David Wagner

As Managing Director of Super Urlaub GmbH, I embarked on a mission in 2012 with just five employees to make my vision for the next decade a reality: I aimed to establish the leading short trip platform across Germany. With a consistent 19% CAGR and impressive EBITDA margins of 22-45%, I'm proud to say we've achieved our goals, without the use of borrowed capital all time. Today, our team has grown to 70 employees across three locations, allowing us to scale and build momentum.

As Co-CEO, I will accompany the post-merger integration alongside Jan Seifried, owner of KMW Reisen GmbH. In the end of 2024, I will then retire from all functions in all companies and return to my family after 13 years. In 2023, as the current managing director of Super Urlaub GmbH, we underwent an M&A process and gained a new majority shareholder, the HomeToGo SE Group. A key result of this transition is the merger with our long-standing competitor Kurz-Mal-Weg.de, which is operated by KMW Reisen GmbH.

In 2019, as Managing Director of Super Urlaub GmbH i successfully acquired the foreign online travel platform "Kurzurlaub.at" in Vienna, Austria through an M&A asset deal. Under my leadership, the Austrian company has achieved an average EBITDA margin of 39% and has been growing at a CAGR of 17% - ultimately recovering the investment within three years. We were able to increase the number of jobs by 50%.

As General Manager, I worked on my first vision in 10 years: The vision to build a small hotel chain with 78% accum. occupancy, 16% CAGR and 14m€ gop margin. Started with a 12 room bed&breakfast with 3 employees and developed it successful to one of the leading hotels. Through the purchase of 4 neighboring properties, the hotel could be successively expanded up to 400 rooms, 15 meeting and event rooms, wellness and cosmetic area, 2 restaurants.

Thank you, Team! As hotel director, I placed the Hotel on the market during the pre-opening and i built all departments, structures and service processes. The hotel was built by a private investor and successfully operated by me. Through my acquired sales knowledge in e-commerce and my negotiation skills with the travel managers of the countless DAX corporations in the Rhine-Neckar region, we achieved an occupancy rate of 80% and a GOP margin of 1m€ already in the first year.

Thank you, Birgit Baldauf. Work at the german chamber of commerce and industry as an examiner for the hotel specialist training profession and conducting intermediate & final examinations. I learned a lot from Birgit about clear, unambiguous communication and serious behavior as an examiner. Especially the experience in dealing with people who are in stress, anxiety and pressure situations was very instructive.

Thank you, Steffen Lindenmaier. Volunteer work for TSG 1899 Hoffenheim and involvement in the development of the existing volunteer program for the departments press and marketing. We accompanied TSG Hoffenheim's promotion from the third division to the Bundesliga and were the first point of contact for the press & media while match days. I accompanied the promotion of TSG Hoffenheim from the third league to the Bundesliga and learned a lot about adaptation, change management as well as scaling here.

Thanks, to me. Now there was time for something of their own. I wanted to create something useful and used my experience from the hotel industry and with this my journey into the e-commerce began. I founded a platform for trainees in the hotel industry on the topic of exam preparation. The 600,000 listed users were able to train here for the first time on digitally transformed exam sheets. I programmed these features in SQL, HTML and PHP and sold the platform to a competitor in 2009.

Thank you, Gerald Gerstner. I then decided to join a management consultancy for 2 years to quickly get to know many business sectors. I supervised logistics projects and worked for companies like MAN (decentralization of warehousing), Infineon Technologies (European replenishment logistics) and Merckle ratiopharm (new construction of a high-bay warehouse). Gerald taught me everything a manager needs to understand complex issues and to make the right decisions.

Thank you, Jörg Krauß. In Heidelberg, I had the unique opportunity to accompany the pre-opening and the new opening of a hotel. With three people, we started placing the hotel on the local market six months before the opening. Jörg authentically demonstrated an extremely social, demanding and supportive leadership style that inspired me. Much of what I use today in dealing with my employees I learned from him. The Pre Opening process taught me for the first time how to build a company from 0 to 100.

Thank you, Günther Klaasen. Following the training as a restaurant specialist, I started a two-year management training. I went through 4 hotels of the chain and worked on a specific business goal for 6 months each. Along the way, I began my studies to become a tourism consultant with a focus on corporate and personal management.

Thank you, Günther Klaasen. I become a second chance to continue my apprenticeship as restaurant specialist in a hotel far away from my home. And here I met another person who had a strong influence on me. I completed the practical final examination as the best in my year and my hotel director Günther Klaasen enables me to complete a 2-year management training program following my apprenticeship. Günther also founded the short trip platform kurz-mal-weg.de and we would meet a few times in the future.

Thank you, Axel Hüpkes. Despite being the best trainee of the year in the intermediate exam, i lost my bearings. But I have been taught one of my most important values here. And which are an integral part of all my corporate philosophies: Everyone deserves a chance.