Michael Merten Board Member Financing & Fundraising   Speaker/Board Member Global Wealth Initiative Wiesbaden, Germany

From 1979-1990 Michael developed a number of aid projects in Kenya. The first was an economic development initiative, the opening of Robinson Baobab, Germany’s first retail outlet for merchandise from Turkana on Lake Victoria. Upon meeting his wife in East Africa, he moved to Kenya where he spent the next ten years. Here his two children were born. During that time, he helped start a manufacturing facility that is still producing sisal bags today. This was the first women’s aid project in Turkana. Michael also actively su pported the Daphne Sheldrick Foundation and George Adamson’s famous “Born Free” project. As an entrepreneur, Michael established both Eric`s Butchery and McIntyre Associates, a financial consultancy in Nairobi. A special highlight during this period was catering for the film “Out of Africa”.

After leaving Africa in 1990, Michael worked for Wintershall, a German gas pipeline company with extensive business in Houston, Hong Kong and Singapore. He was responsible for purchasing equipment to refurbish the East German pipelines. Beginning in 1993, Michael spent the next three years as a Managing Director of a Chapter 11 company to stabilize and reorganize it. The reorganized company had real estate trust funds with a value of 670 million Euros. In 1996, Michael opened a building company specializing in the renovation of 17th and 18th century houses.

In 2001, Michael founded the ongoing Little League Baseball Germany NCO, and continues serving as the Chairman of the Board. From 2000 to 2004, Michael served on the International Board of Directors of Little League Baseball, Williamsport, PA. Michael was responsible for Little League Baseball in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The South African Government adopted Little League Baseball as part of the sports curriculum in their schools during this period.

Since 2002, Michael is a Managing Partner of IPC SA, Luxemburg, which su pplies business exit strategies to large companies like Volkswagen, Adidas and SAP.