Serviceplan:
The Speakers of the Masterclasses 2024
Discover the inspiring speakers who will be sharing their knowledge and experience with you in this year's masterclasses.
CMO, Serviceplan Group
Felix Bartels
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.
General Manager, Serviceplan AI Lab
Eva Simone Lihotzky
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.
Managing Director, Serviceplan Group
Timo Wolf
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.
General Manager, Max3 at Saint Elmo's
Kevin Prösel
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.
Managing Director, Plan.Net Studios & Chief Transformation Officer, Plan.Net Group
Sebastian Küpers
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.
Chief Strategy and Sales Officer, Plan.Net Group
Jens-Christian Jensen
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.
Senior Partner Solutions Consultant EMEA, Adobe
Thomas Kraehe
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.
General Manager Marketplaces & Retail Media, Mediaplus Performance
Carina Müller
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.
Editor-in-Chief of Business and Networks at RTL News and Programme Director of the news channel ntv
Sonja Schwetje
Sonja Schwetje is Programme Director and Editor-in-Chief of the news channel ntv as well as 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 and as Chair of the Board of Directors at ENEX (European News Exchange). She is also chairwoman of the Bertelsmann working group on press freedom. Sonja Schwetje has been with RTL Deutschland since 1998. After holding various positions at RTL Nord, she moved to RTL West in Cologne in 2005 as Head of Editorial. In November 2010, she joined ntv as Head of News. Sonja Schwetje has been Editor-in-Chief of the news channel since 2014, and in spring 2023 she also took over as Programme Director.
Lead Innovation & Product Manager ntv Apps
Tatjana Anisimov
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.
Managing Partner, Saint Elmo's
Peter Gocht
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.
Managing Partner, Saint Elmo's Boost
Olaf Nitz
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.
Partner Employer Branding & HR-Marketing, Serviceplan Group
Emanuel Dennis
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.
Managing Partner, Serviceplan Group & CEO, Plan.Net Group
Wolf Ingomar Faecks
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.
Professor and program director, Munich Business School
Prof. Dr. Christian Schmidkonz
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.
Chief Cultural Officer, Serviceplan Culture
Niko Backspin
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.
Executive Creative Director, Serviceplan Group Middle East
Saleh El Ghatit
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.
Managing Partner & Chief Strategy Officer, Serviceplan Group
Stefanie Kuhnhen
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.
Consumer psychologist & founder Sturm und Drang
Stefan Baumann
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.
Global Director Corporate Communications, Leica Camera AG
Johannes Winter
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.
Director Influencer Marketing, Mediaplus Group
Sarah Ostermann
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.
Director Innovation, Mediaplus Group
Alex Turtschan
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.
General Manager, Plan.Net Journey
Lukas Paschke
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.
Co-Founder & General Manager, Plan.Net Studios
Nina Matzat
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.
Co-Founder & General Manager, Plan.Net Studios
Yves Bollinger
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.
Director Solutions, REPUBLIC Marketing & Media Solutions GmbH
Christian Rohr
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.
Senior Consultant Content Solutions, REPUBLIC Marketing & Media Solutions GmbH
Andrea Gräf
As a senior consultant in the REPUBLIC content team, Andrea Gräf supports clients from various industries. She supports campaigns with print, digital and/or event components, from content conception to film and video productions to holistic project management. In her previous position, she was a social media consultant at the Munich agency Slash.Digital.
Director Retail Media, LAYA Group
Armin Nusser
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.
Managing Partner & CTO, Salestube & Chief AI Officer, Group One
Krzysztof Rosiński
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.
