Rolf Hilchner

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Rolf Hilchner (* April 29, 1956) is a German entrepreneur in the IT industry. He founded the internationally successful software company Ashampoo. He was also involved in the founding of CleverReach, a solution provider for e-mail marketing. Today, Hilchner is a member of the supervisory board of these two companies together with Heinz-Wilhelm Bogena. The two entrepreneurs also manage their co-founded service for various web portals, Deutschland Digital.

Early years and education Rolf Hilchner went to the Goethestraße elementary school in Mettmann,North Rhine-Westphalia until the age of ten. Then he went to Konrad-Heresbach High School until 1972 (also in Mettmann). Hilchner completed a two-year apprenticeship as a tax assistant until 1974, and afterwards visited the Friedrich-Spee-Kolleg in Neuss, Nordrhein-Westfalen, from 1976 to the end of 1978, where he completed his A-levels. The following year, Hilchner began studying sports at the German Sport University in Cologne, where he completed his intermediate diploma. In 1980, Hilchner went to the University of Applied Sciences in Düsseldorf to study business administration. He successfully completed his studies in 1984 with a diploma in business administration. During this time, Hilchner also absolved a half-year internship at the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM). He also studied economics for two trimesters at Loughborough University in England in 1981/82. After graduating, the 28-year-old Hilchner went straight into self-employment with the founding of GFA Systemtechnik in Düsseldorf. He stayed on as managing director of this company until 1989. In October 1989 he founded the company HILCHNER Daten & Medien, which he called his own for ten years. While he was managing director of the BHV Publishing Group from February 1991 to September 1993, Hilchner gained the necessary experience to launch his own book publishing company, HILCHNER & LESANI Publishing, in 1996.

Professional career In 1999, Rolf Hilchner founded the software company Ashampoo, which was added to by Heinz-Wilhelm Bogena as a further managing partner on November 1, 2004. He held the position of Chief Financial Officer (CFO) until the two entrepreneurs transferred the management of the company to Sebastian Schwarz (CEO) and Jens Klibingat (CFO) in 2012. Hilchner and Bogena continue to serve on Ashampoo's supervisory board. Hilchner's vision was to use his company to produce software for consumer as well as business needs that is easy to understand and use. Ashampoo's portfolio now includes numerous software applications for Windows to multimedia applications. The software company's first product was Ashampoo Uninstaller, which Hilchner promoted with the words "It cleans your Windows like a shampoo." In an interview, Hilchner jokingly cited this fact as the reason for naming the company. Ashampoo primarily uses its own channels as direct sales platforms. "The consistent renunciation of specialized trade has also helped us to succeed. From the very beginning, Ashampoo has avoided cardboard boxes and expensive storage space in retail stores. Our software is available to download around the clock on our websites,", says Hilchner. Ashampoo has more than 55 full-time employees who take care of more than 23 million registered users. In altogether, the company records 170 million installations.

In spring 2017, those responsible announced that Ashampoo GmbH & Co. KG will move into a new office building in Rastede - together with CleverReach GmbH & Co. KG. This new building is worth more than nine million euros.

In 2007, Hilchner officially founded CleverReach together with Heinz-Wilhelm Bogena,. The software can be used by companies as "Software as a Service" (SaaS) for their email marketing. Today, CleverReach has a total of 160,000 customers in 152 countries and more than 200 million emails sent per month. Like Ashampoo, Hilchner and his partner Bogena also worked on the supervisory board of CleverReach until 2016, after they transferred the management to Christian Schmidt and Jens Klibingat in October 2015.

Other companies founded by the two shareholders Hilchner and Bogena are Hilchner & Bogena Geschäftsführungs GmbH Oldenburg (founded March 21, 2012) and Hilchner & Bogena Beteiligungs GmbH (founded January 10, 2000; previously Hilchner & Lesani GmbH). For Hilchner & Bogena Beteiligungs GmbH, the entrepreneurs have no longer been managing directors since July 6, 2012.

Hilchner's latest project is Deutschland Digital GmbH & Co KG, which he has also been managing with Heinz-Wilhelm Bogena since its founding on September 6, 2013. Deutschland Digital is a superordinate brand of many online portals in the fields of news, dating platforms, travel and information about animals. A well-known example here is, for example, the partner platform olado (formerly Mollipartner and Oldiepartner).In 2016, Deutschland Digital acquired DownloadMix GmbH & Co. KG from Ashampoo. In addition to a software catalog with more than 15,000 products, this portal also includes the website www.software-des-monats.de ("Software Of The Month"), where high-quality software packages are offered every month.

In addition to the companies in the software sector, the entrepreneurs Rolf Hilchner and Heinz-Wilhelm Bogena also manage companies and portals on the topics of automobiles (Carshampoo, Netcar.de), aircraft (Airshampoo) and real estate (H & B Immobilien).

Controversies In the past, Hilchner has succeeded in creating attention for his companies through unusual PR strategies. In 2005, for example, Bogena and him placed a full-page ad in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), addressing German politicians in a critical and attacking manner. In the ad, the entrepreneurs integrated a link to the thematically appropriate campaign page on the Ashampoo website. In further PR campaigns, Hilchner got Bogena as Ashampoo's chief financial officer to donate his Porsche to help finance a new stadium for the VfB Oldenburg soccer club or tried to buy two mountaintops. These were to be named after Hilchner's company Ashampoo.

Hilchner also made a name for himself in earlier years. The entrepreneur published with the publishing house HILCHNER & LESANI Publishing a book by the kidnapper and millionaire extortionist Dieter Zlof. In 1976, Zlof kidnapped Richard Oetker Richard Oetker, the entrepreneur and son of the well-known manufacturer Rudolf-August Oetker. Although Hilchner described the book as a "contemporary document of criminal history," he did not at all praise the act.

Interesting facts - Hilchner likes to take new and sometimes unusual ways with his companies. For example, he initiated a TV commercial for the email marketing service provider CleverReach and convinced Ashampoo to introduce a corporate blog. - Furthermore, the entrepreneur is committed to income-independent education. Ashampoo, CleverReach and Deutschland Digital enabled three students to receive scholarships for a private school in Wildeshausen in 2016. In this way, the companies contributed to making this type of education accessible to all students, regardless of their parents' income.

References

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