With Ingo Egloff retiring as board member on 31 March, the association is modifying its organisational structure. Port of Hamburg Marketing, HHM for short, is revising both operational and organisational matters within the association.
Ingo Egloff has been shaping and developing Port of Hamburg Marketing alongside Axel Mattern since 1 January, 2014. After his time as member of the Bundestag, he was able to utilize his valuable network to direct political attention towards not only the Port of Hamburg but the maritime industry, important infrastructure projects and other German ports.
A fine example of this is the „Hafenfrühstück“ – or Port Breakfast, a regular event for politicians at the Hamburg State Representation in Berlin. In March, we celebrated the 55th Hafenfrühstück. “With his creativity, determination and persuasiveness, Ingo Egloff repeatedly succeeded in highlighting the advantages of the Port of Hamburg in the global supply chain – a vital aspect when it comes to the distribution of federal funds for infrastructure projects. We will miss him,” says Axel Mattern, who will serve as sole board member in the future.

New business set-up
The Executive Board is led by Axel Mattern, while Kerstin Pfietzmann holds responsibility for finance and administration. Mathias Schulz and Bengt van Beuningen are in charge of marketing, communication and strategy. “Due to the experiences gathered during the pandemic and the accompanying new, broader fields of activity, a reorientation of our organisational structure was very important. Additionally, we are ensuring a smooth transition that goes hand in hand with personnel changes. With the changes now made in close consultation with our association committees, we are readying/preparing Port of Hamburg Marketing very well for future challenges,” says Axel Mattern.
The representative offices will continue to work independently under the guidance of the Hamburg head office. Axel Mattern will supervise the activities of the DACH-region, including Germany South, Germany West, Germany East, Switzerland and Austria. Other representative offices report to department heads. The offices in China and India, for example, will be managed by Mathias Schulz and Inga Gurries while Marina Basso Michael will be acting as Regional Director Europe overseeing Scandinavia, the Baltics, as well as Eastern Europe and the Baltic Sea region. There continues to be a very close exchange and strong cooperation between HHM and the representative offices.
The Projects department at HHM, which also has a strong international orientation, is led by Stefan Breitenbach. With his team, he manages EU projects, member projects and nationally funded projects. Bengt van Beuningen is responsible for press relations and publications in the communications department, which has been reorganised since October 2021. Mathias Schulz is in charge of digital and live communications including social media and video formats, trade fairs and events. Jochen Wischhusen oversees HHM’s website and the entire technology in the areas of IT, studio, filming and post-production. The market research activities, which are important for all HHM activities, are directly controlled by the executive board.
More than 40 employees at a total of 12 locations in Germany and abroad work at Port of Hamburg Marketing. As an association under private law, HHM is responsible for the marketing of the Port of Hamburg as a business location, for its partners and ports along the transport chain, and for the approximately 280 member companies.