FOUNDER & PARTNER TREUGAST SOLUTIONS GROUP

Prof. Dr. h.c. Gerhard founded TREUGAST Solutions Group over 35 years ago and currently acts as the managing owner of the mother company, Solutions Holding.

In addition to TREUGAST, Solutions Holding has investments in innovative hotel groups such as 25hours Hotels as well as traditional businesses such as Arcona Hotels, Fidelity Hotels and other hotel businesses.

With over 40 years of consulting experience in the tourism industry and as a certified rating advisor, he is an acknowledged industry expert, especially in Central Europe.

He started his career in 1974 with an apprenticeship in hotel management. After a couple of years of practical experience in the hospitality business, he started his academic studies in business administration. Within this period, he quickly identified the need for impartial and highly specialized advisory services.

Because of his expert knowledge, Prof. Gerhard became a resident professor for the Hospitality Development department at the FHM University of Applied Sciences. Furthermore, he has been an active member of the hotel and tourism industry for several decades spearheading the foundation of FBMA e.V. (Food & Beverage Management Association e.V. – the national association of executives in the hospitality industry).

In honour of his outstanding performance in the hotel industry, Stephan Gerhard, as the managing director of TREUGAST Solutions Group, received “The special Hotelier of the Year Award” in 2011 from the German specialist publisher AHGZ. In addition, TREUGAST Solutions Group was the first consulting company worldwide to receive the Star Diamond Award from the American Academy of Hospitality Sciences. 2019 Prof. Stephan Gerhard was awarded by the state University Shota Rustaveli of Batumi the title of Honorary Doctor (Dr. h.c.).

Qualifications

1973 German Baccalaureate

1974 - 1977 Apprenticeship in hotel management

1979 - 1982 Academic study: Business Administration Degree: Diploma graduate of Business Administration

Experience (selected examples)

1977 - 1979 Management functions in hospitality business

1982 - 1985 Junior consultant/ consultant at bbg consulting GmbH

1985 - 1988 Managing partner at K&P Consulting GmbH (junior partner)

1988 - 2015 CEO of TREUGAST Unternehmensberatungsgesellschaft mbH

2005 - Present Founder & CEO of Solutions Holding GmbH

Lectureship

1986 - 2015: Lecturer at the University of Cooperative Education and DHBW (Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University), Germany

2007 - Present: Lecturer for the MBA course on International Real Estate Management at the Bauakademie Biberach, Germany

2010 - Present: Ordinary professor of Hospitality Development at the FHM University of Applied Science

2018 - Present: Ordinary professor at the Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University

Publications

• Investment Ranking Germany and Austria
• Hospitality Trend Survey
• Health Resort Industry Report
• Hotel-Investment-Attractiveness-Index
• Benchmark Survey International
• Benchmark Survey National

•            Book chapters:

  o   - Successful entrepreneurship in the hospitality- 2007

  o   - International real estate – success parameters for investments in Chinese hospitality industry- 2006
  

  o   - Tourism lexicon-2006

  o   -  Architecture and Tourism- 2007
  

  o   -Tourism, Hospitality und Gastronomy - From A to Z- 2020
  

  o   -Hospitality Development – Successful plan and implement of hotel project-2020

 FORMER TOURISM MINISTER OF EGYPT

Following his departure from public office in 2016, Zaazou returned to the private sector as a consultant, working with a number of prestigious international and local organizations. He was appointed as the special advisor for the Secretary-General of the UNWTO (UN World Tourism Organization) in October 2017.

Zaazou holds the following positions:

•  Chairman of Marina Management Company (a multi-billion-dollar investment company in the Egyptian Mediterranean coast)
• Board member of Orascom Holding (ODE), owner of the famous El Gouna Development
• Tourism advisor for Sabbour Group in Oman
• Board member of the newly formed Egyptian Council for Tourism Affairs (think tank)
• Governor and Board Member of the Mediterranean Tourism Foundation (MTF) in Malta
• Former advisor to Marriott Group Egypt and St. Regis Cairo
• Advisor to MC Group
• PR consultant for the German government
• Board member of the Faculty of Tourism at Fayum University
• Board member of Domino Coral Bay Sharm el Sheikh
• Chairman of Z-Solutions LTD in Egypt[
• Founder and partner of Firstnote GmbH in Berlin
• Advisor to MC Group; PR consultant to the German government

Education

• In addition to his Bachelor of Commerce in Accounting from the University of Ain Shams in Cairo, Zaazou earned a specialized certificate in Public–Private Partnership (PPP) from Harvard Kennedy Business School.

• He earned an MBA and PhD from the International Business Academy (IBA) in Delaware, US (Verification Code: PHD00012407EGY).

Zaazou, who has attended many seminars and workshops locally, regionally and internationally in the field of tourism, was the first Egyptian travel pioneer to specialize in green tourism projects and the first to head the Green Tourism Unit at the Ministry of Tourism. In addition to working on green tourism projects, he was also the Ministry of Tourism representative for the mobilization of the Dahshour World Heritage Site for Community Development project, a model for the development of cultural and natural dimensions with a social perspective in partnership with UN agencies (led by UNDP ). He was also the head of the Supreme Committee for transforming Sharm El Sheikh into a green city.

Zaazou has served on the boards of various prestigious associations, including the Egyptian Tourism Federation, Egyptian Tourism Authority, Tourism Development Authority and the Arab Tourism Organization. He is also a member of the UNWTO (vice chairman of the Business Council) and was chosen as the supervisor of the Arab tourism strategy by the Council of Arab Ministers of Tourism in 2014.

Awards

Zaazou has earned several awards from different organizations such as the International Public Relations Association (IPRA).

• Selected as Paris Man of the Year (2013) by the IPRA
• Selected as Best Minister of Tourism Worldwide in March 2014 (Patwa ITB-BERLIN)
• Received QTA’s Award in 2014
• Received the memorial shield on February 14, 2014 to say thanks to the Egyptian tourism minister from the Federation of Italian tour operators (Astoi) for his efforts in tourism field in such difficult time for Egypt
• Received the Best Development Award in 2015 from the German Travel Industry Club

•           Awarded the German Travel Industry Award in 2015 by Mr. Thomas Boesl, the president of Germany’s leading travel agency organization, the Quality Travel Alliance (QTA), in recognition of his outstanding contribution to improving the image of Egypt as an attractive destination for German tourists (the QTA has grown to include nearly 8,000 German travel agencies through a network of partnerships and cooperation agreements between different travel agency chains; their combined revenues increased by 3% to €4.3 billion this year)

  
  

GG Value Management GmbH

Advisor for the portfolio management

MAS Deutsche Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH

Extensive competence in management, development and administration of investment funds.