Alexander Otto was born in Hamburg in 1967. After obtaining his international baccalaureate (IB) in Oxford, he studied at Harvard University and Harvard Business School. Otto took over various tasks at ECE as of 1994, in 2000 he was appointed Chief Executive Officer of ECE.

Under his leadership, ECE developed from the German to the European market leader in the shopping center sector and meanwhile operates its own projects in 17 countries with around € 26 billion assets under management. In addition, ECE has become a leading developer and service provider in the field of office and special-purpose properties.

Alexander Otto holds a seat on the supervisory boards of the otto group and DES Deutsche EuroShop AG and is also a member of the Advisory Board of Peek&Cloppenburg KG in Düsseldorf.

Otto chairs the International Council of Shopping Centres (ICSC) Europe as well as the Advisory Board of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Europe, and is board member of the Harvard Business School Foundation of Germany.

He is the initiator and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the "Lebendige Stadt" (“vibrant city”) Foundation, whose mission is to revitalize Europe's city centers, and of the “Alexander Otto Sportstiftung” Foundation, which funds youth sports and built a new ice hockey and ball game arena in Hamburg.

Furthermore, he supports the new youth training center of the Hamburger Sportverein (HSV) of which he was Supervisory Board Chairman. With the “Dorit und Alexander Otto” Foundation he supports in particular medical and cultural projects.

Gerhard L. Dunstheimer was born in Augsburg in1969. He completed a banking apprenticeship and studied economics at the WHU Koblenz, the LUISS Rome, the PennState University Philadelphia and the University St. Gallen.

After the completion of his studies, he started as Management Consultant at INTES Zürich in 1996. In 1998 he was appointed Assistant of the ECE CEO. After holding executive positions in the Leasing division, he was appointed Deputy Managing Director in the Development division in 2004. In 2006 he assumed overall responsibility for this division.

In 2009, Gerhard L. Dunstheimer was also appointed Deputy CEO is furthermore Vice Chairman in the ULI Executive Committee Germany.

Dr. Lothar Kappich was born in Celle in 1957. He completed an apprenticeship as Industrial Manager and studied Economics and Business Administration at the University of Hannover, where he was also working as Research Assistant at the Institute for Quantitive Economic Research (section “International Economics”).

After his doctorate, he joined the Executive Board “Central Controlling” at Schering AG in Berlin. In 1990, he came to ECE as Assistant of the Chairman of the Management Board. One of his most important projects included the development and privatization of Leipzig’s main train station. 

In 1995 he became Deputy Managing Director IT and Organization, since 1998 he has been Managing Director HR & Corporate Services (Legal, Coporate Insurance Management, IT, General Administration, Organizational Development).

Josip Kardun was born in Split in 1974. He studied at the Goethe University in Frankfurt. 

In 2000, he was appointed State Secretary in the Ministry of Economics of the Republic of Croatia. In 2001, he joined Sonae Sierra Management Germany as General Manager, where he was responsible for the center management and leasing in Germany and the neighboring countries.

In 2007, he came as Managing Director to ECE Projektmanagement International GmbH. Since 2009 he has been Deputy Managing Director Development of the ECE Group. In this function he is mainly responsible for ECE’s M&A business as well as the entry in new countries. Since 2012 he has also been ECE's Chief Investment Officer.

Josip Kardun is Chairman of the Next Generation Advisory Group of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC).

Henrie W. Kötter was born in Bünde in 1974. He completed a banking apprenticeship and studied international business economics at the European Business School with semesters at the Universidad Argentina de la Empresa in Argentina and the Richard Ivey School of Business in Canada.

After the completion of his studies, he started as Business Development Manager at SNAZ Commerce Solutions in 2000. In 2001 he became Management Consultant at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants in Hamburg.

In 2004, Henrie W. Kötter joined ECE as Development Manager. From 2006 to 2009, he established the Bulgarian ECE subsidiary as Managing Director. In 2009, he became Deputy Managing Director Center Management and resumed overall responsibility for the portfolio business in the Management Board of the ECE Group in 2011.

Markus Lentzler was born in Pinneberg in 1960. He studied architecture at the Hannover University.

After the completion of his studies he was working as Architect in the offices Schweger and Partner, as well as Schramm, von Bassewitz, Hupertz and Partner in Hamburg. In 1992 he joined ECE as Project Leader.

After several executive functions in Germany he became Deputy Managing Director Construction International in 2006. Since 2009 he has been responsible for the Architecture division at ECE.

Jens-Ulrich Maier was born in Leisnig in 1957. He completed an apprenticeship as construction worker and studied at the Construction Engineering Institute in Moscow.

After he completed his studies he was working in different functions in the former state enterprise “Research and Projecting” in Cottbus. In 1991, he joined ECE as Project Leader.

After various executive positions, he was appointed Deputy Managing Director Construction in 1999. From 2000 to 2009 he was as Managing Director Construction responsible for construction management and architecture at ECE, since 2009 he has been responsible for the national and international construction activities as Managing Director Construction.

Moreover, he supports the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg as member of the Supervisory Board of the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg Bau GmbH & Co KG.

Dr. Andreas Mattner was born in Gelsenkirchen in 1960. He studied law and politics at the Westfälische Wilhelms University Münster and was working as Research Assistant and Managing Director at their Institute for Administrative Law.

After the two state examinations and his doctorate, he became Research Assistant of the Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry for Construction. In 1993 he joined ECE, first as Director PR and Acquisition, later as Managing Director of several subsidiaries. Since 2006 he has been Managing Director Office, Traffic, Industries & Corporate Communications.

Dr. Andreas Mattner is active in the Supervisory and Advisory Boards of Hamburg Volksbank, DSK Deutsche Stadt- und Grundstücksgesellschaft mbH, Hamburger Hochbahn AG, and Bilfinger Berger Hochbau GmbH.

Apart from his professional work, he was working for many years in the Hamburg regional parliament. Moreover, he is among others the CEO of the “Lebendige Stadt” foundation, President of the Hamburg Freezers, executive member and Treasurer of the German Economic Council, member of the Management Board of the BDI (Federation of German Industries), as well as President of the ZIA (central real estate commission for Germany).

Claudia Plath was born in 1971 in Freital near Dresden. She studied business administration at the Technical University Berlin and parallel to her studies worked at Bayerische Immobilienverwaltung in Berlin.

1996 she joined ECE as Controller. After three years in a team leader position she was responsible as Director for the controlling of the property companies and ECE as of 2004. Afterwards she was responsible as Senior Director Asset Management for the commercial control and support of all national and international shopping centers.

Since 2013, Plath has been Managing Director Finance and heads the sections Asset Management, Corporate Finance, Accounting & Controlling as well as ECE’s risk management.

Klaus Striebich was born in Adelsheim in 1967. After he completed his business economics studies with focus on trade at the University of Cooperative Education in Mosbach, he started his career as Assistant of the Management Board at the Kriegbaum Group Böblingen.

In 1992, he joined ECE as Leasing Manager, in 1998 he became the youngest Director and in 2001 Deputy Managing Director. In 2003 he assumed overall responsibility for the Leasing division.

As Board member of the German Council of Shopping Centers and author of numerous articles he argues for the further development of his industry and claims to never lose sight of the customer.