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Expert Council
The Expert Council has a very special and responsible role. Staffed with personalities from the respective industries, the members know the market in the six product categories like no one else. They advise us on the selection of brands that are or will become important for the respective category. They keep in touch with the key decision-makers in their industry and make us aware of new technologies.
Hans Wienands
Chairman of the Expert Council
Focus: Electronics & Technology
Hans Wienands
As Senior Vice President Hisense and Executive Vice President Samsung Electronics, he also held honorary positions as Chairman of the CE Fachverband in ZVEI, member of the Board of BITKOM and on the Board of Trustees of the Stiftung Elektro Altgeräte Register. Since 2020, he has accompanied a few selected young companies as an independent consultant and interim manager. Since September 2021, he has also chaired the Expert Council of Germany’s Favourite.
Anja Hirsch
Focus: Well-being
Anja Hirsch
Anja Hirsch accompanied, among others, Karstadt Warenhaus and KaDeWe Group in leading positions of strategic merchandising, sales and purchasing for the beauty sector. Always with a focus on the strategic development and implementation of beauty retail concepts. For the last 3 years she has been an independent consultant for the beauty retail sector and accompanies, with more than 30 years of beauty expertise in retail, owner-managed perfumeries. As a member of the Expert Council of Germany’s Favourite, she focuses on the area of “well-being”.
Manfred Eckermeier
Focus: Home & Garden
Manfred Eckermeier
Manfred Eckermeier, a trained journalist, explains the world of home and garden from his “CampGarden”. Everyone can learn how to do it themselves, even without a green thumb, about the house, garden, terrace and balcony. Here you will find advice, tips and ideas. Here, people try out, test and compare products, including for Mein schöner Garten, Das Haus, Guter Rat and Familienheim und Garten. Since 1986, its topics have reached more than 30,000 publications with over 15 billion reader contacts in the main areas of home, garden and tools.
Thomas Blömer
Focus: Photo, Home Appliances, Drones
Thomas Blömer
As the publisher of PoS-MAIL, an important medium for technical retailers, and imaging+foto.contact, the trade magazine for the photo industry, Thomas Blömer deals with new products in the consumer electronics, photo and household appliance segments on a daily basis. As a member of the expert council of Germany’s Favourites, he focuses on the innovative power and sustainability of new products.
Luis Ruland
Focus: Sports & Hobby
Luis Ruland
Luis Ruland spent a decade building a global and resilient network in sports – specifically tennis – before most recently steering marketing strategies in the EMEA market at global market leader Nike, Inc. After five years in the sporting goods industry, he joined start-up aware_ THE PLATFORM to accelerate progress in sustainable transformation across industries. His family background and corresponding passion for the craft sector round out his expertise in the sports & hobby category.
Volker Wachs
Focus: Consumer electronics
Volker Wachs
Editor-in-chief and publisher of the retailer magazine CE&TRADE. Closely connected to the imaging market for several years, Volker Wachs is the competent contact person for all questions concerning “Germany’s Favourite” and seals of quality for consumer electronic products with a focus on imaging.
Advisory Board
Our advisory board advises the Germany’s Favourite team on all matters concerning forward-looking, cross-sectoral social and technological developments that can influence our lives.
Alexander Garbe
Focus: Architecture & Furniture
Alexander Garbe
Alexander Garbe is the owner of stilwerk. He took over the fate of the houses from his father in 2009. With great passion, he successfully developed the business model. With three destinations in Berlin, Düsseldorf and Hamburg, the stilwerk magazine and the stilwerk online store, the stilwerk brand today stands for a unique, comprehensive shopping experience.
Hans-Peter Kleebinder
Focus: New Mobility
Hans-Peter Kleebinder
Hans-Peter Kleebinder is an independent expert on sustainable future mobility. As early as 1995, he conducted research at the University of St. Gallen on the significance and future of our mobility in Europe. He then spent more than 20 years in management positions in sales, marketing and customer support at the MINI, BMW and Audi brands. Today, he is an international speaker, director of studies for ‘Smart Mobility Management’ at the Executive School of the University of St. Gallen, curator for the topic of sustainability at the ‘IAA Mobility’ and a member of the ‘Global New Mobility Coalition’ at the World Economic Forum.
Kim Fischer
Focus: environmental protection, sustainable
working and production, circular economy
Kim Fischer
Kim N. Fischer grew up in a gas station and racing family. She has always had a keen sense for trends and loved to question things. Her roles included communications, strategic direction and new format development. She worked for Leica, Samsung, DMY Berlin, Köln Messe (imm Cologne), Berlin Messe for CE Week NYC, IFA and additionally as Senior Executive Advisor to the Management of Messe Berlin. Throughout her career, she has built an extensive professional network across all industries.
Klemens Skibicki
Focus: Digitalisation, change management,
economic policy
Prof. Dr. Klemens Skibicki
Klemens Skibicki spends most of his time supporting companies in holistic change management towards the digital age. As a business historian with a doctorate and professor of marketing and market research, he uses the parallels and differences to earlier structural breaks to solve the hurdles in the minds regarding new processes, roles and revenue components. In his experience, digital transformation is usually more a matter of thinking, feeling and living the change than of technology.
Robin P. G. Tech
Focus: Technology & Politics
Dr. Dr. Robin P. G. Tech
Dr. Robin P. G. Tech is co-founder and CEO of delphai, a software company that has developed an AI-based B2B search engine. In addition, Dr. Tech is a member of the economic advisory board of the Bündnis 90/Die Grünen party and a senior researcher at the Hasso Plattner Institute and MIT, focusing on complex systems and financial models.
