Chairman of the Supervisory Board
Ralf Püttmann (born 1964) studied business administration at the University of Cologne / Pennstate University, USA and has more than 30 years of experience in international retail and fashion management, including 20 years in the Metro Group AG. Until 2011, he served as Vice Chairman of Galeria Kaufhof GmbH with varying responsibilities for purchasing, sales, marketing, strategy and change / innovation management, and as a member of the Metro Global Leadership Council, Chairman of Sportarena GmbH, board member of Galeria-INNO SA , Brussels and Metro Group Buying, HongKong.
Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board
Professor Dr. H. c. Michael ten Hompel studied electrical engineering at the RWTH Aachen and obtained his doctorate from the University of Witten / Herdecke. He is holder of the Chair for Conveying and Storage at the TU Dortmund, Managing Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics and Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Software and Systems Engineering. In addition to his scientific work, Professor ten Hompel also worked as an entrepreneur.
Member of the Supervisory Board
Thomas Austmann, lawyer, is a partner at Austmann & Partner. His areas of focus include advising companies in crisis situations as well as insolvency and insolvency-related scenarios, including creditors and shareholders. Austmann has extensive experience in national and international M & A and capital market transactions as well as the structuring of corporate and asset succession.
Member of the Supervisory Board
Nico Hemmann studied at the International School of Management in Dortmund where he earned his master’s degree and is also a Certified Private Equity Analyst (TUM School of Management). He is managing director of S-Venture Capital Dortmund GmbH, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sparkasse Dortmund. The company participates in companies in the Dortmund region, which are characterized by their particular innovative strength. In addition, Mr. Nico Hemmann is responsible for the founding and innovation center of Sparkasse Dortmund, which, in addition to the investment business, supports companies in raising public funding, both in the context of start-ups, succession planning and growth financing.