The Jury

The former competitive athlete founded an agency for the organization of competitive events in trend sports in 1992. In 2002, Adami joined J.T. International and was responsible for restructuring the marketing organization. In 2004, he moved to Deutsche Telekom, where he oversaw marketing at T-Com and was a member of the board of T-Com's 2006 Football World Cup project. In March 2009, Jörg Adami was appointed as a full-time member of the Board of the German Sports Aid Foundation. Until 2020, he played a key role in repositioning the foundation as Europe's largest institution for promoting excellence. In January 2020, Jörg Adami founded the world's first sports aid organization for esports. The Esports Player Foundation is a not-for-profit institution and global role model.

Philipp Bierbaum, born in 67, started his career at BMZ!FCA in Düsseldorf after studying business administration at the University of Bamberg. After another stint at Rempen & Partner, he joined DAMM & BIERBAUM in Frankfurt as Managing Partner in 2001. Here, together with Dirk Damm, he heads Frankfurt's leading owner-managed agency. The client list includes Fraport, Helaba, Goodyear, Hassia, Polizei Baern and others. With the ISK (Institute for Strategy and Communication), the group also offers comprehensive brand consulting. Philipp is married, has 3 children and lives in Bad Soden a.T.

Rainer Busch has already worked in various positions within the Bosch Group. He had an important role in product management in the Power Tools division, was project manager for brand strategy at Bosch Home Comfort and has been director of brand management there since 2016. In this position, he is responsible for the brand portfolio strategy and the global management of the Bosch brand. In addition, he is also in charge of marketing in the German market.

Marco-Paul de Jeu is the Co-Founder and Business Director of CapeRock and Brandguide, two industry-leading ventures at the intersection of brand strategy, design, and technology. With a strong foundation in Marketing and Branding, Marco-Paul launched his career after earning a Business Administration degree. He quickly made his mark as Brand Manager Northern Europe at Foot Locker Europe, before taking on a key leadership role as Marketing Director at MTV Benelux. At MTV, he gained deep insights into TV and media branding, sparking his passion for shaping brands in the media and entertainment sectors. This drive led him to embark on his entrepreneurial journey in 2008, co-founding two successful companies. CapeRock is a leading brand design agency that merges strategy, design, motion, and music to create immersive brand experiences. The agency’s high-profile clients include RTL, ZDF, Sunweb, VodafoneZiggo, NPO, and Storytel. Brandguide is an innovative brand platform designed for brand, marketing, and content teams, enabling them to manage and scale their brands effortlessly. Its growing list of users includes NPO, ILIAS, NieuweStroom, and Wibutler. Through visionary leadership and strategic expertise, Marco-Paul continues to push the boundaries of brand innovation, media, and digital transformation.

Dr. Saskia Diehl studied psychology and economics and completed her doctorate at the Institute for Brand and Communication Research while working as a strategy consultant. Her publications include various publications on emotional brand management, and she is a lecturer for consumer behavior & neuromarketing at the EUFH Cologne. At GMK Markenberatung, Diehl has supported numerous international clients in the efficient management of their brands and brand portfolios - from AI-supported brand development to implementation and sustainable brand controlling.

Gabriele Fischer is co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of the business magazine brand eins. She studied politics and sociology, worked for Manager Magazin for ten years and developed the subsidiary magazine Econy. In September 1999, together with investors and the former Econy team, she founded the business magazine brand eins, which is now published by the independent brand eins Medien AG.

Andrea Giuffredi-Kähr is Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Zurich, where she teaches brand management and digital marketing. Her research focuses on brand management and consumer behaviour in our networked, digital world. She regularly publishes in renowned journals and presents her work at international conferences. Her research interests include influencer marketing, transparency in online retail and sustainable consumption.

Roman is responsible for brand, marketing and business development. He has more than 25 years of international marketing experience, which he gained in Switzerland, the UK and Germany. Roman founded HEIMAT Zurich and was CEO at We Are Social Germany. Most recently, he was CCO at United Games. Roman has worked with clients from various industries and has won international efficiency and creativity awards. He is also active on advisory boards and shares his entrepreneurial expertise. 

Jörg Liebeskind studied Communication Design at the Technical University of Nuremberg and Marketing Management at the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg. He then worked as a graphic designer for various agencies in Munich, Nuremberg and New York. In 2003, he founded the creative agency stilbezirk in Nuremberg with three partners and worked for almost 15 years with international clients such as adidas, Marin Bikes, uvex, Siemens and Vaude in the areas of brand development and brand communication. In 2017, he joined act.3, an official partner of the adidas group, as Director Brand Communications, where he was responsible for event concepts and brand activation for adidas. From 2018 to 2020, he worked for the software company DATEV and was responsible for the further development of the brand and image communication. Since 2020, he has headed the brand and communications department at Conrad Electronic and is responsible for the international relaunch of the 100-year-old traditional brand. As a brand and communications expert, he has already won several prizes in renowned creative competitions.

In his role as Chief Marketing Officer at T-Systems, he leads an international team of around 200 employees in over 20 countries and is responsible for the development and implementation of international campaigns and the positioning of T-Systems. Previously, he was responsible for marketing communications in Telekom's private customer segment, developing award-winning campaigns with his team and intensifying cooperation with global technology partners such as Apple and Samsung. In his previous role as Head of Sales Management, he used innovative sales strategies to increase sales and revenue and improve customer satisfaction across all marketing channels. His expertise also includes management positions at McKinsey & Company, where he worked primarily in the retail and consumer goods industry, and at the Otto Group, where he designed the stationary retail strategy. Dr Loefert received his doctorate summa cum laude on the subject of ‘Reputation and Capital Market Valuation’ and combines strategic thinking with a keen sense of market trends and customer needs.

Katrin Menne is Head of Brand and Content Marketing at the science and technology company Merck. She has extensive expertise in strategic brand management, communication, design and market research. In her previous role as Head of Brand and Research at Commerzbank AG, she led successful campaigns, sharpened the brand positioning and brand presence and carried out comprehensive analyses of brand perception and customer loyalty. As a recognised expert, Katrin is also active on juries such as the Effie and shares her knowledge and experience in the industry.

After studying economics and industrial design, he worked in various management positions in industry and the consulting sector. Since 2003, Günter Moeller has been running the Munich-based consultancy Herrmann, Moeller + Partner together with Dr Christoph Herrmann. He is a recognized expert in the field of brand-oriented corporate development and has worked for many national and international companies in the course of his consultancy work. In addition, he has published numerous specialist articles on brand management, innovation and design management and is also a lecturer in strategic marketing, innovation and product management, most recently at Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences.

Matthias Oetting has been contributing his many years of experience in digital and design agencies such as sieger design to major companies from medical technology to furniture fittings for over 16 years. His focus is on strategic topics such as customer centricity, brand management and digital transformation as well as the successful implementation of customer lifecycle-oriented marketing and corporate communication. He has been working on his favourite topics as Director Marketing at the Hettich Group since 2023.

Carsten Puschmann embodies the perfect symbiosis of entrepreneurial spirit and innovative strength. He founded his first company at the age of 16 and has since played a key role in shaping the German innovation ecosystem as a serial founder, investor and digital advisor. Over the course of his 30-year career, he has founded and successfully built up numerous companies and led start-ups to successful exits. Business Punk magazine has placed Carsten Puschmann on its 2024 Watchlist and ranks him among the 100 leading minds in the German digital economy. Carsten Puschmann is a mentor at High Tech NRW, the Pioneer Lab at Fresenius University of Applied Sciences and has been a member of the FDP parliamentary group's economic forum since 2019. Carsten Puschmann has made the topic of investing in innovation his credo and today supports family offices in accessing the ‘start-ups’ asset class and advises large corporations such as Lufthansa and Deutsche Bahn on innovation management.

Stefan Raake studied business administration at the University of Cologne, specialising in marketing and business psychology. He has been managing partner of AMC Finanzmarkt GmbH since 2010. AMC operates the insurance industry network for marketing and sales (www.amc-forum.de). Stefan Raake launched his first Internet projects for the insurance industry back in 1995. As editor-in-chief, he was responsible for Versicherungen.de and Finanzen.de until 2005. He continuously organises events, studies and projects for the AMC network. As a specialist author, he has published books such as ‘Marketing Online’ (the first German book on the subject), ‘Web 2.0 in the financial sector’, ‘Insurers on the Internet’ and the annual study ‘The insurance industry on the Internet’.

As a designer and ambassador for holistic brand development, Michael Rösch combines change processes with appropriate employee participation. As co-founder, creative, strategist and board member of wirDesign AG - one of the top ten brand agencies in Germany - he knows what it means to build and maintain more than just a »Great place to work«. Parallel to his life's work, which he passed on to the next generation after 38 years with his co-founders, he taught Corporate Identity at the University of Applied Sciences in Potsdam for several years. He is a member of other juries (Corporate Design Preis Deutschland, Berliner Type, DDC) and today, as a certified change manager at TOMINO, he advises his clients in culture and brand-oriented change processes.

Ute Röseler has worked in international branding agencies such as Interbrand and Landor. She was responsible for brand management and brand design projects for companies in the service, health, fashion and mobility sectors, among others. She has worked as a lecturer for various universities in Egypt, China and Germany. As a consultant, she supports companies in brand development, design and communication and develops projects in the field of culture and innovation. From 2016-2025, Ute Röseler was Professor of Brand Communication at the Brand University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg. As Programme Director, she further developed the Bachelor's degree programme in Brand Management from 2017-2020. From 2018-2020, she strengthened the university in her position as Vice-President Education.

Dr Simone Roth has 14 years of professional experience in brand management in various industries and business areas. Her current research focuses on international brand management, social media marketing and intercultural communication. She contributes this expertise as a sub-project manager in two research projects funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (social robots and QuantumMiniLabs). Simone Roth also works for HRW as Executive Director in the European university alliance CHARM-EU.

Christian Rummel worked for internationally renowned advertising agencies, including Young&Rubicam, Publicis and Saatchi&Saatchi, for over 15 years. During this time he worked on projects around the globe for Coca-Cola, Hewlett-Packard, Ford, Avis, Orange and Citibank. In 2011 he joined Deutsche Bank, where he is responsible for worldwide brand communication and sponsoring as well as selected flagship projects forming part of the company's extensive social responsibility programme. As a brand and communications expert, he has already won numerous prizes in international competitions for creative advertising.

Sven Schnee has always been committed to brands in the sense of their own cultural space. An individual, emotional bond is created through brand experiences that combine attitude, content and form into a unique spectrum. This spectrum forms a space in which a brand can be felt holistically - and thus beyond the products. After more than 30 years at BSH - where he was Managing Director of Gaggenau for 11 years - he now works as a brand ambassador, advisor and consultant.