100 Years of Georg Wilhelm Claussen: A Century for Brands and People. He stands for continuity and innovation, for successful brand management and humane cooperation.

March 28, 2013 Leave a comment

100 Years of Georg Wilhelm Claussen: A Century for Brands and People

  • For almost 75 years Georg W. Claussen has been part of the success story of Beiersdorf
  • For more than three decades he shaped the development of world brands like NIVEA, Eucerin, Labello, 8×4, Hansaplast and tesa as Chairman of the Board and on the Supervisory Board
  • On June 5th the Hamburg-native will turn 100

Hamburg, June 4, 2012 – Georg W. Claussen is an unusual German company figure – the grand nephew of Dr. Oscar Troplowitz, the man who in 1911 invented the largest skincare brand with NIVEA – he consistently lived corporate responsibility and embodies like no other the values of Beiersdorf. He stands for continuity and innovation, for successful brand management and humane cooperation.

_Original_9916_1477624_georg_w_claussen_beiersdorf
Record Setting Life Achievement
As a young man in 1938, Claussen entered the company and starting in 1952, he was a member of the board. In 1957 he became the Chairman of the Managing Board of the then 75-year old Beiersdorf AG. For 22 years he held this position until he switched to the Supervisory Board for another nine years. More than three decades long he shaped the development of world brands like NIVEA, Hansaplast, 8×4 and tesa. Since 1989, he has been part of the company as an Honorary Chairman of the Company. He completed 58 Annual General Meetings behind the podium, first as Chairman of the Board, later as Chairman of the Supervisory Board, then as Honorary Chairman of the Company – surely a unique record in German economy.

An Impressive Figure
The “Elder”, as he is lovingly and respectfully named at Beiersdorf, is in very close contact with the company. Until recently he still worked regularly in his office on the 5th floor of company headquarters on Unnastrasse. “Mr. Claussen was a partner in dialogue for the board and management on many subjects,” said HR and Finance Board Member Dr. Ulrich Schmidt, who has known Claussen for almost 30 years. “As a businessman, not only the brands and markets were important to Claussen, but also the people.” And he embodies something that has become rare today: “Hanseatic Understatement.” He does good without having to talk about it. In this way his outstanding engagement for his home city of Hamburg, and his generous support of numerous institutions and facilities of art, culture, science and social work have earned great respect. The Claussen Simon Foundation, for example, founded in 1982, supports science and its offspring.

Best Wishes from All of Beiersdorf
Beiersdorf’s CEO Stefan F. Heidenreich expressed his best wishes personally and congratulated Claussen in the name of all employees and the whole Board of Beiersdorf AG. And he praised his achievements: “You have made a sustainable impression on the company over all these years and with your deeds you laid the foundation of our current success.”

About Beiersdorf AG

The cosmetic company Beiersdorf AG is headquartered in Hamburg, employs worldwide about 18,000 employees and in 2011 achieved a turnover of 5,633 Billion Euros (according to the new sales figures). Since December 2008, Beiersdorf has been listed on the DAX. With NIVEA it has the world’s largest brand in skincare*. Its internationally successful portfolio also includes Eucerin as well as La Prairie, Labello, 8×4 and Hansaplast. The affiliate tesa SE is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of self-adhesive products and system solutions for industry, manufacturing and consumers. Beiersdorf has over 130 years of experience in skincare and is characterized by its innovative, high-quality products.

* Euromonitor, according to brand in the categories of face, body and handcare; retail sales 2010.

Filed under Innovation, Investing Process, Life

Unknown's avatarAbout bambooinnovator
Kee Koon Boon (“KB”) is the co-founder and director of HERO Investment Management which provides specialized fund management and investment advisory services to the ARCHEA Asia HERO Innovators Fund (www.heroinnovator.com), the only Asian SMID-cap tech-focused fund in the industry. KB is an internationally featured investor rooted in the principles of value investing for over a decade as a fund manager and analyst in the Asian capital markets who started his career at a boutique hedge fund in Singapore where he was with the firm since 2002 and was also part of the core investment committee in significantly outperforming the index in the 10-year-plus-old flagship Asian fund. He was also the portfolio manager for Asia-Pacific equities at Korea’s largest mutual fund company. Prior to setting up the H.E.R.O. Innovators Fund, KB was the Chief Investment Officer & CEO of a Singapore Registered Fund Management Company (RFMC) where he is responsible for listed Asian equity investments. KB had taught accounting at the Singapore Management University (SMU) as a faculty member and also pioneered the 15-week course on Accounting Fraud in Asia as an official module at SMU. KB remains grateful and honored to be invited by Singapore’s financial regulator Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to present to their top management team about implementing a world’s first fact-based forward-looking fraud detection framework to bring about benefits for the capital markets in Singapore and for the public and investment community. KB also served the community in sharing his insights in writing articles about value investing and corporate governance in the media that include Business Times, Straits Times, Jakarta Post, Manual of Ideas, Investopedia, TedXWallStreet. He had also presented in top investment, banking and finance conferences in America, Italy, Sydney, Cape Town, HK, China. He has trained CEOs, entrepreneurs, CFOs, management executives in business strategy & business model innovation in Singapore, HK and China.

Leave a comment