Michael Otto (businessman)

Michael Otto ( born April 12, 1943 in Kulm in West Prussia ) is a German entrepreneur, chairman and former CEO of the Otto Group. He built the world's most successful mail-order and second-largest on the internet trade off ( after Amazon ).

Life

Michael Otto grew up in Hamburg, the son of Werner Otto. After an apprenticeship at Merck Finck & Co. in Munich, he studied in Munich and Hamburg, economics, and received his doctorate in 1971 in the Purchasing Board in his father's textile business. In February 1981 he was promoted to Chairman of the Executive Board of the Otto GmbH. He was in office until October 2007 and is currently Chairman of the Otto Group.

He holds a Supervisory Board of Axel Springer AG. He is also a partner of Robert Bosch Industrial Trust KG, which holds 93% of the voting rights of Robert Bosch GmbH.

The assets of Michael Otto and family is listed on the Forbes list in 2012 with 17.6 billion U.S. dollars. Thus, the Otto family is the world's No. 34 and among the German billionaires place 2

Michael Otto is married and has two children.

Social Commitment

His volunteer work include the chair of the Trustees of the Society for Political and Economic Association ( house cracks Hamburg ) and the honorary chairman of the Board of WWF Germany. He is the executive vice chairman of the Cultural Committee of German Business within the BDI. In order to promote specific projects, he founded in 1993 the Michael Otto Foundation for Environmental Protection, in its board of trustees he chairs. Otto is also also an honorary member of the World Future Council.

Honors

Because of its commitment to the environment and sustainability, he received various awards such as the 1997 German Environmental Award and the 2002 Sustainability Leadership Award. 1999 awarded him the University of Hamburg Honorary Senator, as early as 1988 his father Werner Otto. 2000 Michael Otto was also honorary senator of the Ernst- Moritz- Arndt- University of Greifswald.

He was named Manager of the Year in 2005 and honored with the Vernon A. Walters Award of the Association Atlantic Bridge for the promotion of US- German relations in 2001. On 24 October 2006 he was awarded the tenth German mail order congress for his life's work with the International Lifetime Achievement Award. This particular his many years of outstanding business performance at home and abroad, and the early recognition of the fundamental importance of the Internet has been recognized for the trading business. On 30 November 2006 he received the proposal of the Federal President Horst Köhler, the Great Cross of Merit with Star. So that his willingness was honored to take overall social responsibility, as well as his personal commitment in environmental and social areas. In 2007 he received the German Commercial Award in the category Lifetime Award. The Theodor Heuss Foundation awarded him the 2010 Theodor Heuss Prize in recognition of exemplary in both economic and ethical manner corporate culture. 2013 awarded him the WWF with the newly discovered endemic in the Spessart, hawkweed Pilosella ottonis.

Movies

  • The Ottos. Documentary, Germany, 2012, 45 min Written and directed by Dagmar Wittmer, Production: NDR, Row: German dynasties, first broadcast on 7 May 2012, Summary of the ARD.
  • America was my childhood dream. Documentation, Germany, 2011, 22:44 min, Production: n-tv, first broadcast June 21, 2011, online video. "From the staid catalog once he made the most successful shipping group in the world. Michael Otto is the Chairman of the OTTO Group International. It controls 50,000 employees worldwide and retracts a total turnover of around 11.5 billion euros - with a special responsibility for employees and the environment. "
  • With a long breath. Documentation, Germany, 45 min, Director: Meike Hemschemeier and Thomas Weidenbach, Production: WDR, first broadcast September 23, 2008, Summary of the WDR Portraits of the three entrepreneurs Michael Otto, Anita Roddick and Andres Well, the " who not only capital markets and yield curves in mind, but also the protection of the environment and the plight of the poor in the Third World ."
  • The mailman and the billionaire documentation, Germany, 45 min Production: WDR, first broadcast August 3, 2011
Werner Otto (entrepreneur) Organizational culture HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management Norddeutscher Rundfunk Westdeutscher Rundfunk Integrated Authority File
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