NEXT

Michael Trautmann, aged 46, has been active in field of branding from various perspectives. As Director of the Marketing Foundation at the University of Augsburg, he was involved in marketing research and received his PhD in 1993. As Manager of the international top management consultancy Bossard Consultants he advised Porsche AG and the Bertelsmann Entertainment Group among others.

In 1997 he joined the advertising agency Springer & Jacoby, initially as a partner of company founder Reinhard Springer in London and then, from 1998, as Director of Client Services to Mercedes-Benz. From 2000 onwards, as founding president of Springer & Jacoby International and member of the agency's Holding Board, Michael Trautmann was engaged in advancing the international development of the Hamburg-based group of agencies.

From 2002 to 2004 Michael Trautmann was Global Head of Marketing for AUDI AG in Ingolstadt. In addition to taking direct responsibility for managing the Audi brand worldwide, he was also responsible for coordinating the marketing activities of the AUDI group of brands (AUDI, SEAT, Lamborghini). As deputy to one of the AUDI board members he was also a member of the Top Management Group at Volkswagen AG. In 2004 the European marketing magazine Media & Marketing nominated Michael as one of the ″Top 40 Marketing Professionals under 40″ in Europe.

In 2004 André Kemper and Michael Trautmann founded the advertising agency kempertrautmann (clients include Audi, Bertelsmann, Coca-Cola, Commerzbank and Henkel). kempertrautmann was voted ″Newcomer Agency of the Year″ in 2005. In
September 2006 it received the Hamburger Gründerpreis (entrepreneur award) in
the ″start ups″ category. Michael Trautmann and André Kemper were voted ″Agency Men of the Year 2007″ by the HORIZONT industry journal and kempertrautmann was voted ″Global Newcomer Agency of the Year″ in 2009.