Institutions Board of Trustees

After receiving university degrees in Law and Human Resources Management and Organisational Development, Heidi Stopper gained international reputation as an executive for Human Resources Management in Media and Technology Companies.

From 2002 to 2009 Stopper held various management positions at EADS, and was most recently Vice President of Human Resources for EADS Astrium Satellites in France. In 2010 Heidi Stopper joined ProSiebenSat.1. By installing key performance and talent management instruments as well as setting up the ProSiebenSat.1 Academy, Stopper successfully reinforced the strategic development of the ProSiebenSat.1 Group away from being a classic TV network and towards becoming a state-of-the-art trans-media enterprise.

Since 2014 Heidi Stopper acts as an independent executive coach and counsels enterprises in issues like Digitisation and Transformation.

Regarding her commitment to the Board of Trustees of Macromedia University Heidi Stopper says:
“Education is a personal concern of mine and I consider the combination of theoretical and practical knowledge as being highly important. Therefore, I am pleased to contribute with my long-term experiences in the management boards of various enterprises to the work of the Board of Trustees of Macromedia University.”

Minu Barati-Fischer is a producer and screenwriter. After returning from a one-year-residency in the US, she founded the production company Jooyaa Filmproduktion Berlin in 2009, for which she currently acts as a Managing Director, producer and writer. The first movie produced by Jooyaa Filmproduktion Berlin was “Ironically Siberia”, released in 2012. The Screenplay came from herself.

From 2001 to 2005 Barati was enrolled in the Producer Program at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (dffb). After leaving the re-knowned filmschool, she worked as a producer and story developer for film and television. Prior to her studies Minu Barati already worked for several production companies collecting professional experience in various areas such as content development, script translation and editing, and production assistance.

Regarding her commitment to the Board of Trustees of Macromedia University Minu Barati says:
“I am particularly pleased to stimulate exchange concerning the future-oriented, international character of the study programs. I strongly believe in the benefits of a modular, flexible study design – technically up to date and in close alignment to the market needs.”

Dr. Stephan Buchner has more than 16 years of experience as Partner with Egon Zehnder. In his position he is leading the company’s practice group for consumer goods, retail and media in Germany and is part of the global practice.

Egon Zehnder specialised in Executive Search, Board Consulting, and Leadership Strategy Services. Egon Zehnder is one of the largest top-management recruitment firms worldwide with 60 offices in 40 countries. As a partner Buchner is an equal shareholder. He has developed extensive experience in high level national and international projects particularly in consumer, retail and media industry. He works in the context of international companies, family business and private equity portfolio companies. After his studies of Business Administration he started his career at Bertelsmann AG as Assistant to the CEO. Then he became Managing Director for various daughter companies in the Bertelsmann Direct Group. He lived and worked in New York, Toronto, Bern, Munich and Guetersloh. In his last position he was responsible at Random House as Managing Director for divisional publishing group.

Regarding his commitment to the Board of Trustees of Macromedia University Dr. Stephan Buchner says:
“Given the increasing complexity and rapid changing of corporate environments, talent management will pose an even more significant competitive advantage for companies in the future. Major possibilities for talent will subsequently arise. An excellent education is therefore an important prerequisite. Based on my extensive consulting experience and strong associations with top decision-makers in numerous companies, I look forward to conveying the relevant demands of the companies into the curatorship work of Macromedia University and thus to contributing to the further development of the academic education.”

Maks Giordano is a Digital Strategist and Creative. He co-founded the boutique consultancy „kreait“ in 2011 with a focus on creating meaningful and highly relevant digital services. He is consulting BMW, Deutsche Telekom, eBay and many others in Digital Transformation.

Maks started in 1996 as a Director with ID Media, helping to grow the Agency from 30 to over 500 and taking it public on the German Neue Markt. He was in charge of internationalisation and helped to establish „wallpaper magazine online“ as one of the most internationally awarded Websites in the 90ies. Maks also played a very vital role in the development of Cycosmos, the most popular social site in Germany and in the UK in the late 90ies. In 2000 Maks joined the Management Board of MetaDesign AG, Europe´s leading Design Agency and was in charge of the Digital Unit. With the work for NTT DoCoMo´s iMode and Quam/Telefonica in 2001, he was involved in Europe´s very first Mobile Portal Projects and Mobile Service Creations. The developed passion in Mobile led to the founding of „iconmobile“ in 2003. As a co-founder and Managing Partner, Maks helped to establish the agency as one of the worldwide first mobile centric agencies and grew the company from Four founders to a 150+ Employee Company with offices in Berlin, Tokyo, Sydney, London and New York.

Maks helped Telefonica, vodafone, France Telecom, o2, orange and many other International Operators in their Mobile Portal strategies. iconmobile also developed a daily mobile soap format in 2005 and became a heavy influencer in the mobile entertainment sector. Maks was responsible as product lead for one of the worldwide first mobile adservers in 2004 and developed mobile marketing and mobile advertising formats for the likes of MSN, o2 and BMW. After exiting the company in 2007 to the world´s largest Agency Network WPP, Maks was a Member of the Management Board of ProSiebenSat.1 Digital and in charge of the Mobile, Games & Innovation activities. He introduced iOS Apps and UGC Campaigns to the Network. Later, Maks joined kyte in San Francisco as their Managing Director for Europe and developed Video Strategies for Mobile, Social & Online for the likes of MTV, Universal Music and many others.

He helped to bring the Mobile Monday to Berlin, is an active Business Angel and Mentor to StartUps and was heading the Founder Institute in Berlin.
Maks has an MBA in Media & Communication from the University of St. Gallen and wrote his Thesis about Mobile Gaming. He is teaching „Entrepreneurship“ at the Zeppelin University and is a judge both to the Webbys and Lovies.

Lev Gonick has been teaching, working, and living on the Net for more than 25 years.

Lev Gonick is co-founder and chief of OneCommunity, the award-winning non-profit organisation designed to enable and celebrate innovation, collaboration, and productivity through next generation broadband networks and services throughout Northeast Ohio.

In 2011 Government Technology awarded Lev one of their “Top 25 Doers, Dreamers & Drivers in Public-Sector Innovation”. In the same year Crain’s Business Cleveland named Gonick one its “10 Difference Makers” in Northeast Ohio and Broadband Properties honored him with their Cornerstone Award for “using fiber to build an inclusive society and empower individuals”. In 2010 he received recognition as “Visionary of the Year” from NATOA. Lev has been recognised by ComputerWorld as a Premier 100 IT leader and honored by CIO magazine with a CIO 100 Award. Northeast Ohio’s Inside Business has recognised Lev as one of their Power 100.

Lev was CIO at Case Western Reserve University from 2001-2013. He and his colleagues were internationally recognised for technology innovations in community engagement, learning spaces, next generation network projects, and organisational development. Lev’s innovations, including the Case Connection Zone catalyzed national projects, including US Ignite and Gig.U.

A frequent international speaker and consultant, Lev currently serves on the Boards of Monarch Teaching Technologies (educational software developers for persons with autism), DecisionDesk, EGenio, Groundworks Dance Theater, and Cleveland Independents (Restaurants). He is an advisor to the Saylor Foundation.

Key-person in the Israeli start-up ecosystem, innovator and entrepreneur. Oren is the Founder at StarTau, Tel-Aviv University Entrepreneurship Center.

Oren leads Marketing and Community in Israel for Indiegogo, the world’s funding engine. He works with entrepreneurs, creators, and community builders across Israel to bring their ideas to the world through Indiegogo’s open, flexible crowdfunding platform.

Oren is a mentor of early stage startups, and an inspiring invited-speaker about innovation (recently at TEDx).

Oren holds a B.A degree at Accounting and Economics from Tel Aviv University and he is also a Professional Football referee at the Israeli top league.

Walter Konzmann is the Managing Director of the Mercedes-Benz Consulting Ltd which was founded in 2016. This Daimler subsidiary is specialised in digitisation of the Mercedes-Benz sales at the “Point of Experience” as well as the development and realisation of the Mobility of the Future and the retail concepts of the future.

Furthermore, the Mercedes-Benz Consulting Ltd. develops solutions for the improvement of efficiency and quality within the client‘s management processes through the application of Artificial Intelligence.

After his vocational training in retail and business engineering studies and before his role as the Managing Director, he promoted the professionalisation of the international sales in various management positions at Daimler since 1995. He was also the director of Human Resources marketing.

Karl König loves stories above all; true stories about real people. He loves reading and telling stories. Initially in his career, he did this through texts and later on through videos on television. At the beginning, it was important for him to learn storytelling as a craft. After an editorial traineeship at a daily newspaper, he spent the 1990s at RTL television and at the turn of the millennium, he joined the ProSiebenSAT.1 Group.

Throughout his management career, he held many leadership positions. He headed different TV formats and the television channel Kabel 1. As the COO, he organised complex matrix structures and founded a company which distributes – we‘ve come full circle – stories through all the analog, digital, national and international platforms.

He is deeply interested in digital transformation and specialises in online and content marketing.