In each issue of our newsletter, people from our firm introduce themselves personally. This time, it is the turn of our marketing manager Stephan Wilczek.

Born in Altötting, a place of pilgrimage to the Virgin Mary in Upper Bavaria, my parents and I moved via Mainz and Landau in the Palatinate to the Franconian Lower Main, more precisely to Großwallstadt, which meant that, apart from school, handball was the main focus of my adolescent years.

After graduating from high school, I continued with my basic military service, which, after initially rather reserved enthusiasm on my part, managed to get me so excited about the job description of a soldier that I embarked on an officer's career and became a platoon leader in the Air Force Security Forces (now renamed the Object Protection Forces). The team, leadership and decision-making skills I acquired during this time in Memmingen, Kerpen, Büchel and the picturesque Hammelburg, among other places, are something I would not want to miss to this day, nor the people I was privileged to meet during this time.

After my active service, I began studying computer science at the Technical University of Darmstadt, but then switched to the Goethe University in Frankfurt, where I earned a Master of Arts degree in Japanese studies, German linguistics and pedagogy. After graduation, I managed the Institute Library of Japanese Studies on a deputy basis for one and a half years, which gave me the opportunity to expand the intercultural competence and knowledge of information structuring and communication acquired during my studies in practice.

After this activity, I completed a six-month advanced training course at the Tax and Business Academy in Frankfurt to become a marketing consultant, and immediately afterwards began working for a Magic Circle law firm in Frankfurt. Over the course of eight years, my responsibilities there grew steadily until I was responsible for the marketing and business development systems, some of which were globally integrated, and the associated processes throughout Germany, particularly with regard to the creation of complex proposal documents, opportunity tracking and reporting.

From there, I moved to another internationally active law firm, where I spent three years in charge of client relationship management and the further development of digital marketing.

My move to FGvW as Head of Marketing & Media at the beginning of 2023 was primarily motivated by the opportunity to act quickly and in a short space of time and thus, together with my team, to implement our goal of being able to offer lawyers helpful structures and processes for efficient and up-to-date law firm marketing. I am especially happy about the open and collegial atmosphere that is fostered in the firm and that characterizes the cooperation on a daily basis.

I like to spend my free time with my wife and my children, preferably outdoors, e.g. building hiding places in the city forest or walking through the Spessart, otherwise excursions to museums are very popular, the Speyer Technology Museum was a source of enthusiasm most recently. In addition, after more than a decade of non-fiction, I have rediscovered fiction in recent years, and when I find the leisure, I like to pick up my electric bass.

Stephan Wilczek