team and worked with clients such as Xiaomi, Nestlé, Coca-Cola and BSH. Prior to that, she worked as a Key Account Manager at Bauknecht on the brand side, managing e-commerce clients such as Amazon, Otto and Lidl. Carina Müller studied economics at the FOM in Cologne and now lives in her adopted home of Cologne.
Sabine Jünger is Vice President of OTTO Advertising and an experienced expert in the field of advertising and marketing. Her career has taken her from Premiere to AOL, her own video ad start-up, SPIEGEL, and Amazon Advertising, all the way to Pinterest. Since August 2021, she has been leading OTTO’s retail media business, developing innovative advertising strategies for advertisers and agencies by utilizing data and technology to effectively reach target audiences.
Ferdinand Schmitt-Besenthal, in his role as Director, Brands at The Trade Desk, assists advertisers in optimizing media buying, implementing innovative media campaigns, and exploring new digital channels. In addition to advising on the implementation of cross-channel campaigns, such as through CTV, digital out-of-home, audio, etc., the experienced media manager focuses particularly on the area of retail media. He provides education and guidance to companies that want to leverage this relevant topic for their own benefit. Before his time at The Trade Desk, Ferdinand Schmitt-Besenthal held senior positions at ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE.
Robert Jozic leads Schwarz Media, the international retail media business of the Schwarz Group (Lidl & Kaufland), which he has been a part of since 2016. Before and during his current role, he led the digital strategy as well as the ecosystems and digital business models at Schwarz Digital. Robert is a permanent member of the supervisory board of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI). He began his career in 2001 at an international strategy consultancy and founded his own company in 2005, focusing on analytics and insights in the FMCG and retail sectors. He has been involved in several startups and was a managing partner at KPS. He studied Computer Science and Business Administration.
Sonja Schwetje is Programme Director of German news channel ntv and Editor-in-Chief of Business and Networks at RTL News. In this role, she represents RTL Germany as a board member of the industry association VAUNET. She is also Chair of the Bertelsmann working group ‘Pressefreiheit’ (Freedom of the Press). Sonja has been at RTL Germany since 1998. After holding various positions at RTL Nord, she moved to RTL West in Cologne in 2005 as Head of Editorial. She joined ntv as Head of News in November 2010 and has been Editor-in-Chief of the news channel since 2014, taking over as Programme Director in spring 2023. Sonja is a passionate journalist with a focus on AI in journalism, the fight against disinformation and the preservation of media pluralism as the fundamental pillar of a democratic society.
Tatjana Anisimov works as Product Innovation Manager at RTL Germany. In her role as Lead Innovation & Product Manager ntv Apps, she monitors trends and technologies that could be exciting for the journalistic brands and digital business of ntv.de and rtl.de and could take journalism even further forward.
After working at t3n, the digital agency FFW and a trainee programme at Gruner + Jahr, she joined RTL Deutschland in June 2021. Tatjana Anisimov has held journalistic positions at stern, radio ffn and Passauer Neue Presse and studied journalism and communication science at the University of Hamburg and Stellenbosch University in South Africa as well as media and communication with a bachelor's degree at the University of Passau.
Peter Gocht has developed numerous national, international and global campaigns. Honoured with creative awards such as seven Cannes Lions and the Grand Prix at the New York Festivals, he was accepted into the Art Directors Club, where he has been chairman of the PR jury for the last two years. As Managing Partner at the creative agency Saint Elmo's, Peter Gocht develops many recruitment campaigns. Together with his team, he brings the employer value proposition to life, charging it with emotion and stopping power to stand out in a highly competitive environment.
Olaf Nitz is Managing Partner of the performance agency Saint Elmo's Boost. Together with his team, he develops data-based recruiting campaigns that increase brand awareness, enable efficient lead generation and achieve high conversion rates in order to attract the best talent and maximise recruiting performance in the long term.
Emanuel Dennis is an HR marketing and employer branding expert with extensive international experience. He has been a partner at House of Communication Hamburg since July 2023, where he is revolutionising Employer Branding. Previously, he was General Manager for Corporate & Employer Branding at Serviceplan Consulting Group, where he developed strategies for clients such as o2 Germany and BMW. Emanuel Dennis writes a LinkedIn series called ‘Disrupt Fridays’, in which he presents innovative theses and questions on HR marketing for discussion on a weekly basis.
Since 2020, Wolf Ingomar Faecks has been CEO of Plan.Net Group, one of the leading partners for consulting, experience and technology services. He is also a member of the executive board of the Serviceplan Group and founder and Chairman of the agency ‘The Marcom Engine’, which manages Europe-wide product marketing activities for BMW and MINI. He previously worked at Publicis Sapient as SVP and Industry Lead Automotive and Health as well as Managing Director DACH, after heading the Telco & Media business at Capgemini from 1998. Faecks, former GWA President, is an active member of the BITKOM Executive Board and a certified supervisory board member of several public limited companies. He is the father of five children and has lived in Munich for 25 years.
Christian Schmidkonz is Professor of International Business and Head of the International Business Master's programme at Munich Business School. After working as a researcher at the ifo Institute for Economic Research and as a senior business consultant at Capgemini, he spent several years as an entrepreneur. He won the 2008 ‘Multimedia’ start-up competition organised by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi). In 2009, he started his teaching position at Munich Business School, where he has been lecturing the university's most popular elective course, ‘Success Factor Happiness’, since 2014. Christian Schmidkonz is the author and co-author of several specialised books, including ‘Conscious Business in Germany’ and ‘Quick Guide Glück im Arbeitsleben’. He graduated in economics from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Christian Schmidkonz lived in Taiwan for several years and regularly gives talks, workshops and training sessions on the topic of ‘Happiness at Work’, inspiring people around the world.
Niko Backspin is one of Germany's top hip-hop journalists and Chief Cultural Officer at Serviceplan Culture. This Hamburg-based media guru has been a major player in rap, breakdancing, graffiti, DJing, and hip-hop culture for over 20 years, earning a stellar reputation along the way. His platform, Backspin, covers everything from podcasts to YouTube, TV documentaries, and radio. With over 2,000 interviews on YouTube, Niko has chatted with industry legends like Xzibit, Samy Deluxe, Jan Delay, Casper, Cypress Hill, and Shirin David. He’s also the go-to cultural consultant for big brands like Porsche, G-Shock, New Era, Axe, o2, and Burger King, making sure they stay connected to the hip-hop scene. But Niko's not just about media and hip-hop. He's deeply involved in charity work too. He's on the board of the NGO Viva con Agua, which fights for clean drinking water access.
Sven Labenz is Managing Director at Serviceplan Culture, the cultural marketing agency of the Serviceplan Group, where he drives strategic consulting and corporate development. He joined Serviceplan in 2024 after serving as Chief Operating Officer at the communications agency Faktor 3. As a communications consultant, he’s managed campaigns and PR for big names like Porsche, OBI, Hyundai, Microsoft, and Samsung. Before moving to the agency side, he worked in the corporate communications team at Schufa Holding and served as an emergency medical technician (EMT). In 2013, he co-founded the indie mag Rollt., launching the world’s first and only magazine dedicated to Paralympic sports and wheelchair basketball.
The Ironix are an internationally successful DJ and producer duo who have made a name for themselves with their unmistakable mix of reggaeton and hip-hop. They have already produced for artists such as Yandel, J Balvin, Maluma and Helene Fischer and have thus firmly established themselves in the music scene.
Behind The Ironix are Simon Reichardt and Felix Eickhoff, who discovered their passion for music at an early age. After initial successes in the progressive and electro house genres, they quickly made their breakthrough. Today, they work on a par with international stars and have produced ten songs for Katja Krasavice's number 1 album ‘Boss Bitch.
Their current focus is on a new artist project: an Afrohouse album with Ardian Bujupi, which emphasises their creative versatility. At the same time, as DJs they remain a crowd-puller at major festivals and renowned clubs, where they create a buzz with their unique sets. Their music and performances show: The Ironix are more than just producers - they set new standards in the international music scene as DJs and artists.
Saleh El Ghatit, the Executive Creative Director at Serviceplan Group Middle East, leads creative teams in Dubai and Jeddah. Sal’s impressive track record includes launching Netflix in Saudi Arabia with locally relevant and insightful content, as well as directing multiple advertising commercials while building a strong production unit within the agency. His portfolio Features successful campaigns for notable clients such as Netflix, ALJ Toyota, Peugeot, Virgin Mobile, and Emirates NBD Bank.
Sarah Ostermann is Director Influencer Marketing at Mediaplus. Acting as interface between people and brands, she connects her clients with opinion leaders who tell emotional and exciting stories about brands. In the field of influencer marketing, her focus is on demonstrating its impact on the overall marketing strategy – proofing how closely (creator) content should be linked to media strategies.
Sarah Ostermann is passionate about trends and exciting intersections to tell stories in new ways. Her goal is to maximise the impact of influencer campaigns. To achieve this, she integrates cultural trends and real-time insights into campaign and content planning, and develops creative concepts that align with brand values. She collaborates with content creators to develop impactful content across platforms, which she then measures through influencer listening and market research data. After graduating in journalism and communication at the University of Vienna, Sarah Ostermann commenced her career in 2011 at Serviceplan PR & Content, an agency within the Serviceplan Group. There she was responsible for brand, product and crisis communication. In her management role as Head of Influencer Relations, she also built up the influencer team. In early 2023, she joined Ketchum as Business Director, primarily responsible for new business and client development. Since the end of 2023 she has been in her current role with the Mediaplus Group.
Alex Turtschan is Director Innovation at Mediaplus Germany. He’s responsible for evaluating market and marketing trends. Translating them into tangible products and solutions for the communication strategies of Mediaplus Group’s clients is his most important area of responsibility.
Alex Turtschan is passionate about digital media, primarily about trends in pop culture, communication and storytelling. He focuses on better understanding Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha in order to identify and elaborate the most important developments for tomorrow's marketing.
Alex Turtschan started his career in digital market and advertising research. After studying communications at LMU Munich, he worked at SevenOne Media in the Interactive Media Research department. He was then responsible for digital strategies, media insights and innovations at Plan.Net Group. From 2018 to 2022, he was Director Digital Accelerator at Mediaplus Group heading an in-house consulting unit that was dealing with trends, strategies and product development.
Alex Turtschan is not only an early adopter when it comes to the latest TikTok trends and Twitch streams, he also sets a sporty pace on his racing bike.
Lukas Paschke is General Manager at Plan.Net Journey. In this position, he advises clients on customer journey management, marketing and communication strategies as well as brand strategies. The marcoms and journey strategist has more than 15 years of professional experience in the areas of integrated communication planning, branding and customer journey management. In 2014, he joined the Serviceplan Group, which also includes the Plan.Net Group, where he played a key role in setting up a strategy consulting team with over 40 employees. He gained international experience in his previous position as Head of Strategy at Grey London Barcelona.
Eldin Thomas is a marketing and sales expert with many years of management experience at international financial service providers. He has managed a wide range of strategic, operational and regulatory client projects and has held various positions with client, budget and revenue responsibility. Today he is Head of Customer Experience Management and in this position is responsible for customer interaction management to increase the NPS for around 9 million customers. Eldin Thomas studied business psychology (M. Sc.) and lives in Frankfurt am Main.
Nina Matzat is co-founder of Plan.Net Studios, the agency group's Web3 and spatial computing studio founded in 2022. She has been developing strategies and storytelling for brands and companies in digital environments for more than 14 years, including almost a decade at Google and independently as a digital creative strategist. Today, she guides and accompanies Serviceplan Group's global clients into the world of emerging tech such as blockchain, tokens, immersive 3D and spatial computing. In doing so, she develops innovative and sustainable business models and products in the decentralised and immersive internet.
Yves Bollinger is Co-Founder and General Manager at Plan.Net Studios, the agency group's Web3 and spatial computing studio founded in 2022. He previously spent nine years as Director Digital Strategy & Innovation at DDB Düsseldorf, where he was responsible for major brands and helped to set up FTW, DDB's global gaming unit in Germany. Before that, he worked for six years as an independent consultant in the areas of digital strategy, UX and product development. He now supports companies in recognising the potential of Web3 and putting it into practice.
As Director Solutions, Christian Rohr has been responsible for customised customer solutions at REPUBLIC Marketing & Media Solutions GmbH, a joint venture of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Süddeutsche Zeitung, for three years. Prior to this, he held various management positions in different industries: at Ryte (Software-as-a-Service), Burda Community Network (Publishing), Euro RSCG / Havas and TBWA (Ad Agency). These experiences enable him to tell interesting stories from different perspectives and thus get the most valuable thing a target group can give you: Time.
From his first internship at a regional daily newspaper to his current position for two of Germany’s most renowned media brands, his passion for great stories has played a key role in Lukas Leister-Jochum’s career so far. In his role as Head of Content Solutions at REPUBLIC, Lukas manages a team of ten project managers who develop and produce tailormade content marketing campaigns for the advertising clients of daily German newspapers Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Süddeutsche Zeitung. Every year the team creates 100 content campaigns for clients from all sectors – always with the goal of meeting the high expectations of the readers, as well as achieving the communications targets of the advertisers.
Armin Nusser is the expert when it comes to setting up, operating and marketing innovative omnichannel retail media inventories in digital and bricks-and-mortar retail.
At the LAYA Group, one of the leading providers of data-driven business models in retail, Armin Nusser is responsible for the retail media business. As Director Retail Media, he is responsible for the development and bundling of retail media inventories at well-known retailers as well as the marketing of predominantly data-driven advertising formats to endemic and non-endemic brands. Armin Nusser previously held a management position at the retail company SportScheck, where he had been responsible for the retail media business since 2019. He was also co-founder of Wunder Media GmbH, Media Group One GmbH, SnackTV Media GmbH and Styque GmbH. The business economist from Schillingsfürst in Bavaria successfully completed his studies at Munich University of Applied Sciences. Nusser is married and has two children.
Anne von Loebbecke is an experienced marketer specializing in digital transformation, as well as building and scaling new business models and consumer experiences.
Since 2023, Anne von Loebbecke has been working as VP Marketing at SportScheck, one of the leading sports retailers in Germany. In this role, she is responsible for Marketing, Communication, Media, Membership, and Creation.
Previously, Anne von Loebbecke spent over 10 years at Nike Europe, where she was responsible for Strategy & Planning in the DTC (Direct-to-Consumer) segment. She then led the Brand Consulting team at Sportfive, before taking on the re-positioning of the brand at the tech start-up OneFootball, where she also helped build the Metaverse/NFT segment within Marketing.
Krzysztof Rosiński is the Managing Partner and CTO at Salestube and the acting Chief AI Officer at Group One. With nearly 20 years of experience in advertising and technological innovation, he joined Salestube after a decade at Google. Leading the MarTech arm of Group One, Krzysztof is responsible for delivering best-in-class technology solutions and data-driven strategies across all Group One entities.
At Google, Krzysztof led the technological implementation of DoubleClick and Google Marketing Platform in Central Europe. He developed data utilization strategies to optimize sales processes and drove digital transformation for major clients in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region. Later, at Google Cloud, he built and managed a global organization, integrating Google Cloud solutions, data strategies, and Design Thinking to facilitate the digital transformation of Fortune 500 companies across the EMEA and Asia-Pacific (APAC) regions.
In his current role, Krzysztof spearheads the development of advanced technological, data-driven, and cloud solutions at Salestube while expanding the agency’s engineering and analytical capabilities. He also oversees Group One's AI strategy and execution.
Krzysztof’s career spans roles as an analyst, data scientist, and business consultant. He has mentored aspiring entrepreneurs and professionals, studied Physics at the Warsaw University of Technology, and is a scholarship holder of the Google Business Academy, where he completed a business leadership program in collaboration with Duke University.
