Our Team
Who we are
Dr. Axel Sommer
Axel Sommer is a Partner & Managing Director at SOMMERRUST. He developed the academic foundation for the "Business Model Waves" framework and is a topic expert for strategic management, business model design, organization and innovation management.
Frank Rust
Frank Rust is a Partner & Managing Director at SOMMERRUST. He is an expert for Design Thinking, Digital Technologies and Entrepreneurship. His particular interest lies in generating insights about customer needs, which are the basis for every successful business model.
Marius Schmidt
Marius Schmidt is an Innovation Director at SOMMERRUST. As part of the team, he focuses on Design Thinking to solve business challenges and combines it with the latest scientific and entrepreneurial trends.
Nina Kremser
Nina Kremser is a Senior Innovation Consultant at SOMMERRUST. In addition to classic user-centric innovation methods, her key focus is developing and validating new business models and strategies with our clients. She is also part of our scenario and future foresight team.
Eva-Maria Markutzik
Eva-Maria Markutzik is a Senior Innovation Consultant at SOMMERRUST. She is an innovation expert in the fields of biotech, medtech and digital health. She combines her communication and design skills with experience in entrepreneurship and marketing.
Claire Afdzaludin
Claire Afdzaludin is an Innovation Consultant at SOMMERRUST. As an innovation expert, she accompanies sustainable and technological transformation processes with an interdisciplinary perspective. She combines her passion for sustainability with experience in organizational development.
ChatGPT
ChatGPT supports us as an Artificial Innovation Analyst. She conducts trend research and enriches any innovation team with her expertise about every imaginable industry. While she is not always right and still has a lot to learn, she gets smarter by the day.
Jochen Gürtler
Jochen Gürtler is an expert for Design Thinking and modern methods for software development. He co-authored the book „30 Minuten Design Thinking“, worked for the d.school in Potsdam and supports our projects with his extensive skills and knowledge on innovation.
Tim Kunde
Tim Kunde is a Co-Founder and Managing Director of Friendsurance, an innovative startup in the insurance market. He is a member of the Advisory Board of SOMMERRUST. We benefit from his experience in managing digital startups and his knowledge about the latest innovation methods.
Sebastian Kemmler
Sebastian Kemmler is co-founder and Strategic Director at the creative agency KEMMLER KEMMLER. He works with international clients mainly in the fashion industry and complements our Advisory Board with his expertise in digital marketing, design and branding.
Matthias Wolff
Matthias Wolff is a Co-Founder and part of the management team of LUPUS-Electronics. As a member of our Advisory Board, he contributes his expertise in the Internet of Things (IoT) and home automation as well as his experience in how to start and scale a new company.