Yellow Stage

When a few years back, Johannes Kliesch was unable to find any decent socks for his sneakers, the proverbial light bulb went off. Together with his cousin Felix Bauer, he founded Snocks in October 2016. Initially the startup focused on lower cut socks for his sport shoes, selling them primarily on Amazon. Today, his product offering has grown to include underwear, undershirts and hoodies—and Snocks has established itself as a brand. In 2019, Amazon Deutschland crowned it as merchant of the year.

Anna Alex is co-founder of online shopping platform Outfittery, but today’s primarily known for her work with climate tech startup Planetly. She founded the startup in 2019, roughly 1 year after leaving the Outfittery board Outfittery. Her mission is to help other startups measure and reduce their own CO2 footprint.

Franziska is the founder of the jewelry label The Siss Bliss and the associated recycling company Bliss Bang Capital. Her mission: to turn old gold into new, precious jewelry. As a founder, Franzi already has experience: in 2012 she founded Bloomy Days, the first ever cut flower subscription startup. When she's not posting on Instagram, Franzi is active in numerous honorary offices, including the Young Digital Economy Association and Edition F's Female Future Force.

Reinhard Blech co-founded e-learning platform Studyflix, which is currently revolutionizing digital education for Generation Z in the DACH region. Within just three years, Studyflix has acquired in excess of four million active users per month through successful SEO. In 2021, Sistrix named it among its biggest winners of 2021. Now, more than 500 companies use Studyflix for targeted employer branding and recruiting among Generation Z and for internal employee training.

Piegsa started with his own Shopify shop and unexpectedly slide into the agency business. Today, he is one of the founders of tante-e and one of Germany’s top Shopify experts. He works closely with major brands such as Krombacher, Kapten & Son and Tokio Hotel, as well as smaller-scale DTC startups.

Lynne leads the Microsoft Adverting Global Advertising Business Team. A 15-year Microsoft veteran, she has built her career as a sales leader in the U.S., Europe, and APAC. Prior joining Microsoft, she led corporate communications at AT&T and customer experience and communications at Expedia. Lynne is a lifelong learner who earned her MA and PhD in Philosophy at the New School for Social Research and BA in Sociology at Kenyon College. Across all of her experiences building and evolving teams, she is intentional about putting people and culture first. Lynne also serves as Microsoft Advertising's D&I Executive Sponsor, helping to drive advocacy for diversity and inclusion across the team.

Jobst Schumacher is Head of Media & Brand Experience at Philip Morris GmbH. Within the Group, he has held numerous positions of responsibility, including Country Manager Austria, Senior Manager Corporate Affairs and Head of National Force Activation. Now he is part of the biggest transformation in the history of Philip Morris International: the company wants to be much more than a leading cigarette company and pursues the vision of a smoke-free future. Since June 2016, the tobacco company also wants to replace conventional cigarettes in Germany with risk-reduced products compared to cigarettes such as IQOS.

Sebastian Klauke has been a member of the executive board at the Otto Group since May 2019, where he heads up the eCommerce, technology, business intelligence and corporate ventures sectors. Previously, he was the Group’s Chief Digital Officer beginning in July 2017. Before joining Otto, Klauke was a member of the Boston Consulting Group, co-founded Autoda.de in 2010, the first online shop in Germany for used cars, which was sold to MeinAuto in 2013 and acted as partner and managing director at BCG Digital Ventures GmbH beginning in mid-2014, a subsidiary of the Boston Consulting Group. (Photo: Charlotte Schreiber)

Matthäus Michalik is founder and managing director of Claneo, one of the leading German online marketing agencies for international search & content marketing based in Berlin. With his expertise, he advises start-ups, SMEs and corporations in the areas of search engine optimization (SEO) & content marketing. In addition to advising large and international clients, his responsibilities fall primarily in the areas of agency marketing and new business. Together with a strong team, he shapes the agency and defines its future and strategic direction.

Peter Hartmann is Global Digital Marketing Manager at Henkel, a multi-national chemical and consumer goods company. In his time at Henkel, he has helped craft the global digital strategy and spearheaded the digital transformation to a data-driven marketing organization. Together with his team, he has relaunched over 100 websites, increased traffic by 400 percent and has been nominated for two Global Search Awards.

Alisa Jahnke always knew she wanted to be her own boss. During a semester abroad in Hawaii in 2013, she fell in love with Hawaiian culture and was determined to bring the aloha vibe to Germany. As she was a big fan of jewelry she founded jewelry and lifestyle brand PURELEI together with Frederik Jahnke and Etienne Espenner in 2016. Influencer and partner marketing are essential pillars to the brand, which has not only been a success at home, but throughout Europe as well. After becoming a mother for the first time in 2020, Alisa has made it a point to support expecting mothers and fathers in her company, as it is her firm belief that you should not have to choose between being a parent and having a career.

Maike is a MarTech Sales professional with a proven track record of more than 8 years of successfully building relationships between brands and smart SaaS technology companies to support them in all digital transformation topics. At MoEngage, she leads the German-speaking markets and is responsible for growth in DACH and parts of the EU. She is passionate about intelligent technologies that make the client's life easier and frequently speaks at events sharing best practices and insights of the industry.

The German is the founder of the Paris-based DTC furniture brand NV Gallery. The company launched in 2017 as a bootstrapped startup, was profitable right from the start and today generates double-digit millions in sales.

Jason Modemann is the founder and managing director of Mawave Marketing GmbH, the leading social media performance agency in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Here he is responsible for both strategic direction and business development and is an expert in social media advertising, performance marketing and platform innovations. Clients such as About You, Hello Fresh and Snocks rely on his expertise and professional competence. With his 50-person team, he manages an advertising budget of over 10 million euros per month. Mawave specializes in the conception and optimized playout of holistic social media campaigns on all relevant social platforms and works closely with Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and TikTok.

Todd is Co-Founder and Vice President, Strategic Initiatives, of impact.com. He has been instrumental in forging and managing relationships with many of the company’s flagship advertisers, agencies, and media partners. Todd evangelizes a multichannel approach to the performance model, and is a frequent speaker at industry events, incl. Affiliate Summit and Performance Marketing Insights. Todd previously was VP, Business Development, at Digital River’s affiliate network, OneNetworkDirect, where he guided strategic initiatives and industry relations. In the late ’90s, he helped birth the modern affiliate marketing industry as Co-Founder and VP, Business Development, of Commission Junction. Todd won the 2007 Affiliate Marketing Legend Award.

Stéphane is an AdTech veteran with over 20 years in online technologies and over 15 years of experience in the industry with a specialism in Retail Media. Stéphane has previously be Managing Director at 24/7 Media Inc, SVP Platform Monetization at Xaxis and CTO at STORETAIL before joining Criteo as SVP, Product Retail Media.

Ammar was born in Egypt and currently lives in Los Angeles. In a short few years he has amassed over 865 million Youtube views and become a role model for many young people around the world. He convinced Will Smith to do a bungee jump from a helicopter, on his 50th birthday and is currently producing his third documentary.