Frank MerkelMember of the sovanta AG Supervisory Board

In April 1973, Frank Merkel founded WOB Werbeagentur GmbH in parallel to the study of business management at the University of Mannheim and graduated with a MBA in 1978.

He has been working as a strategy consultant for external and internal communication since 1983.

From 1990 to 2000, Merkel was a member of the executive board of the “Gesamtverband Werbeagenturen” (GWA) in Frankfurt. There he was responsible for the department “Future Leader and Qualification”.

In addition, Merkel took over various teaching assignments at the University of Mannheim and since 1995 has been a regular supervisor of practice-oriented diploma at various universities and colleges. Since 1998, he has also been a co-operation partner of Professor Dr. Klaus-Peter Wiedmann at the University of Hanover at the Chair for Marketing II in the field of innovative scientific projects for market research.

From 1998 to 2010, Merkel was the initiator and motor of the “Renaissance of the Baroque Castle” sponsored by the University of Mannheim. Since summer 2000, he has also been an honorary senator of the University of Mannheim and was from 2008 to 2012 the president of the graduate network “AbsolventUM” of the University of Mannheim, the largest alumni organization in Germany.

In the period of January 2001 to December 2014, Merkel belonged to the Management Board of wob AG, which had been reorganized. Since January 2015, he has been the chairman of the supervisory board of wob consult AG.

Furthermore, in the years 2008 to 2015 Merkel returned as a member of the executive board of the GWA and was also spokesman of the owner-managed agencies and the B-to-B agencies´ forum.

His personal interests include family, travel, photography, theology and philosophy.