Hans Werner Reinhard to Resign from his Position as Operating Managing Director at Messe Düsseldorf

Reinhard's family life focus will shift to Southern Germany
Lord Mayor Geisel thanks Reinhard for 18 years in the service of Messe Düsseldorf

Credit: Messe Düsseldorf/Andreas Wiese

Hans Werner Reinhard, Operating Managing Director at Messe Düsseldorf, informed the Supervisory Board of Messe Düsseldorf, Friday, 28 June 2019, that he will be resigning from all his functions as of 31 December 2019. The background to this personal decision is that Hans Werner Reinhard and his family will be moving to Southern Germany. His wife will assume responsibility for her father's company, which was founded in 1776 and is now in its seventh generation. Hans Werner Reinhard will follow his wife to Southern Germany, support her in her new job and reorient his career.

Lord Mayor Thomas Geisel, who is Chairman of the Supervisory Board at Messe Düsseldorf GmbH, regrets this decision: "I would like to thank Mr Reinhard for his extraordinary commitment to Messe Düsseldorf and for his loyalty. He learned the trade fair business from scratch and, in addition to further developing the trade fair portfolio in Düsseldorf, he has successfully expanded the trade fair business in China since 2010. Of course, I respect his personal decision, as much as I regret it. The trade fair company will miss him."

Werner M. Dornscheidt, CEO of Messe Düsseldorf: "Hans Werner Reinhard has been by my side jointly shaping this company for 16 years now. Together, we have further developed our leading international trade fairs and made them what they are today. In addition, we have successfully placed new trade fairs on the market. Hans Werner Reinhard's initiatives, his entrepreneurial spirit and his perseverance have made a decisive contribution to Messe Düsseldorf's success today. I personally also regret his departure – after all, we have been working together since 1999 and were also together at Leipziger Messe. I wish him all the best for the future".

Hans Werner Reinhard makes it clear that this step was not an easy one for him to take: “I am giving up a position that is a dream job for many and also for me. Serving one of the world's top ten trade fair companies as a Managing Director is hard to beat. This decision was not an easy one because Messe Düsseldorf played a major role in my professional development," says Reinhard, and goes on to say: "The DNA of Messe Düsseldorf has always given me moments of happiness that made it easy to be part of a big family. Anyone who knows me knows that this family idea is one I hold dear and also cultivate in my private life. My wife has followed me on my professional path for the past 20 years, now I plan to follow her."

Hans Werner Reinhard is responsible for the corporate development and market research departments as well as for the leading international trade fairs boot (water sports), drupa (printing), ENERGY STORAGE EUROPE (energy storage), EuroShop and EuroCIS (retail), interpack/components for processing and packaging (packaging industry), ProWein (wine) and its worldwide spin-offs.

During his studies of International Business Administration at the European Business School in Oestrich-Winkel, the University of California in Berkeley, USA and the Universidad Argentina de la Empresa in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Hans Werner Reinhard's major interest was international trade fair management in theory and practice. Trade fairs was the subject of his two dissertations for the degrees of Dipl.-Betriebswirt in 1996 and Diplom-Kaufmann in 1997. Already as a student he worked for the former NOWEA (Nordwestdeutsche Ausstellungsgesellschaft) in Düsseldorf and its subsidiary Dusseldorf Trade Shows in Chicago.

He began his professional career at the former Messe Düsseldorf International GmbH as part of the contract project for the operation of the German Pavilion at EXPO 2000 in Hanover. In 1999 Reinhard moved to Leipziger Messe GmbH, where he soon became Head of the Management Affairs Department, and from 2000 was also Head of the Protocol Department and from 2001 Project Manager for two trade fair events. On 1 January 2004, Reinhard was appointed to the management of Messe Düsseldorf GmbH as Head of Communications and Authorised Signatory. On 1 January 2007 Reinhard took over as Division Director of  Domestic Trade Fairs II, with a major focus on capital goods trade fairs.

Reinhard has been a member of the Board of Management at Messe Düsseldorf since 1 June 2010 – initially as a deputy member of the Board of Management and since 1 October 2014 as Operating Managing Director. He is Chairman of the Board of Directors at Messe Düsseldorf China Ltd., Hong Kong and Messe Düsseldorf Shanghai Ltd., Shanghai as well as Member of the Board at Messe Düsseldorf Asia Ltd., Singapore and Messe Düsseldorf Japan Ltd., Tokyo. Reinhard represents Messe Düsseldorf on the Supervisory Board of Düsseldorf Congress GmbH. He is also a lecturer for trade fair, congress and event management at the Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences (HSD) and a member of the Board of Trustees and the University Council of his Alma Mater, the EBS University in Wiesbaden.

Reinhard is married with three daughters.

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  JPG   CV Hans Werner Reinhard

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The Messe Düsseldorf Group:

With a revenue of around EUR 294m in 2018, the Messe Düsseldorf Group has maintained its position as one of Germany’s most successful trade fair companies. 26,800 exhibitors presented their products to 1.14m trade visitors at events in Düsseldorf last year. Compared with previous events, this was an increase in the numbers of both exhibitors and visitors. The Düsseldorf exhibition centre hosts around 50 trade fairs in five sectors of expertise: machinery, plants and equipment; the retail trade, trades and services; medicine and healthcare; lifestyle and beauty; and leisure. The trade fairs include 22 proprietary number-one trade fairs, as well as, currently, 15 robust partner and guest events. Also, its subsidiary Düsseldorf Congress held around 2,200 conventions, corporate events, conferences and meetings in 2018, attracting around 1.6m delegates in all. In addition, the Messe Düsseldorf Group organises 70 proprietary events, joint events and contracted events in other countries and is one of the leading export platforms in the world. The international attendance is particularly high with the capital goods trade fairs of Messe Düsseldorf GmbH. In 2018, Messe Düsseldorf's proprietary events in machinery, plants and equipment attracted approx. 77% international exhibitors and 70% trade visitors from other countries. In all, Düsseldorf trade fairs were attended by customers from about 180 countries. The group runs a global network of 77 international offices for 141 countries, including 7 international subsidiaries.