Michael Otto

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Michael Otto (born April 12, 1943 in Kulm in West Prussia ) is a German entrepreneur , chairman of the supervisory board and former chairman of the Otto Group . He expanded it into a mail-order company and internet business operating worldwide .

Life

Michael Otto grew up in Hamburg as the son of Werner Otto . After a bank apprenticeship at Merck Finck & Co in Munich , he studied economics in Munich and Hamburg , received his doctorate and in 1971 became a board member in the textile purchasing department in his father's company. In February 1981 he was promoted to chairman of the board of directors of Otto GmbH . He was in office until October 2007 and is currently Chairman of the Otto Group's Supervisory Board.

Until April 2014 he sat on the supervisory board of Axel Springer SE . Furthermore, until April 2016 he was a partner in Robert Bosch Industrietreuhand KG, which holds 93% of the voting rights in Robert Bosch GmbH .

In connection with wage dumping and the precarious working conditions of the parcel carriers at the group's subsidiary Hermes Europe , Otto's role as group leader was criticized in 2011. The ARD broadcast the report The Hermes Principle: A billionaire and his messengers of the gods . Michael Otto and Hermes denied the precarious employment conditions and spoke of black sheep among the subcontractors.

Michael Otto and his family's fortune is listed on the Forbes 2015 list at $ 15.4 billion. This puts the Otto family in 51st place worldwide and 7th among the German billionaires. According to Forbes, Michael Otto is the richest North German.

In April 2015, Otto announced that it would transfer its majority in the Otto retail group and thus a large part of its assets to a new charitable foundation. Cultural, social, ecological or charitable projects are to be supported with annual distributions. The aim of the foundation is to ensure that the Otto family retains influence over the Otto Group in the long term.

Michael Otto is married and has two children.

Honorary positions

His honorary commitments include chairing the board of trustees of the Society for Politics and Economy ( Haus Rissen Hamburg ) and the honorary chairmanship of the board of trustees of the environmental foundation WWF Germany . He is the deputy chairman of the board in the cultural group of the German economy in the BDI . In order to promote specific projects, he founded the "Michael Otto Foundation for Environmental Protection" in 1993 (since 2018 Michael Otto Environment Foundation ), of which he is the chairman of the board of trustees. Otto is also an honorary member of the World Future Council .

Honors

Due to his commitment to the environment and sustainability , he received various awards such as the German Environment Prize in 1997 and the Sustainability Leadership Award in 2002 . In 1999 the University of Hamburg awarded him the title of Honorary Senator, as did his father Werner Otto in 1988. In 2000 Michael Otto also became Honorary Senator of the Ernst Moritz Arndt University of Greifswald .

In 2001 he was named Manager of the Year and in 2005 he was honored with the Vernon A. Walters Prize of the Atlantik-Brücke association for promoting US-German relations. On October 24, 2006, he was honored with the International Lifetime Award at the 10th German Mail Order Congress for his life's work . This honored in particular his longstanding, outstanding entrepreneurial performance at home and abroad as well as his early recognition of the fundamental importance of the Internet for the retail business. On November 30, 2006, he received the Great Cross of Merit with a Star on the proposal of Federal President Horst Köhler . This honored his willingness to assume responsibility for society as a whole, as well as his personal commitment in the ecological and social area. In 2007 he received the German Retail Award in the Lifetime Award category . The Theodor Heuss Foundation awarded him the Theodor Heuss Prize in 2010 for an exemplary corporate culture, both economically and ethically . In 2013 the WWF honored him with the newly discovered hawkweed Pilosella ottonis, which is endemic to the Spessart . On the occasion of his 75th birthday, Otto was invited to a Senate breakfast by the Hamburg Mayor Tschentscher in 2018 and he was given the honorary title of Professor .

Further honors

Movies

  • Typical! Michael Otto: A life between Bangladesh and Blankenese. Documentary, Germany, 2018, 30 min., Author: Frank Sieren, production: NDR , series: Typisch !, first broadcast: September 27, 2018; NDR media library .
  • The Otto's. Documentary, Germany, 2012, 45 min., Written and directed: Dagmar Wittmers , production: NDR , series: Deutsche Dynastien, first broadcast: May 7, 2012; Synopsis of the ARD .
  • America was my childhood dream. Documentation, Germany, 2011, 10:44 pm, production: n-tv , first broadcast: June 21, 2011, online video .
    “He turned the staid catalog of yore into the most successful mail order group in the world. Michael Otto is the chairman of the supervisory board of OTTO-Group International. It controls 50,000 employees worldwide and generates a total turnover of around 11.5 billion euros - and that with a special responsibility for employees and the environment. "
  • With a lot of breath. Documentation, Germany, 45 min., Directors: Meike Hemschemeier and Thomas Weidenbach, production: WDR , first broadcast: September 23, 2008
    Portraits of the three entrepreneurs Michael Otto, Anita Roddick and Andres Gut, who “don't just have capital markets and profit curves in mind but also the protection of the environment and the misery of the poor in the third world ”.
  • The Hermes principle - The billionaire and his messengers of the gods , documentation by Monika Wagener and Ralf Hötte, Germany, 45 min., Production: WDR , first broadcast: August 3, 2011

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Supervisory Board of the Otto Group - CV Michael Otto . Retrieved May 28, 2012.
  2. ↑ Manager Magazin: CV Michael Otto
  3. ↑ Axel Springer SE: Elections to the Supervisory Board of Axel Springer SE , press release of March 5, 2014
  4. ↑ Bosch-Presse: Personnel changes at Robert Bosch Industrietreuhand KG and on the supervisory board of Robert Bosch GmbH , April 8, 2016
  5. ↑ Kathrin Hartmann : Unfortunately we have to stay outside: The new poverty in the consumer society. Blessing, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-89667-457-9 , chap. 6th
  6. ^ ARD film about wage dumping. The parcel delivery men and the billionaire. Spiegel Online article from August 3, 2011
  7. ↑ ARD exclusive: The Hermes Principle: A billionaire and his messengers of the gods , ARD , August 3, 2011
  8. ↑ # 51 Michael Otto & family , Forbes , accessed July 12, 2016
  9. ↑ Michael Otto is the richest in the north , NDR.de , March 3, 2015
  10. ↑ Otto Group: Michael Otto gives stake in foundation , Handelsblatt , April 1, 2015
  11. ↑ Michael Otto donates billions of dollars , Hamburger Abendblatt , April 1, 2015
  12. ^ Haus Rissen Hamburg: Board of Trustees
  13. ^ WWF Germany: Board of Trustees
  14. ↑ Kulturkreis der deutschen Wirtschaft: Executive Board ( Memento from August 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  15. ^ Michael Otto Foundation: Board of Trustees
  16. ↑ The World Future Council: https://www.worldfuturecouncil.org/de/p/michael-otto/
  17. ↑ Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt: Environment Prize Winners ( Memento from December 24, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  18. ↑ Sustainability Leadership Award: Winner 2002 ( Memento from May 17, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  19. ↑ Honorary Senators of the University of Hamburg ( Memento from December 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  20. ^ University of Greifswald: Honorary Senators ( Memento from May 14, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  21. ↑ Hamburg honorary citizen Michael Otto becomes professor. In: Abendblatt.de. April 23, 2018.
  22. ↑ Action Group Social Market Economy: Winner of the Alexander-Rüstow-Plakette ( Memento from March 26, 2018 in the Internet Archive )
  23. ^ German Network for Business Ethics : Prize Winners of the Past Years ( Memento of November 2, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  24. ↑ The DMA Hall of Fame: Overview ( Memento from November 20, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  25. ↑ Jewish Museum Berlin : https://www.jmberlin.de/preis-fuer-verstaendigung-und-toleranz
  26. ↑ German Founders Award : Werner and Michael Otto ( Memento from December 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  27. ↑ Federal President's Office: Speech by Federal President Horst Köhler on the 60th anniversary of the Federal Association of German Foundations on June 27, 2008 in Munich
  28. ↑ UNESCO Foundation Children in Need: UNESCO Charity Gala 2010 ( Memento from September 28, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  29. ↑ BMZ: Walter Scheel Prize 2011 bmz.de ( Memento from August 29, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  30. ^ Heinz Sielmann Foundation : Honorary Award 2011
  31. ↑ TÜV Rheinland: Winner 2011 ( Memento from September 24, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  32. ↑ https://www.pressebox.de/inaktiv/hhl-leipzig-graduate-school-of-management-0/Kotler-und-Otto-erhalten-Ehrendoktorwuerde-der-Handelshochschule-Leipzig-HHL/boxid/496525
  33. ↑ Manager Magazin : Hall of Fame 2012
  34. ↑ Hanseatic City of Hamburg : Dr. Michael Otto is the new honorary citizen
  35. ↑ Patriotic Society honors Bejarano and Otto , Die Welt , May 11, 2016, accessed on July 9, 2019
  36. ↑ Dr. Michael Otto, Digital Champion 2016 , digitaler-mittelstand.de, July 21, 2016, accessed on July 9, 2019
  37. ↑ Michael Otto receives the German CSR Prize , Umweltdialog.de, February 23, 2017, accessed on July 9, 2019
  38. ↑ Michael Otto honored with European prize , Hamburger Abendblatt , February 7, 2019, accessed on July 9, 2019
  39. ↑ Contents With a long breath of the WDR ( Memento from May 20, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Otto, Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German manager and patron, chairman of the supervisory board and former chairman of the Otto Group
DATE OF BIRTH April 12, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Kulm , West Prussia