Ralph Dommermuth

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Ralph Dommermuth (born November 19, 1963 in Dernbach ) is a German entrepreneur . He is the founder, CEO and largest shareholder of United Internet AG, based in Montabaur .

Family and education

Ralph Dommermuth is the son of a real estate agent in Montabaur and has a brother. After training at Deutsche Bank , he started working as a freelancer in sales at a local PC dealer in his home town of Montabaur in 1983.

Dommermuth has a son of legal age. His wife Judith is a fashion entrepreneur.

United Internet

In 1988 he founded 1 & 1 EDV Marketing GmbH together with a partner. The “software exchange”, a marketing instrument for software houses, was founded as the first business idea. For this idea, 1 & 1 won the German Direct Marketing Prize in 1989. The company also organized special exhibitions at CeBIT in Hanover such as the Software Center for SMEs and Software for Europe. 1992 had Dommermuths approach to external marketing success when his company 1 & 1 from the Deutsche Telekom was commissioned BTX accounts, however, and later T-Online to sell accounts, however. Another activity was the 1 & 1 ServiceLine, later renamed twenty4help, which received the order from IBM to create a hotline for OS / 2 and PS / 2 as well as for the computer manufacturer's printer series and subsequently for companies such as Apple , Deutsche Telekom, HP , Microsoft , Sun Microsystems and AOL .

After its success as a marketing service provider, Dommermuth converted 1 & 1 into an Internet service provider in 1996. In March 1998 the company went public as the first German Internet company . Due to the capital increase carried out in this context, 1 & 1 now had the opportunity to participate in other IT companies such as GMX and Schlund + Partner AG. At the height of the Internet boom in early 2000, 1 & 1 Holding held stakes in 17 Internet companies and Dommermuth renamed the company United Internet.

United Internet developed through its own growth and acquisitions such as web.de , Fasthosts, arsys, InterNetX, united-domains, Sedo, home.pl, Strato , ProfitBricks, world4you and Versatel to become one of the leading European Internet companies.

Dommermuth owns over 42% of the shares in United Internet AG. From August 2014 to June 2015 he was a member of the supervisory board of the United Internet subsidiary Rocket Internet .

In the summer of 2017 United Internet brought its subsidiary 1 & 1 Telecommunication SE into Drillisch AG and received new Drillisch shares in return. In total, United Internet owns over 75% of 1 & 1 Drillisch AG, which was renamed in January 2018 . On January 1, 2018, Dommermuth also took over the chairmanship of this company.

In February 2020 it was announced that 1 & 1 would be Borussia Dortmund's shirt sponsor for Bundesliga games from the 2020/21 season . For all international competitions, the DFB Cup and test matches abroad, the previous shirt sponsor Evonik Industries will remain on the shirts. Evonik Industries AG then sold almost 5 percent of its shares in Borussia Dortmund GmbH & Co. KGaA and reduced its stake to 9.83 percent. At the beginning of March 2020, Dommermuth acquired 5.004 percent of Borussia Dortmund GmbH & Co. KGaA through his Ralph Dommermuth Beteiligungen GmbH .

capital

According to Forbes , Dommermuth had a fortune of $ 5.9 billion in March 2018, making him one of the 300 richest people in the world. In 2017 Dommermuth donated 500,000 euros to the CDU.

Awards

  • 1994 founder of the year , award from Norman Rentrop Verlag .
  • 2007 Strategist of the Year , recognized by the Financial Times.
  • 2014 CEO of the year , award from Wirtschaftswoche .
  • 2014 Entrepreneur of the Year , award from the Association of German Magazine Publishers (VDZ).
  • 2014 Appointment by Chancellor Angela Merkel as a permanent member of the Steering Committee for Innovation Dialogue .
  • 2017 Entrepreneur of the Year - honorary award for exceptional social commitment , award by EY.
  • 2018 induction into the Hall of Fame of the German economy, award from Manager Magazin.
  • 2018 Prize for Social Market Economy of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung , Prize Winner 2018.
  • 2019 Decision maker 2019 , award from Wirtschaftswoche and KPMG.

Foundations and Initiatives

In September 2006 Ralph Dommermuth founded the United Internet for UNICEF foundation with the aim of improving the living conditions of children and people in need by raising donations. For this purpose, United Internet's marketing machine was used for donation doubling campaigns and users of WEB.DE, GMX and 1 & 1 were asked to make donations at regular intervals. The foundation is one of UNICEF's largest individual donors and was awarded the newly created “Gustav Rau Prize” in 2014 and UNICEF Germany's “Partner of the Year” in 2016.

In 2013, Dommermuth founded the Westerwelle Foundation together with the former Foreign Minister, Guido Westerwelle . The foundation is based in Berlin and aims to promote international understanding and to strengthen democracy and the market economy, the rule of law and tolerance in so-called emerging countries.

The Ralph and Judith Dommermuth Foundation provides financial support for charitable projects and has been running the We Together platform since the beginning of 2016 . There, projects of the German economy for the social integration of refugees and for integration into the world of work are presented. The platform was initiated by 36 companies, meanwhile over 200 well-known companies are participating. With an advertising campaign, “We together” motivates other companies and their employees to take action too.

In 2007 Dommermuth made it possible for a German boat to take part in the America's Cup for the first time with the newly founded United Internet Team Germany . On April 29, 2005, the team was accepted as a challenger for the 32nd America's Cup a few hours before the entry deadline. In addition to the advertising budget provided by United Internet, Dommermuth invested around 20 million euros from his assets in the project.

literature

  • Thomas Tuma, Janko Tietz: Not all of them want more . In: Der Spiegel . No. 12 , 2008 ( online ).
  • Business leader in portrait. Part 2. Kim-Eva Wempe, Nicolas G. Hayek, Claus Hipp, Franz Fehrenbach, Wulf Bernotat, François-Henri Pinault, Ralph Dommermuth, Heinz Gries , Audio Media-Verlag, Munich 2005, series Handelsblatt-Audio-Edition [CD] , ISBN 3-937847-22-7 .

Web links

  • Katrin Wilkens: Everything is normal here . How Ralph Dommermuth became one of the most successful internet entrepreneurs. In: DIE ZEIT No. 35, August 21, 2003 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dagmar Haas-Pilwat: Judith Dommermuth: The perfect day . October 29, 2016 ( welt.de [accessed May 14, 2019]).
  2. ↑ Successful startup forge: United Internet joins Rocket Internet . Focus Online. August 15, 2014. Retrieved August 27, 2014.
  3. ^ General meeting of Rocket Internet: Oliver Samwer conquers Essen . Mirror online. June 23, 2015. Accessed July 14, 2015.
  4. ↑ BVB gets a new main sponsor and significantly more money , kicker.de, February 19, 2020, accessed on April 20, 2020.
  5. ↑ Shareholder structure , aktie.bvb.de, accessed on April 20, 2020.
  6. ↑ BVB shares: Borussia Dortmund binds future shirt sponsor 1 & 1 even closer to itself , ruhrnachrichten.de, March 4, 2020, accessed on April 20, 2020.
  7. ↑ Forbes List 2018. Forbes Magazine, accessed March 9, 2018 .
  8. ↑ United Internet founder donates 500,000 euros to the CDU , heise. Retrieved June 30, 2017.
  9. ↑ These are the CEOs of the year . WirtschaftsWoche. October 20, 2014. Retrieved November 8, 2014.
  10. ↑ VDZ honors United Internet CEO Ralph Dommermuth with the “Golden Victoria 2014 - Entrepreneur of the Year” . Association of German Magazine Publishers. October 27, 2014. Archived from the original on November 8, 2014. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved November 8, 2014. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.vdz.de
  11. ^ Members of the Steering Committee . acatech. 2014. Retrieved November 18, 2014.
  12. ↑ United Internet boss Dommermuth recognized as a top manager . June 7, 2019. Accessed July 6, 2019.
  13. ↑ "United Internet for UNICEF" collects more than 10 million euros. In: web.de . December 1, 2011, accessed November 17, 2017 .
  14. ^ Gustav Rau Prize from UNICEF. Retrieved September 12, 2015 .
personal data
SURNAME Dommermuth, Ralph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German internet entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH November 19, 1963
PLACE OF BIRTH Dernbach