Serious cheers

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Ernst Prost, in 2012 in the studio with Markus Lanz

Ernst Prost (born February 14, 1957 in Altötting , Bavaria) is a German entrepreneur . Until the sale of his company shares to the Würth Group at the end of 2017, he was the owner and managing partner of the lubricant manufacturer Liqui Moly GmbH in Ulm , which also includes Meguin GmbH & Co. KG Mineralölwerke in Saarlouis . Since then he has been the managing director of both companies.

Professional career

Prost, the son of a bricklayer and a factory worker, attended elementary school in Kissing , then secondary schools in Friedberg (Bavaria) and Wertingen . In Donauwörth he trained as a car mechanic . In 1978 he started at the car care product manufacturer Sonax in Neuburg an der Donau as a junior salesman and rose to the position of marketing manager. In 1990 he switched to Liqui Moly GmbH in Ulm as head of sales. Gradually he took over the company from the founding family Henle. In 1998 Prost bought the last company shares and was managing partner until his shares were sold to the Würth Group ; since then he has been employed managing director.

In order to end the dependency on a few major customers, he switched the sales strategy to several channels (workshop, trade, self-service and industry) and pushed exports, which today make up almost half of sales. In 2006 the Mineralölwerke Meguin in Saarlouis (Saarland) were taken over. Prost gave the company a specific corporate culture in which the company appears as a “family” and the employees as “co-entrepreneurs”.

Public appearance

Prost achieved greater public awareness through his company's advertising campaigns, in which he himself appeared and emphasized his company's social responsibility for local jobs, according to the nationwide advertising campaign “Why LIQUI MOLY” in April 2009 and a series of TV spots since 2010.

As a result, he took part in TV talks several times, for example with Frank Plasberg , Markus Lanz and Anne Will , and spoke out in favor of minimum wages and higher top tax rates, among other things . According to Spiegel , in 2011 he was "the entrepreneur with the most appearances on German talk shows", but since 2012 he has distanced himself from the media again.

As a co-initiator of the wealth tax initiative , he is now committed to reintroducing wealth tax . In addition, he clearly criticizes the dominance of the financial industry over the real economy and calls for stronger state regulation of the financial sector. In this context, he accuses the ruling politicians, who do nothing in this direction, of corruption or stupidity.

During the Corona crisis in 2020, Ernst Prost again received media attention through his € 1,500 bonus for all employees and the waiver of his own salary. He also criticized the attitude of many companies that registered short-time work during the crisis and paid dividends at the same time.

Foundations

At the end of 2010, Prost founded the non-profit Ernst Prost Foundation with endowment capital of 500,000 euros from his private assets , which pursues charitable goals. After the sale of his shares in Liqui Moly in February 2018, he increased this by a further 3 million euros.

In 2015, Prost founded the "Ernst Prost Foundation for Africa" ​​as a further charitable project, which mainly in Africa also pursues charitable and charitable purposes. At the beginning, this foundation also received basic assets of 500,000 euros from Prost's private assets and was increased by a further million euros in February 2018.

In May 2018 Ernst Prost was appointed to the board of trustees of the Global Ethic Foundation, which was founded by the theologian Hans Küng.

In 2019 Ernst Prost set up a third foundation; with "People for Peace - Peace for People" he wants to promote peace.

Others

In 2006, Prost bought Leipheim Palace as a residence. The extensive renovation was honored with the Culture and Home Prize of the Günzburger Volksbank Foundation.

Awards and honors

  • 2020: Car Market Manager of the Year 2019/2020
  • 2013: Car Market Manager of the Year 2012
  • 2012: Entrepreneur Award of the German SME sector 2012
  • 2011: “Effie” in silver for the LIQUI MOLY TV spot
  • 2011: European Cross in Gold from the Federal Association for Business, Education and Work in Germany
  • 2011: Baden-Württemberg Competence Prize for innovation and quality
  • 2010: Award for "Makers of the Year"
  • 2010: State winner for Baden-Württemberg in the competition "Mutmacher der Nation"
  • 2009: Ulm Marketing Personality
  • 2009: President of the vocational training academies in Baden-Württemberg and Hesse of the WBA.
  • 2009: Honorary President of the German Economic Committee

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Augsburger Allgemeine: Why Ernst Prost is separating from his company Liqui Moly . In: Augsburger Allgemeine . ( augsburger-allgemeine.de [accessed December 22, 2017]).
  2. ^ Website of the Ernst Prost Foundation
  3. ↑ a b Karin Finkenzeller: The hypnotist . Time No. 11, March 10, 2011.
  4. ↑ TV spots on youtube
  5. ↑ hard but fair , May 6, 2009
  6. ^ Anne Will: Modern job nomads - mobile, homeless, burned out ( Memento from February 20, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ^ Günter Wallraff, Frank Bsirske, Franz Josef Möllenberg: Life without minimum wage - poor because of work . VAS Verlag 2011, pp. 130ff.
  8. ^ "Greed instead of solidarity" ( Memento from August 18, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), interview with Jürgen Knoblach, Frankfurter Rundschau from July 3, 2010
  9. ↑ "Liqui-Moly boss wants to withdraw" , Der Spiegel , May 25, 2012, spiegel.de, accessed on February 16, 2018.
  10. ^ Website of the initiative
  11. ↑ World War Three TV: Dirk Müller tells the truth about "financial terrorism" in Europe. April 17, 2016, accessed October 2, 2016 .
  12. ↑ Register short-time work, but pay dividends - the Liqui-Moly CEO thinks that is "perverse". Retrieved June 2, 2020 .
  13. ↑ a b Frank König: Liqui Moly: 11,000 euros bonus for every employee. In: swp.de. February 14, 2018, accessed February 15, 2018 .
  14. ↑ JAM Germany : Ernst Prost founds a foundation in Africa. In: jam-deutschland.org. Retrieved February 16, 2018 .
  15. ↑ LIQUI MOLY and the Ernst Prost Foundation support the Global Ethic Foundation . ( liqui-moly.biz [accessed on May 9, 2018]).
  16. ↑ People for Peace - Peace for People. Retrieved June 3, 2020 .
  17. ↑ Walter Kaiser: Leipheimer Schlossherr honored with culture prize , Augsburger Allgemeine , augsburger-allgemeine.de, accessed on February 16, 2018.
  18. ↑ Motor vehicle dealers choose Liqui Moly boss Ernst Prost as Automarkt-Manager 2012 , markt-intern.de, May 13, 2013, accessed on June 4, 2013
personal data
SURNAME Cheers, Ernst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH February 14, 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH Altötting , Bavaria