Speaker

Gero Furchheim

bevh – German Ecommerce Association

President
Member of the Executive Board since November 2009 and since January 2017, Spokesman of the Executive Board of Cairo AG (www.cairo.de), a multichannel retailer of designer furniture and accessories in Groß-Umstadt near Frankfurt am Main with a focus on premium products - both modern classics and innovative trends. Fast delivery according to the motto "ordered today - delivered tomorrow" in Germany. Own webshops and catalogue marketing in Germany, Austria, France and Switzerland. Since 2007 design stores in Frankfurt and later Nuremberg. Strategic expansion of e-commerce in the company, which today accounts for more than 60 percent of turnover. Since 2014 President of the German E-Commerce and Distance Selling Trade Association (Bundesverband E-Commerce und Versandhandel Deutschland e.V., bevh). The industry association represents small and large companies that account for more than 80 percent of the total gross industry turnover of 99.1 billion euros in 2021. Since January 2020 Member of the Board of Ecommerce Europe, the European umbrella organisation of online retailers. Since October 2021, Vice President of the Bundesverband Großhandel, Außenhandel, Dienstleistungen e.V. (BGA). Started in the furniture industry in March 2008 as Managing Director of creative inneneinrichter GmbH & Co KG in Darmstadt (www.creative-inneneinrichter.de), a group of owner-managed furniture stores from which Cairo AG emerged. Previously in the photo industry: from 1998 to 2008 as press spokesperson and head of corporate communications at Leica Camera AG in Wetzlar (then Solms). Career start in 1994 as Corporate Communications Officer (International Coordination Agfa- Gevaert Group) at Bayer AG in Leverkusen after a management traineeship in the group from 1991. Born 1971 in Krefeld, registered civil partnership since 2005, lives in Frankfurt am Main.