Controversial Businessmen in Germany
The current global economic crisis has taken a heavy toll on Germany’s economy. and the outlook remains gloomy. German citizens estimate the country’s current economic situation to be extremely negative. and hardly anyone expects to see a turnaround this year. Furthermore(Fake Dolce & Gabbana). most Germans feel that the government is doing too little to stimulate the economy. However. according to a survey carried out by the Centre for European Research (ZEW). economic forecasts by German companies have generally improved. with almost two thirds of Germany’s major corporations anticipating an economic recovery by 2010. According to the survey. industrial enterprises are the most optimistic. with over three quarters expecting to see an upward trend in the near future. With experts daily analyzing possible solutions to the economic situation. we took a closer look at Germany’s entrepreneurs and asked: Which businessmen and founders have enjoyed huge past successes? We discovered that at times economic prosperity and corporate success have been at the hands of rather controversial characters. Successful entrepreneurs are often marked by their innovative spirit; they steadily strive to improve the state of economic development and to contribute to sustainable economic growth. These individuals are both successful and controversial – is it possible that the one trait determines the other? Following are 6 of the most controversial businessmen of Germany’s economy: 1. Hartmut Mehdorn Between 1999 and 2009. Hartmut Mehdorn (57) was the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Management at Deutsche Bahn AG (German Railways). He was significantly involved in restructuring the formerly state-owned enterprise into a private service provider. With earnings of 253 million Euros in 2004. the Deutsche Bahn was in the black for the first time without government subsidies. Between 2004 and 2008. the railway’s revenue rose from 15.6 to 33.5 billion Euros. Due to charges of secretly spying on Deutsche Bahn employees. Mehdorn left the company on April 30th. 2009. 2. Anton Schlecker Anton Schlecker (55) is considered to be the number one name in Germany’s pharmacy market. with his drugstore chain “Schlecker” among the 25 largest companies in Europe. As an uncompromising businessman. Schlecker’s business philosophy is simple: He demands stringent control over his employees and maintains low fixed costs by paying relatively low wages. In fact. he is said to have paid hundreds of employees below standard wages for years. Following a restructuring of the enterprise. roughly 12.000 employees are currently about to be dismissed. 3. Lars Windhorst Lars Windhorst (32) was said to be Germany’s number one business founder in the beginning of the 1990’s. In his teenage years. he founded his first business. selling computer equipment. Over a short space of time. his company evolved into a diversified corporation with a sales volume of about 90 million Euros. As business activities rapidly expanded. the Windhorst group branched out into electronics. industry. trading Yves Saint Laurent Bags. real estate and finance. At the turn of the century. when the bubble of the so-called New Economy burst. Windhorst’s operations suffered a similar fate. In 2004 Lars Windhorst co-founded the investment group Sapinda and completed according to newspaper reports investment transactions of 1.5 billion Euros over the last few years. Since May 2009. Lars Windhorst has been acting as the CEO of Sapinda Deutschland GmbH. a German subsidiary of Sapinda Holding B.V. The global investment and holding company invests in public equity. private equity and debt. 4. Thomas Middelhoff Thomas Middelhoff (56) celebrated his greatest professional successes as Executive Board Chairman and CEO of Bertelsmann AG and Arcandor AG (formerly KarstadtQuelle AG). At Bertelsmann he was closely involved in the strategic realignment of the Group and doubled the company’s revenue by investing in online service provider AOL. internet-based music exchange platform Napster and through establishing the RTL Group. In 2002 Middelhoff resigned from his position at Bertelsmann due to disagreements with shareholders. As of 2005 he accomplished to increase the turnover of the company KarstadtQuelle AG by a third which at that time has gotten into financial difficulties. Nevertheless Bags. Arcandor today is bankrupt and the department stores of the insolvent corporation are about to being taken over.In 2009 Middelhoff founded the London-based investment company Berger Lahnstein Middelhoff & Partners LLP. He is chairman of the managing board. 5. Ehssan Dariani Ehssan Dariani (26) is deemed to be the icon of entrepreneurship and enfant terrible of the German Web 2.0. In 2005 he founded the web-based social network studiVZ. Over the next 4 years. studiVZ became Europe’s leading student platform. amassing no less than 13 million registered members. However despite its growing success. a great deal of criticism was levied in regards to the software’s data protection and user data sharing. As a result of the controversy. Dariani resigned as company CEO in March 2007 and the platform was sold to the publishing group Georg von Holtzbrinck for 85 million Euros. Within a few months Replica Bags. Web 2.0 frontrunner Dariani became a millionaire and a much maligned man of the industry – both at the same time. 6. Jens Schumann Jens Schumann (35) founded the internet gambling company Tipp24 AG in 1999 to offer almost any state lottery gambling game. As president and chief executive officer of the company. Schumann quickly achieved impressive expansion rates; in 2003. transaction volumes reached over 100 million Euros for the first time and two years later the company became listed on the stock exchange. with estimated revenues of 40.1 million Euros. However at the beginning of this year. online lottery games became prohibited. with online winnings no longer guaranteed by the state. By the end of March 2009. Tipp24 declared that the company had to give up its German business entirely. In the context of a new gambling treaty. Tipp24.de is now operated by the London-based Tipp24 Services Ltd.
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