Heinz-Werner Nienstedt, born 1949, is Professor emeritus at the Department of Communication at the Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz, Germany, where he held the chair for Media Management. He was one of the first members of EMMA and President of EMMA between 2006 and 2008.
Heinz-Werner had studied Economics and received his PhD in Econometrics at the Technical University, Berlin, where he later worked as research assistant in these fields until 1984.
From then on until 2002 he served media companies in various leading positions. This includes head of systems and methods for corporate controlling of Bertelsmann, CEO of the first digital start-ups of that media concern in the eighties, head of strategic planning and later member of the management board of Georg von Holtzbrinck Group, Stuttgart, and CEO of the Handelsblatt Group, Düsseldorf. Besides responsibility for the core media brands of this group like Handelsblatt, the financial newspaper, he oversaw other activities of the group like in n-tv, Berlin, the Wall Street Journal Europe, Brussels, Groupe Expansion, Paris, and Economia, Prague.
At the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz he built up and oversaw the Media Management diploma and then master course of study and taught in this field since 2002. About 220 students graduated in this time, 9 doctoral students received their PhD and two their Habilitation in this field. His and his fellows’ and students research was mainly focussed on marketing and innovation issues in the media and their digital environment applying empirical and quantitative methods. In addition to his academic work he advised media companies and media investors and engaged in knowledge transfer from the university to the media during these years.
Besides the continuation of academic activities he today engages in the mentoring of digital start-ups and his role as a business angel in some of them.