After training as a bank clerk, Tim Breidenbach studied International Business Studies at the Faculty of Business Studies at FH Aachen and spent a semester abroad at Southeast Missouri State University, USA. During his studies, he already focused on the areas of human resources and organisation. After completing his degree in 2008, Tim Breidenbach worked at DEKRA Akademie GmbH in Siegen, where he initially worked as a coordinator for more than five years. From 2014 to 2016, he managed the production facilities in Siegen and Olpe and gained his first experience as a manager. From 2016 to 2021, he managed the company's growth from 750 to 1,200 employees as HR Manager at ALHO Holding GmbH in Friesenhagen. At the family-run modular construction and container specialist, he was responsible for personnel acquisition, development, planning and marketing throughout the group. In 2018, the "VitALHO" occupational health management team won the AOK MehrWert Award. After a brief move to an American company (Avery Dennison), Tim Breidenbach took over as HR Director at the family-run OTTO QUAST Bau AG in Siegen on 2 May 2022.

As a medium-sized, family-run construction company, OTTO QUAST Bau AG with four German locations and around 600 employees has been known as a partner for economical construction for more than 75 years. OTTO QUAST designs, constructs and renovates buildings, paths, roads, squares and bridges in all performance levels up to turnkey construction. High-quality work in concrete, masonry, civil engineering and road construction from a single source is just as much a part of the repertoire as production and administration facilities in industrial and commercial construction designed in-house and executed as general contractor. The aim of every project is to find solutions that benefit everyone involved. As an employer in South Westphalia, Saxony and Poland, we also strive to live this principle in respect for each individual.

Hilal Cetin completed dual studies at the Faculty of Business Studies at FH Aachen with integrated training as an industrial clerk at Aurubis Stolberg GmbH & Co KG. After her degree in 2016, she joined Ernst & Young GmbH Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft in Cologne as a consultant in the Business Tax Advisory faculty. In 2019, she was promoted to Senior Consultant. After successfully passing the tax consultant exam in 2020, she was promoted to manager. In 2021, she moved to the tax consultant FSK, where she has been working as a tax consultant in the area of taxes and financial statements ever since. Here she deals in particular with special tax issues in national and international tax law, ongoing preparation of financial statements and restructuring. In addition, she supports a nationwide project group in the energy sector to address tax issues to the Federal Government and the Federal Ministry and to prepare working aids. Her focus is on advising the energy sector and the travel industry.

The firm of tax consultants FSK Franken Schmetz Kall Pflanz is one of the leading medium-sized tax consulting firms in the Aachen area. Its roots go back to the early 90s. It specialises in particular in the travel industry (aircraft industry and bus travel) and the energy sector. The firm handles a wide variety of mandates throughout Germany. Clients include small and medium-sized enterprises as well as large corporations. The advisory expertise includes both national and international tax law. In addition to general tax advice, the firm has a focus on digitalisation and supports the introduction and application of new technologies. It is one of the top digital law firms in Germany.

After graduating from the Faculty of Business Studies at FH Aachen, Alexander Coir started his career at KPMG AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft in Cologne, where he initially worked as an audit assistant. After successfully passing his exams to become a certified public accountant and tax advisor, he has been responsible for auditing annual and consolidated financial statements according to HGB and IFRS as well as reporting packages according to IFRS since 2014. From 2014 to 2017, the focus of his work was on auditing and audit-related consulting, followed by transaction consulting. Before moving back to audit and audit-related advisory in 2020, he served as assistant COO audit from 2018 to 2020. In 2014, he was appointed authorised signatory.

KPMG is an organisation of independent member firms with more than 236,000 employees in 144 countries and territories. In Germany, too, KPMG is one of the leading auditing and consulting firms and is present at 26 locations with more than 12,200 employees. The services are divided into the business areas Audit, Tax, Consulting and Deal Advisory. Audit focuses on the auditing of consolidated and annual financial statements. Tax stands for KPMG's tax advisory activities. The Consulting and Deal Advisory divisions combine specialist know-how on business management, regulatory and transaction-oriented topics. KPMG has specialised across business areas for key sectors of the economy. This is where the experience of experts worldwide comes together and contributes to the quality of advice.

In 2011, Nico Dapprich began studying International Business Management - Customer and Service Management at FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences, having previously completed a Bachelor's degree at HS Magdeburg-Stendal. After obtaining a double degree from FH Aachen and Edinburgh Napier University, UK, in 2013, he worked as an eCommerce Consultant/Head of Travel at Ve Interactive DACH GmbH in Berlin (2013-2015). This was followed by positions as Head of Sales/ Sales Manager at Pixray GmbH (2015-2017), Account Development Lead - Europe (2017-2019) and Director Sales & Service - Global (2019-2022) at EyeEm Mobile GmbH. Since the beginning of 2022, Nico Dapprich has been working as Local Head of B2B Sales SME at Deutsche Telekom AG. There, he is responsible for a local sales team of 18 employees and all B2B business in the region, including IT, mobile and telecommunications. He is also responsible for budgeting, resource planning and reporting. In his role, he reports directly to the regional vice president.

Deutsche Telekom AG is one of the world's leading integrated telecommunications companies with around 248 million mobile customers, 26 million fixed-network and 22 million broadband connections. Deutsche Telekom offers products and services in the areas of fixed network/broadband, mobile communications, Internet and Internet TV for private customers as well as information and communication technology solutions for large and business customers. Deutsche Telekom is represented in more than 50 countries. In the 2021 financial year, it generated revenues of 108.8 billion euros with around 216,500 employees worldwide (31.12.2021). The development of the company is leading from the classic telephone company to a service company of a completely new type: the software company that sells telecommunications services. The goal is to become the leading digital telco, whereby the sale and distribution of networks and connections will remain the basis.

After her training as an advertising manager at stöhr, MarkenKommunikation GmbH, Nadine Grawe studied at the Faculty of Business Studies at FH Aachen. During her studies, she gained her first practical experience through a practical semester at Henkel and an internship at MAEURER & WIRTZ. After graduating, Nadine Grawe took up a position as Junior Product Manager BEAUTY at MAEURER & WIRTZ in 2011. After further professional stations in the company, she became Global Senior Brand Manager of the fragrance brand 4711 in 2017. Since 2020, she has been responsible for the 4711 brand as Group Manager. Together with her team, she continues to develop the strategies of the 4711 brand and is responsible for the expansion of the national and international product portfolio. From the first concept idea to the final product on the shelf, Nadine Grawe is responsible for the holistic product development process of all products of the 4711 brand at MAEURER & WIRTZ.

Mäurer & Wirtz is a fifth-generation family business and one of the leading European houses for high-quality fragrance and care products. The history of Mäurer & Wirtz is a success story: the former soap factory founded by Michael Mäurer and stepson Andreas Wirtz in 1845 has become an international player. Mäurer & Wirtz's portfolio includes fragrance brands such as 4711, Tabac, Les Destinations and the sustainable own brand hej:pure as well as the licensed brands s.Oliver, Betty Barclay, Baldessarini, Route 66 and Otto Kern. In addition, Mäurer & Wirtz is active in the influencer business and created the Orodion brand with the youtuber and influencer Justin Fuchs. Mäurer & Wirtz employs around 300 people. Mäurer & Wirtz is headquartered in Stolberg near Aachen. The company has been an independent, wholly-owned subsidiary of the dalli-group since 1990.

In 2015, Tim Halver completed his degree in Business Studies at FH Aachen, during which he spent a semester abroad at the Universidad Latinoamericana de Ciencia y Tecnología in San Jose, Costa Rica. After completing his Bachelor's degree, he joined DocCheck AG and completed an extra-occupational Master's degree in Business Administration at the RFH Cologne. After starting as Assistant Controller, Tim Halver climbed the career ladder one step at a time. Since October 2021, he has been responsible for all subsidiaries of the DocCheck Group as Head of Controlling and is also the company Data Protection Officer for all companies in the group. The focus of his work is on the short-term as well as strategic planning of the company's goals and the associated performance monitoring. His daily work also includes advising the various Executive Directors on all commercial issues.

DocCheck AG specialises in the growth market of healthcare and brings together all the players in the healthcare industry on the Internet: The brands DocCheck Community, antwerpes ag and DocCheck Shop stand for this in the operative business. With almost one million users, the DocCheck Community is the largest community for healthcare professionals in Europe. Doctors, pharmacists and medical students meet here to read, research and discuss in over 680 channels and more than 75,000 specialist articles in their own DocCheck Flexikon. antwerpes ag is the creative nucleus of the DocCheck Group. As one of the leading agencies for creative full-service healthcare communication, antwerpes offers pharmaceutical companies cross-media campaigns from a single source. The DocCheck Shop is the e-commerce service provider within the group. In the shop, healthcare professionals can find medical and practice supplies as well as innovative products from DocCheck's own brand Thïngs.

Anna Mathieu-Simons studied Business Studies in the dual degree programme at the FH Aachen, and completed an apprenticeship as an industrial clerk at the Saint-Gobain Group parallel to her studies. After completing her training in 2011, she first worked as an employee in human resources and development and then as a human resources officer after graduating in 2012. She completed an extra-occupational Master's degree with a focus on Human Resource Management at the FOM University of Applied Sciences. In 2015, she was promoted to Head of Human Resources. From 2019 to 2020, she worked part-time as a lecturer in HR Management at the FOM Hochschule für Oekonomie & Management. Since 2019, she has held a lectureship in HR Processes at the Faculty of Business Studies at FH Aachen. In her current position as HR Manager at SAINT-GOBAIN Performance Plastics Pampus GmbH, she accompanies employees through the entire employee life cycle, is responsible for talent management and advises managers on personnel development and decisions.

Saint-Gobain is a globally active group of companies headquartered in Paris and represented in Germany by all of its industrial divisions. Saint-Gobain develops, produces and distributes materials and solutions for the construction, mobility, health and other industrial applications markets. These are created in a continuous innovation process and can be found everywhere in our living spaces and in our everyday lives. They provide comfort, performance and safety while addressing the challenges of sustainable construction, resource efficiency and the fight against climate change. Saint-Gobain includes well-known brands such as Rigips, Isover, Weber and Sekurit. Founded in Paris in 1665, the company now employs around 166,000 people in 76 countries. In 2021, sales amounted to € 44.2 billion.

Philipp Patzak studied in the dual degree programme Business Studies Praxis Plus, i.e. parallel to his studies at the FH Aachen, he completed an apprenticeship as an industrial clerk at DALLI-WERKE GmbH & Co. KG. After graduating in 2017, he was employed as a junior purchasing manager at Dalli. He also worked there as a Purchasing Manager during his subsequent Master's degree with a focus on Supply Chain Management, Production and Logistics at the CAS of Cooperative State University Baden-Württemberg and continued in this position for another year after completing his Master's degree in 2020. In 2021, he moved to Henkel AG & Co KGaA, where he has since been responsible for essential oils and aroma chemicals as Purchasing Manager in the Purchasing Raw Materials EU Consumer Brands Section. His tasks include developing procurement strategies, negotiating supply contracts and managing cross-functional procurement projects.

Henkel is active worldwide with leading brands and technologies in three business areas: Laundry & Home Care, Beauty Care and Adhesive Technologies. Founded in 1876, the company holds leading global market positions in the consumer and industrial businesses with well-known brands such as Persil, Schwarzkopf and Loctite. The company is headquartered in Düsseldorf. More than 80 percent of its 52,000 employees work outside Germany. This makes Henkel one of the most internationally oriented companies in Germany. In fiscal year 2021, the company achieved sales of 20.1 billion euros and an operating result of 2.7 billion euros.

Jörg Rehahn already gained his first sales experience during his studies and supported his brother in founding 8 seasons Design GmbH. After completing his bachelor's degree in business at the FH Aachen in 2013, he joined Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli GmbH. He finished his trainee programme in the Sales department early and then worked as a Key Account Management Assistant. This was followed by a position as Junior Key Account Manager before he was promoted to Key Account Manager in 2017. He held this position for five years. Since March 2022, he has been Senior Key Account Manager responsible for one of the largest customer areas. Together with the team he is responsible for and is the link between the trade centres and Lindt. In addition to implementing the national marketing plan and identifying and promoting customer-specific measures based on market and customer analyses, he is responsible for conditional and strategic customer development.

Lindt & Sprüngli has been enchanting the world with chocolate for over 175 years. The traditional company with its roots in Zurich is now the world leader in premium chocolate. The more than 2,500 products are sold by 31 subsidiaries and branches, in around 500 company-owned shops and through a network of over 100 independent distributors around the globe. Quality chocolates from Lindt & Sprüngli are now manufactured in eleven of the company's own production sites in Europe and the USA. With over 14,000 employees, the Lindt & Sprüngli Group achieved sales of CHF 4.59 billion (approx. 4.8 billion euros) in 2021.

After completing his training as an industrial clerk at LEONI Kerpen GmbH, Tibor Sevenheck studied Business Studies at FH Aachen. During his subsequent Master's degree in Industrial Engineering, he spent a semester abroad at the Science University Malaysia. After completing his Master's degree in 2018, he started his career as a project engineer at Bonback GmbH und Co. KG, where he had already worked as a student trainee during his studies. Since 2021, Tibor Sevenheck has been working as an Expert Supplier Management at Arvato Supply Chain Solutions SE, where he is responsible for the further development of tools and processes for supplier evaluation as well as an internal shop platform for standardised logistics equipment. He is also responsible for conducting business reviews with suppliers and deriving measures. When coordinating suppliers within the scope of international projects, the international experience he gained during his studies helps him to support his international colleagues in the best possible way.

Arvato Supply Chain Solutions is the leading international provider of order-to-cash solutions for end-customer-oriented industries. At 85 locations in more than 20 countries, Arvato develops innovative, tailor-made solutions for its customers. Many well-known and strong companies rely on Arvato. For the more than 17,000 employees, this is both a challenge and an incentive every day, because the common vision is to become the internationally active supply chain management company with the strongest customer focus and the greatest IT expertise. Arvato helps its customers to drive their business forward, to grow their brand and to take it to the next level. The passion to manage and transform complex processes along the supply chain, the strong market understanding and IT know-how are the basis for the success and that of the customers.

Dominik Speen established his professional focus early on through his training as a logistics management clerk in 2008. After completing his Bachelor's degree in Business Studies and subsequent Master's degree in Industrial Engineering at the Faculty of Business Studies at FH Aachen, Speen first worked at CIM Aachen GmbH as a Lean Management Consultant before joining West Pharmaceutical in 2015. He initially worked as a Lean Specialist for the site in Stolberg before being appointed Lean Manager/ Operational Excellence Manager Europe in 2016, where he took over Lean Management responsibility for 10 European sites. Since the beginning of 2022, he has been Director Operational Excellence, Value Stream HVP (High Value Products) and is responsible for the operational excellence strategies for five global plants that manufacture particularly high-value product groups. In his role, he is instrumental in developing the West Business System (WBS) and other robust, high-performance systems (Lean Training, Kaizen, Lean Daily Management). In addition, he is responsible for the cost reduction targets in the Value Stream, ensures the coherent and uniform application of OPEX tools at all locations, takes care of the planning and implementation of Kaizens with a focus on the critical processes and carries out assessments of the maturity model (gap analysis).

West Pharmaceutical Services is an international company and the world's leading manufacturer of primary and secondary pharmaceutical packaging materials. The product portfolio consists of elastomer, metal and plastic articles that pharmaceutical companies worldwide need to seal their medicines and solutions in a compliant and sterile manner. With over 11,000 employees at 26 locations worldwide and 1,200 employees at the Eschweiler site and 250 employees at the Stolberg site, West Pharma is one of the largest companies in the Aachen city region. Despite its growth, it still enjoys a friendly and helpful family culture with a "Continuous Improvement Spirit" in the company, which has defined the values "Passion for Customers, Leadership in Quality, One West Team" for itself.

After training as an insurance saleswoman and successfully graduating from the Faculty of Business Studies at FH Aachen, Silke Wiener started her career in recruiting consultants at McKinsey & Company in Munich in 2000, recruiting former founders for the McKinsey Incubator before the first dotcom bubble burst a year later. She then took over responsibility for the German recruiting activities at the top universities in the USA and was able to gain her first leadership experience in a team leader function in Cologne from 2005. After her promotion to manager in 2011, she was responsible for the entire campus and senior hire recruiting for Germany and Austria for several years and was able to share her experience in a global role with various teams in the knowledge centres in the USA, Costa Rica, Poland, India and China from 2014. She ended her career at McKinsey as Professional Development Manager for Data Scientists in Europe. In 2020, Silke Wiener moved to evolutiq GmbH, where she is responsible for all HR topics as Senior Manager for Talent and Organisational Development. In addition to expanding the team, this includes building an innovative corporate and leadership culture, but also very operational topics to further professionalise the HR area.

evolutiq GmbH is an asset and investment manager based in Cologne. With an entrepreneurial investment approach and the goal of making an active contribution to a positive future for the economy and society, the company balances return and risk under the aspect of sustainability. Investments are made in the areas of private capital and real estate as well as philanthropic activities. Evolutiq identifies, develops and assesses investment opportunities for professional investors and ultimately manages these investments. A significant proportion of Evolutiq's turnover is invested in projects with proven impact.