Marketing experts paid by the Berlin Senate gave Berlin the nickname “City of Freedom”. Of course, such labels are of little value if they are completely unfounded. But in this case it fits: Berlin has been a magnet for weirdos, gamers, dreamers and visionaries for well over 100 years. And there is enough space for the uncool minds that are also needed for success.
That’s a good mix. Today nobody asks where you come from, who you love, in whom or what you believe. But with a good business idea you have a very good chance of finding fellow campaigners and financiers. Berlin companies are now trendsetters and style-defining in various sectors of the economy, they attract investors from Europe and all over the world to the capital.
The economy team in the Berlin department of the Tagesspiegel has identified the current “100 most important heads of Berlin’s economy” and presents them to you in a ten-part series. The order in which they are mentioned should say nothing about their “importance”. Nevertheless, we highlight one person in each episode. Read here which people in business, in our opinion, are hard to ignore if you want to turn a big wheel in Berlin. (kph)
11. Oliver Mackprang, Miles Mobility
Car sharing is considered a difficult business. Oliver Mackprang (35) counters with Miles. In 2019 he took over the business of the Berlin-based car sharing company. Miles was the first car sharer to be in the black for the first time in the 2020 Corona financial year. In November last year, the start-up, which currently has almost 400 employees, took over the VW subsidiary We Share.
The fleet of the free-floating provider, where the vehicles can be rented and parked anywhere within the service area without being tied to fixed parking spaces, has grown again since then: 13,000 cars and 1,500 vans can currently be found in nine German and three Belgian cities , more to come. The provider also stands out with its billing model. Instead of a price per minute, Miles counts the kilometers driven.
Founder Mackprang has lived in Berlin for around 17 years. He was born in Montréal, Canada, his mother is from Nicaragua. He speaks four languages. The Berliner by choice has been in the mobility business for more than ten years. In 2012 he founded the carsharing aggregator Carjump, which he later sold to the PSA Group, which owns Peugeot and Citroën, among others. Before joining Miles, Mackprang worked for the management consultancy Kearney and the VW subsidiary Moia. He is well connected in the scene.
The entrepreneur regularly attacks the Berlin administration. From his point of view, it unnecessarily puts obstacles in the way of car sharing companies. Mackprang sees unequal treatment with private cars, whose owners pay comparatively little money for a resident parking permit, while high parking fees are due for car sharing companies. That slows down shared mobility. Other cities are already further along. Since the beginning of the year, all carsharing vehicles in Stuttgart have been allowed to park for free. In view of the expected new black-red government in Berlin, Mackprang hopes “now for a breath of fresh air, an effective exchange and the will to change”. (kuh)???
12. Philipp Pausder, Managing Director Thermondo
A lot went very well for the two-meter man with the compelling smile. After university and basketball career, jobs at Adidas and as a strategy consultant. Then the reactor in Fukushima exploded, Chancellor Merkel got out of nuclear power, and Pausder and a school friend discussed how the energy transition could work. In 2012 he founded Thermondo, a digital heating configurator. The company is now the largest heating contractor in Germany, specializing in heat pumps. (loy)
13. Marion Bleß, board member Lotto-Berlin
The 54-year-old is certainly not addicted to gambling, we would have noticed that when Marion Bleß ran the business at the Tagesspiegel. From 2008 to 2011. The attraction of switching to the Deutsche Klassenlotterie Berlin, and thus also to the Lotto Foundation, was certainly the promotion of art and culture. As a full-time lottery fairy. Marion Bleß studied musicology, German and business administration in Hamburg – in that order. She was promoted to Dr. phil. (loy)
14. Robert Ruckel, DDR Museum
Robert Rückel, born in Nuremberg in 1984, is a business graduate and was the founding director of the DDR Museum for eleven years. He has been Managing Director of the Spy Museum since 2016, Chairman of the IHK General Assembly since 2017 and was also Chairman of the Interest Group for Berlin’s Tourist Attractions from 2020 to 2023. He is planning to open another museum in Berlin this year, the Deutschlandmuseum. (jni)
15. Christian Matschke, Berlin Chemistry
Christian Matschke, 50, is responsible for production, quality and logistics on the board of the pharmaceutical company Berlin-Chemie (Menarini Group) in Adlershof. Matschke should know all the important people, as he holds leading positions in numerous business associations: from the Association of North East Chemicals to the UVB to the Chamber of Industry and Commerce. He is a co-initiator of the Berlin GreenCHEM initiative and is committed to networking universities, start-ups and industry in order to promote Berlin as a “health capital”.
16. Kerstin Oster, Berliner Wasserbetriebe
She is the first woman on the board of the state-owned Berliner Wasserbetriebe (BWB), she is responsible for the areas of human resources and information technology; The advancement of women as a change in corporate culture is important to her. And she is a role model in the very technical company. With more than 20 years of management experience, she came from the private sector: first at the Berlin family company Krone GmbH, then at the US telecommunications group Tyco.
17.Werner Gegenbauer
Werner Gegenbauer is a relationship person. He spends half the day on the phone. The entrepreneur and ex-president (IHK and Hertha BSC) got rich with building cleaning. He retired from the operative business a long time ago. Nevertheless, the 72-year-old sits in the office on Fasanenstrasse every day and devotes himself to company investments. Over the years, he has acquired a diverse portfolio, which he now manages with his general representative, the former head of the trade fair, Christian Göke. This includes building-related services, but also radiology. The investments or participations result from the networks. A few months ago he sold the cleaning service that bears his name to Apleona. Gegenbauer is now the second largest shareholder of the largest European building service provider.
18. Ute Weiland, Association of Berlin Merchants and Industrialists
In 2023, Ute Weiland assumed office in the business organization founded in 1879, which now has more than 2,300 members. Previously, she headed the East German Economic Forum, among other things. By its very nature, it is the mouthpiece for companies in Berlin and Brandenburg and is excellently integrated into networks – not only specifically for women, but also there. As a native East German, she brings their interests more strongly into the business association, which was long shaped by West Berlin’s business elite. (taboo)
19. Jens Schick, Association of Private Clinics and Care Facilities
Jens Schick is chairman of the Association of Private Clinics and Nursing Facilities Berlin-Brandenburg (VPK BB). He started as a social security clerk at the AOK, then went on to study and did his doctorate in the early 2000s on the newly introduced flat-rate system. He came to Sana Kliniken in 2005 and has been a member of the Management Board since 2014. Since 2022, the 49-year-old has chaired the association of private clinics and care facilities in Berlin-Brandenburg. Schick knows the city’s clinic bosses and is well connected in political Berlin. (simi)
20. Eva Weiss, BUWOG
Eva Weiß is one of the few women who hold a management position in the real estate industry. As Managing Director of BUWOG Bauträger GmbH, she is ambitious in creating new living space. The company is now building and planning 55,000 apartments, almost five times as many as in 2020, when she took over the managerial post. Weiß relies on sustainability: 20 percent of the apartments are to be realized as wooden buildings.
