The speaker of imm cologne congress

... is a member of the management board at Vintage-Möbel24 GmbH. He is passionate about innovative technologies and the development of new business models.

While still a student, he ran a management consultancy business. Furthermore, he founded his own company and worked for groups such as Omya International AG, Deutsche Bahn AG and tecis Finanzdienstleistungen AG.

Dennis Riggers claimed first place in a competition by HAW and the Napier University in Edinburgh in the corporate founding/consulting section.

... CEO of Raumschmiede GmbH, entrepreneur and founder. After studying Political Sciences and Economics in Regensburg and a brief intermezzo as a scientific employee at Tubingen University and a consulting firm in Munich, Jürgen Schuster has been concentrating on setting up "Garten-und-Freizeit.de" since 2007.

In his capacity as managing partner, he has developed Garten-und-Freizeit.de into the leading category specialist for garden furniture and other beautiful items for the garden together with a team now comprising around 150 employees. He has established the private brand OUTLIV. as a significant player in the garden furniture sector.

Since 2014, the WEKO group has supported the development of Raumschmiede GmbH as a strategic investor, with Raumschmiede also operating the indoor furniture store piolo.de since 2018.

In early 2019, bedroom specialist Betten.de also joined the Raumschmiede family, whose vision is to create a great venue for permanent change and development that enables its employees to be effective and keep on developing better, simpler and more sustainable solutions for themselves, the team and the customers of the respective online shops.

Polish subsidiary HSF E-Commerce Sp. z o.o. has become established as an expert in logistics services, especially in the field of e commerce furniture logistics. It operates the Polish garden furniture store Outliv.pl.

... Head of Performance Marketing, Emma - The Sleep Company. From dream destinations to dream engineers: following her tourism studies, which were split between France and Germany, Katrin Nieke worked for the French tourist board for five years where she was responsible for France’s tourism marketing for the German market, first as a project manager and then as team leader.

It’s a well-known fact that travellers can’t be tied down, and so her desire for a flexible way of working and her strong creative drive attracted her to the start-up scene.

This led her to the Bettzeit sleep tech group, where she has since been responsible for the global brand marketing of the Emma and Dunlopillo brands.

If Katrin Nieke has learned one thing above all else from her time in the tourism industry, it’s an understanding of the value of high service standards. At Bettzeit, the focus is always on the customer – whether by day or night – and Katrin makes sure that this ethos is a tangible reality.

She rarely relies on her gut feelings, instead consistently making decisions on the basis of customer feedback and data. And Bettzeit’s data-driven approach works. In 2018, Emma was named the fastest-growing tech start-up in Europe with growth of 14,315 per cent (2016–2017), and the brand is already available in 20 countries worldwide.

... has been the Spokesperson at deinSchrank.de GmbH since May 2017. In January 2019, she also took on the role of Head of Communications (unpaid) for the group of companies deinSchrank.de Holding GmbH.

Prior to this, Laura took a media studies degree at the University of Siegen between 2009 and 2012. She then held various positions with the RTL media group until 2017 – initially training as an editor, reporter and newsreader at the RTL School of Journalism with practical placements at n-tv and children’s news programme “Logo!”, among others, going on temporary assignment abroad at ZDF’s studio in Israel and finally working as a journalist and correspondent for North Rhine-Westphalia for the RTL WEST magazine show. She has obtained additional qualifications through various media training opportunities.

... CEO of MÖBELFIRST, the platform for the German furniture retail trade and operator of several online shops for branded and designer furniture, including the largest outlet for ex-showroom furniture in the DACH group of German-speaking countries. Ritschel began his career with kitchens manufacturer nobilia and, after taking a degree in business administration, he worked at Roland Berger in Munich and Berlin. He is a former Konrad Adenauer Foundation scholarship student and sits on the advisory board for digital issues for Germany’s CDU/CSU parliamentary association of small and medium-sized businesses (MIT). Ritschel is a third-generation furniture retailer; he co-founded MÖBELFIRST with Dennis T. Franken in 2015.

... is a co-founder of Westwing Group AG and its Director of Purchasing. Benno joined the group in order to establish westwingnow.de, which he built from the ground up to become a Euro 100 million business and now heads as a Co-Managing Director. In this role, he is responsible for category management, pricing policy, production and the entire supplier base. Benno is a member of the executive team at the Westwing Group. Before he came to Westwing, Benno was a junior partner at McKinsey & Company, where he was part of the global leadership team with oversight of strategy and purchasing practices.

Benno holds a degree in electrical engineering from the Technical University of Munich and Yokohama National University. He also earned a doctorate and the title Dr.-Ing. in the same subject from the Technical University of Munich and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

... took up the post of Managing Director at Rauch Möbelwerke GmbH in Freudenberg, Germany, in October 1999 and has been Chairman of the Management Board since 2001 and is thus also responsible for the group’s wood-based materials business.

He also became a shareholder in the company in 2003. Before joining Rauch, he held various positions at Daimler-Benz AG over a 16-year period. Alongside his responsibility for the ERP systems in the company’s commercial vehicles business segment, he coordinated the first group-wide introduction of SAP. As well as leading an M&A process to purchase a company in Asia, Stiehl developed and implemented a supplier programme before managing the office of a member of the board.

Stiehl’s career path has been characterised by an entrepreneurial approach and the forward-looking willingness to seize opportunities in the context of structural changes in industry and business. In addition to his full-time role at Rauch, Stiehl plays an active role in industry bodies. For example, he is Vice President of the main association of the German timber industry (HDH), Vice President of the Association of the German Furniture Industry (VDM) and Vice President of the regional association for the industrial sector in the state of Baden-Württemberg (LVI-BW). Stiehl has also been a member of the supervisory board of wood-based materials supplier Egger since 2019.

... in his role as Chief Commercial Officer, Oliver Klinck is responsible for eBay’s entire B2C business in Germany, one of the company’s largest markets in the world. His responsibilities include maintaining relationships with the commercial sellers, retailers and brands on eBay.de as well as managing the various product categories and the inventory, with a special emphasis on the categories home & garden, home entertainment equipment, vehicle parts & accessories and fashion.

Oliver Klinck is also responsible for Promotional Planning and all investments in the German B2C business. He has worked in various roles and areas of international e commerce for 20 years and has a deep understanding of the German market.

Before joining eBay, Klinck was on the executive board of Office Depot Europe, where he was in charge of the e commerce business and inventory. Prior to that, he held positions including Vice President Fashion & Sports at Otto and Managing Director of Hermes Otto-International. Oliver Klinck studied business informatics at the University of Mannheim.

... is an Executive Director of factor-a part of Dept and has been an e-commerce consultant and specialist in the development and scaling of paid advertising measures for over ten years. His focus is on Sponsored Ads and the Amazon Demand Side Platform. He unites startup and corporate worlds, online and offline business, and new approaches and existing structures. With a focus on online marketing and customer touchpoints, he pursues the goal of maximising the return on every cent, regardless of the budget.

As a business information systems specialist, he supports his projects with the appropriate technical frameworks and achieves demonstrably recurring successes for his clients. His passion is using marketing channels which allow the advertiser to continuously optimise and expand campaigns, such as Sponsored Ads and the Amazon Demand Side Platform.

... is an expert in Home industries in the Düsseldorf office at Euromonitor International. With more than eight years’ experience in market research and data analysis, Iselie offers insights on how the trends of digitalisation, smart homes and online retail are transforming home furnishings and homeware products.

She advises home furnishing and homewares companies in Western Europe to help them better understand their markets and consumers by providing insights on current and upcoming trends within their businesses and how they can better tackle their challenges.

Iselie is passionate about helping companies grow their business aided by her analysis and understanding of the Western European market and consumers. “There’s nothing better than seeing your recommendation implemented by your customers; it’s just a proof that I’m valued by my customers”.

... advises companies on all aspects of German and European competition and merger control law. He represents businesses in competition, abuse and merger control proceedings before the German Federal Cartel Office and the European Commission as well as in the courts. He also advises clients on compliance issues and aspects of competition law as regards the drawing up of contracts and design of distribution systems, especially in relation to the Internet. Sebastian Hack regularly publishes articles on the subject of competition law and has particular sector-specific experience in the fields of banking/financial services, retail, infrastructure and the agricultural, chemical and commodities trades.

Having gained his degree and doctorate from institutions in Cologne (Dr. jur.), Pittsburgh, New York and London (LL.M.) and completed his legal training (holding positions at the German Federal Cartel Office and the European Commission, among others), Sebastian Hack initially began his career in 2013 as a lawyer in the competition law department of an international corporate law firm in Düsseldorf (with periods also spent in London and Brussels). He joined Osborne Clarke in 2016.

... CEO, LEAP/. In 2009, I founded the agency Barketing with the focus on SEO and link building. It became LEAP/ in 2015 because SEO and CRO are two sides of the same coin for me. As managing director, I work mainly on the strategic level and accompany internationalization, relaunches and other projects in large companies.

As Director Home&Living, André Müller is responsible for OTTO's furniture products. In 1988, he started there as an apprentice, and from 2009 to 2017 he worked for the online retailer as Purchasing Manager. His current mission is to digitize the furniture industry with OTTO as the market leader in the German online furniture retail.