ESMEA Board of Directors

Mr. Winfried Bostelmann

Business Development; Strategy

The Chairman holds a diploma in Business Administration. Highly interested in international activities, the Chairman decided already quite early to seek a career in the international environment. Thus, besides working for different enterprises with international background, he even cooperated with selected associations and Chambers of Commerce in Germany and several other countries, deepening his multi-cultural experience. He also worked in different lead positions regarding a few projects supervised by the German Federal Ministry of Economy and Energy. Due to his sound international experience as well as large network to governmental officials and entrepreneurs in various countries around the globe he became a sought-after contact person with ESMEA.

Mr. Eckardt, Alexander

Vice-Chairman 

Business Development; Business Matchmaking

Running a family-owned business for almost 40 years, Mr. Eckardt is very well aware of the daily challenges of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME’s)  in a quickly changing global world. Being a high-profile specialist in the Railway Industry, Mr. Eckardt has internationalized his company many years ago and set up offices in different EU countries.  Due to his long-term and professional experience of working with large companies (e.g. SAP) and managing worldwide teams, he has been focussing on the international markets since. Several years ago, Mr. Eckardt did his first steps to China, exploring a few specific business opportunities in the Sino-EU trade relations. Since then, he has become a popular expert regarding innovative matters of railway and transportation in Germany, EU and several provinces of China. 

Dr. Ding, Yu

International Finance Corporation (IFC) Expert

Former Digital Economy Expert of UNCDF

Digital Economy; Green Finance; Vocational Training

Being born in Zhengzhou, China, and moved to Germany in 1985, Dr. Ding finished his studies on National Economy (Diploma), Business Administration (Diploma) and Economics (Dr. rer. Pol.) at the University of Cologne. Since then he worked for several German companies as Area Manager and as Head of Finance Department – in Germany and in China as well. Since 2005 Dr. Ding is working on supra-national level for International Development Organizations in World Bank / IFC and United Nations projects. In 2008 he became co-founder of a China based financial consulting company. He has been successfully serving more than 20 Chinese Regional Banks and International Organizations since then. Since January 2021 Dr. Ding was honoured getting appointed as President of Qianxiahu Institute for Sustainable Development. He is very actively promoting dialogs and cooperations between EU and China in the fields of ‘Digital Economy’ and ‘Green Finance’ as well as supporting start-ups in digital innovations.

Mr. Soldaini, Armando

International Exhibitions and Events

Mr. Soldaini has a track record of carried-out manifold activities for international trade activities as well as global milestones of successfully executed projects. He took over responsibility as Global Vice-President of the ‘World Leisure Sport Association’ (California, USA), President of ‘Romexpo srl, Science and Tradition Academy’ (Italy) and President of the ‘Tuscia Turismo Consortium’ (Italy). This  very tourism-centred organization covers 33 municipalities between Rome and Florence. Mr. Soldaini has organized concerts and art exhibitions in venues such as the UN headquarters, New York, and the Kremlin, Moscow. He was honoured to be the ‘Organizational Secretary’ of bilateral Chambers of Commerce between Italy and Poland, Slovakia and former Yugoslavja. Besides having been involved in several business projects especially in USA and South America, Mr. Soldaini got invited by the local Chinese government to co-organize the ‘2014 WinExpo’ in Beijing, and to co-organize three more events of ‘China World Football Expo’ since 2017. In that very year he even received the Great Wall Friendship Award in Bejing. 

Mr. Hohenschutz, Andreas Felix

Information Technology

Having chosen an international background during his formative years, Andreas Hohenschutz successfully finished his academic career in the United Kingdom (B.A. (hons) Global Management) and Sweden (M.Sc. Managing People, Knowledge, and Change, M.Sc. Information Systems). Presently, he is studying to obtain his Doctorate of Business Administration in the United Kingdom. Due to his personal interest in international business and trade opportunities, Mr. Hohenschutz has joined the Hohenschutz GmbH as Managing Director, counselling customers with global backgrounds in regard to finance and information technology. Mr. Hohenschutz’ expertise allows him to develop innovative solutions both in the sphere of sphere of finance as well as in the sphere of IT. His recent pursuits have allowed Mr. Hohenschutz to become a specialist for crypto assets. In 2017, he spent several months in China, getting to know the culture and developing relations there.