born in Berlin in 1955;
studies in German Literature, Journalism and Philosophy in Munich; Ph.D. on advertising; studies in Publishing at Harvard University, Cambridge; two years in publishing in New York; Master of Business Administration at INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France;
from 2002 to 2009 member of the supervisory board at the Bibliographisches Institut & F.A. Brockhaus AG (publishing house of Brockhaus, Meyer, Duden; 1988-2001);
since 2002 member of the supervisory board; publisher and personally liable associate of the Langenscheidt Publishing Group (together with father and brother; until 1994);
author of books (including "1000 Glücksmomente" (Heyne Verlag, 2010, "Wish I May, Wish I Might" (Abbeville Press, 1993, "Glück mit Kindern" (Heyne Verlag, 1997, "100 x Civil Courage" (Heyne Verlag, 1999), "Von Liebe, Freundschaft und Glück" (Heyne Verlag, 2005, "Wörterbuch des Optimisten" (Heyne Verlag, 2008, "Langenscheidts Handbuch zum Glück" (Heyne Verlag, 2012), "Finde dein Glück" (Heyne Verlag, 2015), „Weil ich Dich liebe“ (2018), „Alt genug, um glücklich zu sein“ (2020), „Das kleine Wörterbuch für Optimist*innen“ (2021) and numerous newspaper and magazine articles about media, language, economy, politics (including Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, DIE ZEIT, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Tagesspiegel and FOCUS);
Editor of: "Bei uns zu Hause. Prominente erzählen von ihrer Kindheit" (Econ Verlag, 1995), "Motto meines Lebens" (Heyne Verlag, 2003), "Weltmarktführer" (Deutsche Standards Editionen, 2004); "Das Beste an Deutschland" (Deutsche Standards Editionen, 2006); "Aus bester Familie. 100 vorbildliche deutsche Familienunternehmen" (Deutsche Standards Editionen, 2008), "Deutsches Markenlexikon" (Deutsche Standards Editionen, 2008), "Das Beste für Ihr Kind" (Deutsche Standards Editionen, 2011), "In bester Gesellschaft" (Deutsche Standards Editionen, 2011), "Handgemacht" (Deutsche Standards Editionen, 2012), "Best of German Engineering" (Deutsche Standards Editionen, 2013), "Lexikon der deutschen Weltmarktführer" (Deutsche Standards Editionen, 2015), "The Best of German Mittelstand" (Deutsche Standards Editionen, 2015), "Marken des Jahrhunderts (2018), „Lexikon der deutschen Familienunternehmen“ (2020);
speaker of the board of trustees of "Deutscher Gründerpreis"
co-founder of the German Book Prize columnist of FORBES, MAX, CAPITAL (since 1992);
member of the World-Wide Fund for Nature's (WWF) board of trustees;
initiator and head of the executive board of the global children's organisation "Children for a Better World";
partner of the "German Children and Youth Foundation" (Deutsche Kinder- und Jugendstiftung);
member of the board of trustees of "Stiftung Lesen", "Deutsche Olympische Gesellschaft" and "Deutsches Museum";
member of the "Münchener Herren-Club", member of the "Harvard Club" and member of the "China Club", member of the "Schule Schloss Salem", trustee of the "Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung";
member of the board of trustees of "Stiftung Deutsche Schlaganfall-Hilfe";
part-time lectureship at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich (1988-2001);
TV-host of the "Münchner Runde" talk show, Bavarian TV and "nachtclub" (since 1992);
head of the supervisory board at Transatlantic Ventures AG; member of the supervisory board at Friendlyway AG; adviser at Engel & Völkers,World Guide Inc.;
member of the Publishers' Committee of the German Publishers' Association "Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels" (1992-1999);
founding chairman of the "Electronic Publishing Working Party" (representing the German book industry in terms of multimedia and the internet); chairman of the study group "Initiative Future" of the Federal President of Germany (1996-1999);
member of the advisory board of the Enquete Commission at the Parliament "Zukunft der Medien in Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft" (1996-1998); member of the board of the Federation of German Industries' multimedia and telecommunication policy committee (since 2000); partner of the Langenscheidt Publishing Group, Jochen Schweizer Erlebnisgeschenke, Newsports, Ciando, Friendlyway, Transatlantic Ventures, Descape, Tandem, Berlin Valley News, The 100 etc. admission to the German Speakers Hall of Fame, 2008 Federal Cross of Merit on Ribbon, 2016
updated: July 2021