Michael Geiss

Business Designer / CEO

Michael is a human-centered entrepreneur and multiple founder, focussed on sustainable innovation of the economy, digitalization, and future skills. Together with his teams, he acted as an innovation driver for companies such as Swatch, Deutsche Börse, Blancpain, Stada, VSS, Telekom, MunichRe, Henkel, Messe Frankfurt and many others. He shares his experience as an instructor in Strategic Management at Nürtingen University. 

In the course of his career, he has advised major national and international brands and corporations, and he lead strategic projects. His company start-ups in the fields of consulting, branding, design, marketing and communication have been internationally successful, in particular his agency »thema communications« with subsidiaries for events and publishing. He is also president of a non-profit foundation that supports and promotes young artists.

As a consultant, he contributes his knowledge and experience to the founding of start-ups, joint ventures and special-purpose enterprises, also in the social, humanitarian and ecological sectors.  Its core task is the set up of target-oriented corporate structures and systems to achieve objectives in cooperation between the organizations involved.

Graduated in business administration and economics. Soft spot for systems theory, decision theory and strategy design methods. Interested in: New, unknown, contexts, motives.

Business Design Design Services Social Innovation

Key Competencies
Sustainable Business Strategy:

Transforming, developing and implementing sustainable businesses in dynamic environments. 

Systems Setup & Building:

Building target-oriented corporate structures and systems, i. e. for co-investments and joint ventures and special-purpose enterprises.

General Management

General Management with a spot on financials, legal, taxes, marketing and HR

Real Estate

Investments and tax-optimized strategies and structures


Remarkable Projects

  • VIVA Stada: Concept, development and implementation of an in-house innovation agency with 180 employees for Stada AG as a joint venture. Project role: Lead Consultant and Managing Director of Consulting Agency 

  • Blancpain: International Brand relaunch of the world’s oldest luxury watch brand, member of Swatch Group. Project role: Lead Consultant and Managing Director of Creative Agency

  • Deutsche Börse: International Brand Positioning and Marketing Communication of Germany's leading Stock Exchange. International Project role: Lead Consultant and Managing Director of Creative Agency.

  • VSS Consulting: International Positioning, Branding and and Marketing Communication of a innovative IT consultancy on it's way to a merger with Unilog/Integrata (today CGI Group). Project role: Lead Consultant and Managing Director of Consulting Agency.

Professional Experience

R3ASON GmbH, Managing Partner

M1ND GmbH, Managing Partner

Design Centered Humans AG, CEO

Schrift und Bild Foundation, President (2008-today)

Iconstorm GmbH, Managing Director (2016-2024)

thema communications AG, Co-founder & CEO (2000-2015)

k&a Marketing GmbH, Co-founder & CEO (1992-1999)


Education

  • Business Administration (Dipl.-Kfm. Frankfurt University, 1994)

  • Economics (Dipl.-Volksw. Hagen University 1997)

  • Consulting (St. Gallen Business School 2014)

Certifications

  • Business Model Generation (Strategyzer)

  • Strategy Consultant (EKS, IHK)

  • Strategic Communication (AFK Academy)