D – The German Promotional Products Association (GWW) has elected Steven Baumgaertner (Cybergroup) as its new Chairman. Further newcomers to the board of the GWW include Gunther Langenberg (WIL) and Ingo Malinowski (Quadro). The General Annual Meeting and election of the new board took place on September 26, 2022 prior to the GWW-Trend at the RheinMain CongressCenter. Numerous representatives from member companies of the association that currently boasts 424 members attended the first general meeting with physical attendance since 2020.
Many members of the association attended the General Annual Meeting at the RheinMain CongressCenter in Wiesbaden.
The new GWW board of directors (f.t.l.): Ralf Samuel (Executive Director), Gunther Langenberg, Ingo Malinowski, Steven Baumgaertner (Chairman), Ronald Eckert and Frank Jansen.
After a brief greeting, the Chairman Frank Dangmann spoke about the new GWW survey on the emotional effect of promotional products, before Oliver Spitzer, Managing Partner of the responsible market research institute, september Strategie & Forschung, outlined the gratifying results. Tobias Bartenbach, board member of Bartenbach AG, presented the campaign #1001Emotion, which the agency group developed in the course of the survey. This was followed by further information about the association’s work and the usual formalities. Next on the agenda was the regular board elections. After Ralf Hesse, m.e.s., had withdrawn his candidacy as Chairman of the Board a few days earlier, as such Steven Baumgaertner, founder and CEO of Cybergroup, was the only candidate up for election as President of the GWW. Frank Dangmann had announced before the election got underway that he no longer wanted to run as a candidate, but that he was instead willing to pave the way for a “generation change on the board”. His fellow board members Jürgen Geiger (Geiger-Notes) and Martin Heinemann (CDH) did the same.
Per handshake: Frank Dangmann (r) literally hands over to Steven Baumgaertner.
Baumgaertner was subsequently appointed as the new GWW Chairman after attaining 82% of the votes in the course of a secret ballot. In addition to the CEO of Cybergroup, Gunther Langenberg (WIL) and Ingo Malinowski (Quadro) were also voted onto the board. Ronald Eckert (Döbler Werbemittel) and Frank Jansen (Niederegger) remain in office as board members. After only attaining 42% of the votes, Petra Lassahn (PSI) didn’t manage to obtain a majority. The PSI Director, who had run as a candidate for the board, pointed out immediately after the results of the election were announced that she did not accept this outcome because it constituted a breach of the association’s statutes. According to the statutes of the GWW, the PSI is indeed entitled to a place on the board. The legal assessment of this matter will be one of the first official acts the new board has to address.
