Luxury advice

An international team of advisors whose expertise allows us to excell in our ventures

Harald R. Fortmann

Harald R. Fortmann (38) has worked in the Digital Economy since 1996. After working as an entrepreneur for 7 years in the Mobile Industry, focusing on Mobile Data Applications, he started to work for 24/7 Real Media (now a WPP company), an American Adserving- and Search-Engine-Marketing company, in September 2002, where he introduced their Search-Engine-Marketing Solutions and Services into the European market. As of March 2003 he also led their German Business unit as Managing Director and increased their revenue and profitability significantly. During this time Harald employed several juniors and job beginners and trained them to become highly recognized internet professionals on the German market. Most of them are in leading roles at major companies such as Google, Microsoft, AOL and others.

In September 2006 Harald moved on to head up the German business of Advertising.com, the global leader for Performance Marketing Solutions.

In this role he restructured the company and positioned it as the leading Ad Network in Germany. In June 2008 he successfully merged the businesses of AOL Deutschland Medien GmbH and Advertising.com Germany GmbH to form Platform-A Germany GmbH, one of the leading Sales House in Germany, leading to higher profitabilty.

Besides his business activities, Harald has led the Bundesverband Digitale Wirtschaft (BVDW) e.V. – the German equivalent of the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) – since 2005 and is responsible for the Performance Marketing, Education, Event and Market research departments.  Furthermore he led the BVDW Performance Marketing Board, which he founded in 2005, until end of February 2009, and per request of the board members will stay in the leadership team for further 2 years as deputy. The working group Search Engine Marketing belonging to the Performance Marketing Board was additionally led by him from March 2004 to December 2006.

To end with, Harald is lecturer, examiner and member of the Advisory Board and Co-Initiator for the course of study entitled „Fachwirt Online Marketing“ at the Deutsche Dialog Akademie (DDA). Harald is also on the Advisory Board of different Start-Up companies and events within the Digital Marketing landscape.

Gertrudis Alarcon Tena

Gertrudis Alarcon contributes to our Advisory Board with over 10 years of experience at Kroll, were she served as Managing Director for Spain and Portugal. Kroll is the world’s leading risk consulting company. For more than 30 years, Kroll has been helping companies, government agencies and individuals reduce their exposure to risk and capitalize on business opportunities. Kroll is an operating unit of Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc., the global professional services company.

With offices in more than 65 cities in the U.S. and abroad, Kroll can scrutinize accounting practices and financial documents, gather and filter electronic evidence for attorneys, recover lost or damaged data from computers and servers, conduct in-depth investigations, screen domestic and foreign-born job candidates, protect individuals, and enhance security systems and procedures.

Mrs. Alarcon Tena is a Certified Fraud Examiner with a broad know-how about internal fraud investigations, litigation support, assest search, Due Diligence, Competitive Intelligence, and Business Intelligence.

Pedro Alberto Gómez

Based in Madrid, Pedro Gómez has been working as Director of Innovation at PriceWatherhouseCoopers for the past 12 years.

From 1996-1999 Pedro was Demand Flow Specialist at General Electric. Prior to that he was President at AIESEC for over 6 years.

He holds an Innovation Certificate from the MIT, a philosphy degree from the Universidad Pontificia de Madrid, an EDP in Business Administration and an Executive MBA from ESADE Business School, a Master in Information Systems and Technology from Instituto de Empresa Business School and a Economics degree from UOC.

Yann Mauchamp

Currently located in Paris, France, Yann is an Internet entrepreneur, business angel and board advisor, working closely wth the innovative leaders of tomorrow and their investors.

Yann is running the French operations of Cercle des Investisseurs Privés (ex-Brains-to-Ventures SA), lead investors network, and the french operations of the e-commerce website BLACKSOCKS, “The Sockscription Company”. Yann is the founder and CEO of Mutual Benefits, a business advisory network dedicated to start-ups and their investors.

Yann was the Executive Director of the Web & Communities Summit (European TechTour Association) organised in Montreux late 2007 and Member of the Selection Comittee of the French TechTour 2009.

He has previously initiated, managed and advised companies such as XING/openBC, FON, amiando, PAY.ON, ProjectPlace, Club-Internet (ISP sold to T-Online), Studio Grolier (web agency) andNewsAlert/Inlumen (CMS sold to Dow Jones). Yann holds a Master of International Affairs Management.