Thomas Mickeleit has held management positions in communications for over 35 years. A fully qualified lawyer, he began his career in 1987 as personal advisor and press spokesman to the then Senator for Economics and Labor in Berlin, followed by five years as head of corporate communications at Berlin-based Krone AG (telecommunications). As communications director at Grundig (1994-1998), Mickeleit provided communications support in crisis mode for the liquidation of 10,000 jobs at the ailing consumer electronics manufacturer. In the management of IBM Germany, Mickeleit was responsible for communications (1998-2003) and built the D21 initiative as a platform for socio-political debate for the head of Germany, Erwin Staudt. As head of corporate communications at Volkswagen (2003-2006), he rolled out the first global intranet in close cooperation with IT and HR. In 2005, as head of the communications crisis team, he managed the crisis surrounding "pleasure trips by the works council" and the resignation of HR board member Peter Hartz. Most recently, Mickeleit was head of communications and a member of the executive board at Microsoft Germany for almost 15 years until October 2020. Mickeleit created a state-of-the-art communications department there with a newsroom at its center. Microsoft is also a pioneer in broad-based corporate influencer programs and, of course, in its own digital transformation and the change this requires. Mickeleit positioned Microsoft as a responsible tech leader that takes an aggressive approach to social debates, for example in the use of artificial intelligence. Since July 2021, Mickeleit has headed the CommTech working group under the IMWF umbrella. He is the founder and head of KommunikationNeuDenken!, a communications consultancy based in Hamburg.
KommunikationNeuDenken!
Thomas Mickeleit
Jette-Müller-Weg 3
22337 Hamburg
