von Beust & Coll. Beratungsgesellschaft
Personal advice
Von Beust & Coll. Beratungsgesellschaft provides personalised strategy, communication and business advice for companies, associations and corporations. The consulting firm helps its clients position themselves in the political and economic space and communicate their concerns sustainably. When dealing with public authorities, politicians, the media and societal groups and in unique communication situations, the firm provides a reliable basis for decision-making and also offers strategic advice that lets its clients act with confidence.
Von Beust & Coll. was founded in December 2013 by Ole von Beust and partner Georg Ehrmann, with locations in Hamburg, Berlin and Brussels. In January 2017, Sebastian Frevel joined the consulting firm as managing partner. In January 2020 the managing partners broadened their range of services through an acquisition and now manage operations for their clients from permanent representative offices in Brussels and Berlin. Other shareholders are Tessa Rodewaldt and Dr. Nikolas Hill. Dr. Nikolas Hill has also been a managing partner since October 2023. Dr Martin Gerig has been a partner of von Beust & Coll. since 01.01.2024. Dr Michael Vesper is the head of our office in Cologne and has been a partner at von Beust & Coll. since 2018.
Von Beust & Coll. Beratungsgesellschaft relies on personal recommendations and takes on new advisory mandates only when a personal consultation by the managers or partners is guaranteed. The latter work closely with their clients and develop the right strategies together with them.
Political strategy and communications consultancy
The team of consultants support their clients in analysing, designing and implementing promising political strategies. The managers and partners broaden their clients’ networks and help to form new political and business relationships by personally reaching out to decision-makers at the state, national and EU level and maintaining permanent representative offices for their clients in Berlin and Brussels.
Their core business includes offering advice in unique situations and support in legislative processes, political analyses, stakeholder management and alliance-building, information procurement and the design of strategic and expedient event formats. When dealing in particular with critical situations and sensitive issues, the firm’s managers and partners offer support and advice for interactions with political stakeholder groups, NGOs and the public. For associations and alliances of interest groups, von Beust & Coll. offers comprehensive specialised operational and strategic management from foundation to branch administration from the “Capital City Office” on Unter den Linden in Berlin.
Business consultancy and investor assistance
Another point of focus is national and regional business consultancy and investor assistance. Analyses from von Beust & Coll. Beratungsgesellschaft give clients a detailed assessment of their political, business and media environment in order to allow them to make their business decisions. Von Beust & Coll. Beratungsgesellschaft support its clients by performing analyses, recommending strategies and facilitating their implementation in a number of situations, including in the run-up to setting up partnerships, establishing subsidiaries, transactions or filling top positions, location searches and forecasts concerning the feasibility of projects. Von Beust & Coll. also advise and support their clients in organising sales in the public sector.
With its contacts in the financial sector, the firm also specialises in supporting international investors and businesses to form new business relationships and establish their presence in Germany. It assists investors in implementing public projects. Classic fields of activity for our clients include dialogue with public authorities, organising citizen participation, accompanying media relations, setting up a specific network, and accessing the relevant stakeholders.
International business consultancy is provided by von Beust & Collegen International GmbH.
On-site presence: Hamburg, Berlin, Cologne & Brussels
The teams at the four locations cover all consulting services for strategy processes and support in special situations, from strategic consulting to research and analysis to complete project management.
Hamburg focuses on business consultancy and investor support given by Dr Nikolas Hill and Tessa Rodewaldt. They specialise in particular in the maritime sector. Dr Martin Gerig and Julia Lensing, among others, in the Berlin office focus on public affairs activities. The additional "capital city offices" on Unter den Linden are the headquarters of the associations and interest alliances represented by von Beust & Coll. The "capital city offices" are the permanent and professional representation for the clients. With Dr Michael Vesper, the firm is also represented in Cologne by a partner in North Rhine-Westphalia. In Brussels, the von Beust & Coll. consultancy firm with former EU parliamentarian Knut Fleckenstein and Matthias Spangenberg has expertise in European affairs and a close network in all major European institutions, including Strasbourg and Luxembourg. The Brussels office is also available to clients as a permanent representative office, allowing them to keep abreast of the European Union’s effects on the economy.
With their years of executive and parliamentary experience, the consulting firm’s managers and partners also have a substantial network at their disposal in many German states and an understanding of regional and local structures.
We advise you personally,
directly and credibly.
Founders & management
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Ole von Beust
Founder
Ole von Beust
Ole von Beust is a lawyer and founder of von Beust & Coll. Beratungsgesellschaft. From 1993 to 2001 he was the parliamentary leader in the Hamburg Parliament and from 2001 to 2010 was the First Mayor of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. Furthermore, he was also a member of the Federal Executive of the CDU in Germany. He has extensive media experience – especially in difficult situations. He is a member of the Advisory Board of Delta Management Consultants and member of the Sustainability Advisory Boards of ECE. Ole von Beust is also a member of the Supervisory Board of Novum Hospitality, Lauenburgische Treuhand AG and an Advisory Board member of a Hamburg Family Office. His detailed knowledge of political decision-making processes and his non-partisan approach to tackling problems provide him with access to the politically relevant camps.
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Tessa Rodewaldt
Shareholder
Tessa Rodewaldt
Tessa Rodewaldt (M.A., M.Sc.) is a political scientist and associate of von Beust & Coll. Beratungsgesellschaft. She studied at the University of Tübingen and the University of California at Berkeley as well as at the London School of Economics.
She entered the professional world as an advisor to a member of the British House of Commons. She has more than ten years of experience in strategic policy consulting and in working together with companies, associations and NGOs as well as with political decision-makers at the state, federal, and EU levels. Before that, she was responsible for working with international companies from the logistics and IT industries for a Berlin-based consulting agency and worked for one of the leading German healthcare companies as a lobbyist.
She worked for one of the leading public affairs agencies in London until 2009, where she was primarily responsible for mandates from the energy, water and technology sectors. Due to her extensive consultancy work, her strengths lie mainly in the development and implementation of effective political communication programs, strategy analysis, and the establishment and management of alliances/coalitions.
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Georg Ehrmann
Founder and partner
Georg Ehrmann
Georg Ehrmann, lawyer since 1997, works as a legal advisor for an Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians, 12 years as managing director of an NGO, expert on various committees at regional, federal and EU level, government adviser on the Federal Youth Advisory Board (BJK), consultant in the field of public affairs, strategy and crisis communication; he founded Beust & Coll. Beratungsgesellschaft with Ole von Beust in 2013, in addition he is inter alia the managing partner of Coll International GmbH, managing director of The Maritime Platform and National Director of CLIA in Germany.
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Sebastian Frevel
Managing Partner
Sebastian Frevel
Sebastian Frevel is Managing Partner of von Beust & Coll. Beratungsgesellschaft. An expert in corporate and public affairs, he has been advising companies and associations since 2004 and specialises in strategic representation of interests, political business reputation and stakeholder management. Another core focus of his work is organisational consultancy for associations and companies, for example, founding of an association, establishment of a representative office in the capital and public affairs structures in corporate groups.
Previously, he was responsible for the public affairs portfolio of Advicepartners GmbH as its Managing Director - a business consultancy for strategy and communications management in Berlin. The political scientist has been an assistant lecturer in public affairs at the Quadriga Hochschule Berlin since 2013.
He is, among other things, a member of de'ge'pol – the German Association of Political Consultants (‘Deutsche Gesellschaft für Politikberatung e.V.’) and the Society for the Study of Structural Political Issues (‘Gesellschaft zum Studium strukturpolitischer Fragen e.V.’) as well as founder of the ‘Hintergrundkreis’ (a select behind-the-scenes discussion group involving politicians and journalists) #Kabinett.
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Dr. Nikolas Hill
Managing Partner
Dr. Nikolas Hill
Dr. Nikolas Hill is an insurance broker, legal expert and partner at the consulting company of von Beust & Coll. Beratungsgesellschaft. From October 2004 to December 2005 he was an advisor to the deputy director of NDR. From 2006 until his appointment to the State Council (State Secretary), in his role as Senate Director he was Head of Planning at the Hamburg Senate Chancellery. From 15 March 2009 until the end of his service at the Hamburg Senate on January 1, 2017, Hill served in the cabinets of two mayors of Hamburg, Ole von Beust and Olaf Scholz – first as State Councillor of the Department for Culture, Sport and the Media, then of the Department for Justice and Equality. He was also the director of Hamburg’s application committee for the 2024 Olympic Games.
During this time, his roles included chairing or being a member of several supervisory bodies in the fields of business development, media and culture:
- Elbphilharmonie Bau KG
- ReGe Hamburg Projekt-Realisierungsgesellschaft mbH
- Hamburg Tourismus GmbH
- IBA Hamburg 2013
- IGS Hamburg 2013
- Filmförderung Hamburg/Schleswig-Holstein GmbH
- Hamburg Kreativ GmbH
- Hamburg Media School
- ZDF Television Council
- Deutschlandradio Radio Broadcasting Council
- Broadcasting Commission of the Länder
- Thalia Theater GmbH
- Deutsches Schauspielhaus GmbH
- Hamburg State Opera
- Kampnagel Internationale Kulturfabrik GmbH
- Hamburg Public Libraries
- Museum of Arts & Crafts
Dr. Hill also volunteers for various organisations, among others the Quadriga Hochschule in Berlin, where he is a mentor, and also serves as an advisory committee member for impct.help, on the board of trustees of the Regenbogenstiftung Hamburg, and as a member of the Wirtschaftsrat der CDU e.V. [Economic Council of the CDU].
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Dr. Michael Vesper
Partner
Dr. Michael Vesper
Dr. Michael Vesper has been a partner at von Beust & Coll. Beratungsgesellschaft since 1 September 2018. He has decades of political experience and an extensive network of contacts from the worlds of politics, sport and economics. He is a founding member of the party “Die Grünen” (The Green Party) and was Chief of the party from 1983 to 1990. From 1990 to 1995 he was Parliamentary Director of the state party, Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, in North Rhine Westphalia (NRW). As a member of NRW state government, Dr. Vesper led various departments between 1995 and 2005, until his final position as Minister for Urban Development, Housing, Culture and Sport. At the same time, he held the position of deputy state premier of North Rhine Westphalia under the direction of Johannes Rau, Wolfgang Clement and Peer Steinbrück. In 2006 Dr. Vesper became chairman of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB), a position he retired from at the end of 2017. Since 2018 he has been President of the Direktorium für Vollblutzucht und Rennen e. V. (Association for Thoroughbred Breeding and Racing) and is involved in several associations and initiatives including his roles as chair of Freunde und Förderer der RuhrTriennale e. V. (Friends and Sponsors of the RuhrTriennale), and advisor at Bonn Academy for Research and Teaching of Practical Politics (BAPP) and the German Committee for UNICEF.
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