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Michael Maasmeier

Managing Partner of the Counterpart Group

Michael Maasmeier is the founder and managing partner of the Counterpart Group. The agency group, which has its headquarters in Cologne, comprises the full-service advertising agency "Counterpart", the PR agency "Public Affairs" and the multimedia partner "Netvertainment". The Counterpart Group specialises in strategic brand management – across multiple sectors – combining all communicative disciplines under one roof: strategic brand management, advertising, PR and online-strategies/social media.

Furthermore, Michael Maasmeier is also engaged in the business relations between Germany and Turkey. In this line, he worked for many years as the German and Austrian representative of the Investment Support and Promotion Agency of Turkey (ISPAT)  and has been successful in promoting Turkey as a business location. On behalf of the Turkish Prime Ministry he was the contact person for national entrepreneurs from both countries in any questions concerning the Turkish economy. As a strategic adviser, Michael Maasmeier has already managed infrastructure projects in various countries and made a significant contribution to the successful restructuring of local regions there.

From 1987 to 1991, Maasmeier worked as a management consultant at the consultancy firm Cresap McCormick & Paget, one of the three leading US management consultancy firms with 9,000 advisers worldwide.  He managed the business areas of strategy, international marketing and organisational effectiveness for companies from the aviation, telecommunications, food and drink, consumer goods, banking, tourism and manufacturing sectors. Additionally, Maasmeier was responsible for selecting communications agencies on behalf of clients. The lack of strategic advice from existing agencies was the catalyst for establishing the Counterpart agency group in 1991, which regards itself as a constructive sparring partner for its clients.

Michael Maasmeier started his entrepreneurial career in 1979 with a fashion company in Gütersloh. In doing so at only 16 years old, he caused a sensation as one of Germany's youngest entrepreneurs. At the same time, he worked in the fields of marketing and market research at Marketing Unit Fieldservice S.A. in Brussels.

Michael Maasmeier has a degree in business administration from the University of Cologne and is a member of the arbitration court of the Cologne Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Furthermore, he has published a specialist book on the subject of crisis management.

 

Revised: March 2011