Our Consultants:
Experience and Diplomacy

Christoph Hohl has decades of experience as a consultant in IT projects of various sizes.
He is a former officer in the German Air Force and, after studying computer science, held management positions both in the German Armed Forces and subsequently in larger companies in the textile and IT industries.

His extensive experience in the execution and implementation of complex projects, which he has also gained in start-up companies, as well as the fact that he himself has successfully worked at all management levels, particularly in the areas of supply chain management, IT, logistics, buying and purchasing makes him a sparring partner at eye level in the search for managers from these functional areas. He is therefore very familiar with the respective operational requirements.

Kerstin Flügge studied psychology and fashion design and started her career at the Adidas Group in Fontainebleau/France as Product Manager. She then moved on to Galeria, where she worked as a store manager following the completion of her trainee programme. Her career path then led her to Nike International, where she worked as Apparel Merchandise Manager. For 13 years, she was then General Retail Manager at the travel retail specialist Gebr. Heinemann at Frankfurt Airport, where she was responsible for more than 20 brand and duty-free stores and around 800 employees and distinguished herself as a management expert in this field. Her career in executive search began as partner at the Swiss company Formations Group. Since 2015, she has been successfully represented on the market as Managing Director of her own company, Flügge Consulting.

Paavo Zeebe is an Associate Partner at Hofmann Consultants GmbH. The focus of his consulting is on the areas of retail (multichannel, pure player), fashion, sports & lifestyle as well as branded consumer goods companies (FMCG, SMCG). After studying for a degree in business administration, Paavo Zeebe started working as a market analyst at an American market research company in Frankfurt am Main. He started his career in personnel consulting at Egon Zehnder International in 2005. There, in the role of associate, he advised both international groups and medium-sized companies in the market sectors of financial services and consumer goods. In his next career move as a consultant at the Heads! Executive Consultancy, he focused exclusively on the consumer goods market and successfully advised clients on filling specialist and management positions for more than 10 years. He has particular expertise in filling positions in the areas of sales, marketing/CRM/customer experience, purchasing/category management and in positions within central services (finance & controlling, HR and IT).

The focus of the consulting work of Dieter Hofmann is on the retail sector. His commercial training and degree in business studies were followed by positions at the Handelszentrale Deutscher Kaufhäuser (German Retailers’ Association) and Rewe-Leibbrand. Dieter Hofmann was one of the first people in Germany to specialise in executive search for the retail sector, starting in 1978. In 1985, he founded Hofmann, Herbold und Partner, which was then considered one of the leading personnel consultancies for the consumer goods industry in the German-speaking world. He subsequently integrated this into one of the world’s leading personnel consultancies. Since 2001, Dieter Hofmann has mainly been responsible for filling top positions in retail at Hofmann Consultants, and has assisted numerous family businesses in the areas of supervisory/advisory boards and entrepreneurial succession.

Dr. Junyang (Jenny) Shao received a PhD from the European Business School in Oestrich-Winkel following the completion of her diploma/master's degree in business administration at the University of Göttingen. She then began her career in management consulting at PwC and subsequently developed her career in corporate finance and M&A consulting at Acxit Capital Partners (now Stifel Europe) in Frankfurt. As a Global Partner of Fosun Group, she has operationally led several private equity transactions and gained a deep understanding of various industries, including fashion, consumer goods and automotive. Dr. Shao was co-founder of Fosun Fashion Group and built a global portfolio of iconic fashion brands for Fosun Group, and as Executive President/COO, she successfully led refinancing and restructuring projects in the companies together with the team on several occasions, and she is familiar with challenging and complicated strategic and operational business situations. Dr. Shao is strongly represented on various boards of listed and non-listed companies as chairperson or in their committees. Dr. Shao has a holistic perspective as she knows many companies both from an investor's point of view and from her own operational experience. She is therefore a valuable sparring partner for both listed and mid-sized private and public companies, especially in times of transformation.

Wolfgang Gebauer is a partner at Hofmann Consultants GmbH. The focus of his consulting is on the areas of consumer goods, mail order and branded goods. After completing his education and his degree in mathematics, Wolfgang Gebauer initially worked as a consultant on company pension schemes at Dr. Heubeck AG, an expert office for insurance and business mathematics. In 1989 he switched to the corporate world, and was subsequently responsible for domestic and international human resources management at Reemtsma Cigarettenfabriken GmbH and then at the Vorwerk Group.

Tran Huynh is a consultant at Hofmann Consultants GmbH. The focus of her consulting is on retail (multichannel, pure player), consumer goods (FMCG, SMCG) and professional services (strategy/management consulting). After studying for a degree in linguistics and sociology at the University of Bielefeld and training as a foreign trade clerk and foreign language correspondent, Tran initially worked in the field of international sales for a global industrial group for several years. Tran then completed a graduate diploma in International Business at the University of South Australia. She then moved across to a global executive search firm, where she successfully advised both international corporations and medium-sized companies on filling specialist and management positions. Tran has particular expertise in the areas of marketing/CRM/customer experience, corporate communication, human resources and in the appointment of managers with digital competence.

Jasmin Susur is a consultant at Hofmann Consultants GmbH. Her consulting focus is on retail (multichannel, pure player) and consumer goods (FMCG, SMCG). During her studies of Business Administration, Jasmin Susur gained her first professional experience with an executive search boutique focusing on Communication, Public Affairs, Investor Relations and Marketing and was significantly involved in the recruitment of specialists and executives. She has particular expertise in filling positions in the areas of Sales, Purchasing/Category Management, as well as in filling executive positions with digital expertise.