You are welcome to contact us:
Karsten Polthier
CEO / Chairman of the Board
Tel.: +49 211 – 86 20 29-0
Fax: +49 211 – 86 20 29-210
INNOFACTS
Interviews per year
Projects per year
Clients per year
Employees at three locations
Profile
Board
E-Mail Karsten Polthier
+49 211 86 20 29-0
Karsten Polthier
CEO /Chairman of the Board
Customer care, consulting, controlling, corporate strategy
Karsten Polthier (born 1963) studied business administration in Cologne (graduated in business administration with an honours master’s degree in summer 1990). Major fields of study were marketing, market research and psychology.
Already during his studies and subsequently, he was able to collect extensive experiences in different management consultations. Based on these experiences and contacts, Polthier Marktforschung & Marketingberatung was founded in Meerbusch in 1991. After nine years of successful consulting activities, he moved to INNOFACT AG in 2000 as Spokesman of the Management Board.
E-Mail Ralf Kahsmann
+49 211 86 20 29-0
Ralf Kahsmann
Member of the Board
IT, technical consulting
Ralf Kahsmann (born 1967) studied computer science and physics at the University of Osnabrück after completing secondary school. During his studies, he was already involved in the development and adaptation of statistical software. Ralf Kahsmann has extensive expert knowledge of software development, IT engineering, Internet, dynamic HTML, web-based database management and multivariate methods in social science research.
Partner
E-Mail Christian Thunig
+49 211 86 20 29-268
Christian Thunig
Managing Partner
Corporate communications, marketing, consulting
Christian Thunig is Managing Partner at INNOFACT AG. Prior to this, the business graduate spent 17 years at the Handelsblatt publishing group. Most recently, he was Editor-in-Chief and Project Manager of absatzwirtschaft – Zeitschrift für Marketing. He is on the editorial advisory board of the platform marktforschung.de and on the board of BVM, the Professional Association of German Market and Social Researchers.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
E-Mail Daniel Schwarz
+49 211 86 20 29-241
Daniel Schwarz
Partner / Unit Director
Daniel Schwarz is Partner and Unit Director. After graduating from the University of Trier with a degree in business administration with a focus on marketing and trade and a longer stay at a market research institute in Vancouver, Canada, he joined INNOFACT in 2007 and since 2010 has headed his own unit, which is at home in various industries ranging from FMCG and retail to system catering and medical technology.
E-Mail Dirk Bothe
+49 211 86 20 29-242
Dirk Bothe
Partner / Unit Director
Dirk Bothe is a partner and unit director. He studied ethnology and sociology at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Bonn. In 2007, he started as an analyst at INNOFACT and has been heading his own unit since 2014. His focus is on retail, FMCG and international tracking of customer satisfaction and brand strength. He supports clients such as REWE Group, Lekkerland SE and Peek & Cloppenburg.
E-Mail Tomislav Djoja
+49 211 86 20 29-238
Tomislav Djoja
Partner / Unit Director
Tomislav Djoja is Partner and Unit Director. He has been part of INNOFACT since graduating from the University of Bielefeld in 2007 with a degree in business administration, specialising in marketing and statistics. He is a proven expert in the fields of advertising research, preference measurement and price research. He has been heading his own unit since 2011 and successfully supports clients from sectors such as retail, FMCG and consulting.
E-Mail Marcel Küster
+49 211 86 20 29-237
Marcel Küster
Partner / Unit Director
Marcel Küster is Partner and Unit Director. After studying economics at the University of Wuppertal with a focus on “Methods of Empirical Economic and Social Research” and working at the chair of the same name, he joined INNOFACT in 2009 and has been leading his own unit since 2013, which focuses on telecommunications, digital, gaming & e-sports, retail, FMCG and customer research.
E-Mail Chris Schachinger
+49 211 86 20 29-253
Chris Schachinger
Partner / Unit Director
Chris Schachinger is a partner and unit director. He completed his diploma in work and organisational sociology at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main. He has been a consultant at INNOFACT since 2011, specialising in brand and sustainability research, tracking, FMCG and demanding target groups of all kinds. Previously he was at Millward Brown. He supports clients such as Nestlé Wagner, EY Parthenon, McKinsey & Comp. and Mondelez, Deutsches Milchkontor or Werner und Mertz.
E-Mail to Dr. Elena Sopelnikowa
+49 211 86 20 29-217
Dr. Elena Sopelnikova
Partner / Unit Director
Dr. Elena Sopelnikowa is a partner at INNOFACT. She has been with the company since 2004 and is Head of Analysis. Born in Ukraine, she studied “Applied Mathematics”. She came to Germany in 2001 and initially worked as a research assistant at the Center for Applied Psychology, Environmental and Social Research in Bochum.
E-Mail to Thorsten Dießner
+49 5481 902 811-111
Thorsten Dießner
Partner
Thorsten Dießner is a partner at INNOFACT. He joined the institute in 2021 and is Head of Programming and Innovation Development. The passionate software developer was previously Director Operations at Kantar, where he was responsible for the design of innovative survey modules and the development of dashboard frameworks in addition to managing the scripting and online technology teams. He was also co-founder of the Innovation Hub at KantarHealth.
Supervisory board
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Harald Jäger (Chairman), Director Client Services / Member of the Management Board HAVAS, Düsseldorf
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Dr. Ernest-W. Droege, Board Member and CEO Droege Group
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Thomas Flohr, Managing Partner Bernd Heuer & Partner Human Resources GmbH, Düsseldorf
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Christian Böllhoff, Managing Partner Prognos AG
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Holger Temmen