project lead
Dr. CHRISTIAN SCHIMMELPFENNIG commenced his professional career in the industry and in management consulting. He received a master’s in business from a German, a master's in marketing from a Danish, and a PhD from prestigious St. Gallen University in Switzerland.
Throughout his career as an academician he has been with three different Financial Times ranked Executive MBA programs in Switzerland and Canada; e.g., he served as founding Director of a new international EMBA program at the University of Zurich. His research focuses on brand and advertising strategy and has been published in A/B-ranked scientific journals (e.g. Psychology & Marketing) as well as management journals (e.g. Harvard Business Review and its national editions). BRAND LAB he initiated in 2014 - a project that is dedicated to branding, communication, and customer experience design. Among its clients are exclusive European brands such as Chronoswiss and Faber-Castell, as well as global Fortune 500 corporations like China-headquartered Midea Group.
Associates and contributors
The industrial designer ANDREAS HUBER advises companies in the fields of industrial and user experience design and serves as Vice President at f/p design – a design firm with studios in Munich, Berlin, and Kyoto. Andreas has worked for the German aerospace center and has gained experience in the field of robotics and the design of complex interactions. He is just as connected in the creative as in the research and high-tech start-up scene. In 2019 he accepted the personal invitation of the organizing committee of the DiD award in China and became part of the exclusive international team of jurors.
After ANGELA PAPSTEIN had gained several years of experience in retail operations she changed into the company's HR department where she held a management position in HR development: in this role she was overseeing the company's apprenticeship programs in Germany and Austria, trained instructors and acted as mediator to solve team issues. She has taught management, psychology and team building classes in continuing education programs.
Angela holds a diploma in management from the Chamber of Commerce [Germany], a BSc. in Psychology from German University of Hagen and a MSc. in Clinical Psychology from Austrian University UMIT.
She now is with a psychiatric clinic as a trained psychotherapist treating patients with mental disorders and is seeing patients in her own practice.
PANPAN WANG is a graduate of University of Bath and an Ex-Corporate Interpreter. Since 2017 she has been working as a Chinese-English interpreter and translator professionally domiciled in Geneva.
Mostly, she is working for the UN and its agencies, embassies and ministries, but also for car manufacturers, pharmaceutical giants, industrial pioneers, and prestigious European business schools. One of her professional highlights is to provide simultaneous interpretation for President Xi Jinping and President Kagame during the former's State visit to Rwanda.
selection of speakers in past training programs
Andreas Huber, Vice President, f/p design
Christian Sieber, Project Manager R&D, Siemens AG
Christian Tarragona, Vice President Head of Robotics, Festo
Dr. Cyrill von Tiesenhausen, Business Development Manager Medical Robotics, KUKA AG
David Fuller, Chief Technology Officer, KUKA AG
Dominik Bösl, Vice President and Head of Robotics Futures, Festo
Prof. Fritz Frenkler, chairman of the if product design jury, professor at Technical University Munich, CEO f/p design
Dr. Ganglin Chen, Chinese Culture Expert
Günter Walz, Vice President and Head of Production Planning, Mercedes-Benz
Hannes Gumpp, Senior Lecturer, Technical University Munich
Hinrich Dohrmann, Managing Director, Schmalz GmbH
Jan Goldstein, Regional Manager Siemens MindSphere, Siemens AG
Prof. Dr. Jens Förderer, Professor at Technical University Munich
Jochen Gunkel, Head of Sales International, Schmalz GmbH
John Schoenbeck, Director Strategic Partnering at Designworks
Julia Kahraman, Brand Manager, KUKA AG
Prof. Julia Leihener, Professor at SRH Berlin University of Applied Sciences
Matthias Struck, Senior Safety Engineer, Daimler AG
Prof. Dr. Michael Hilb, CEO of DBP Holding Ltd., Titular Professor at the University of Fribourg
Prof. Dr. Philipp Nenninger, Professor at University of Applied Sciences in Karlsruhe
Lorenz Löbermann, Head of Corporate Brands, KUKA AG
Prof. Dr. Robert Lobue, Professor at Reutlingen University
Dr. Ulrich Wetterauer, Principal at CAMELOT Consulting Group
Dr. Walter Tannert, Area Manager E-Mobility and Product Management BMW i, BMW AG
Dr. Wolfgang Kaul, Vice President R&D, Faber-Castell Cosmetics