Wolfgang Rams
Professor and Senior Researcher
M. Eng. (RWTH), MBA (Hagen), PhD in Economics (Duisburg-Essen)
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Rams teaches entrepreneurship and innovation at EIM. He is a serial entrepreneur, investor and startup coach. He received his doctorate in economics and has also a degree as an engineer in telecommunication.
He used to lead a European CleanTec accelerator program, built his own company builder as a consulting business and was engaged in founding more than 7 businesses. Before become an entrepreneur he worked in leading positions for a German telco company.
In 2016 he invested in Africa GreenTec a company that brings solar power driven minigrids to rural Africa and is now the COO & CFO of the company.
Prof. Dr. Rams leads Africa GreenTec AG (AGT AG) on operational activities and financial acquisition, focusing on innovative financing and business models to expand AGT AG to other sub-Saharan African countries with the plans to address energy access challenges in developing countries.
He has extensive experience and expertise ranging from 27 years in corporate strategy, product & marketing management, 23 years in innovation, venture capital and entrepreneurship, 19 years in finance & venture capital, 13 years in food industries, as well as 5 years of company building as a Founder and Consultant.
Technology- and Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Telecommunication, Higher Education, Renewable Energies
EIM – European Institute of Management (2022 – now)
Professor and Senior Researcher
Research project to determine the Success factors of sustainable start-ups in cooperation with the Technical University Munich (TUM) and financed by the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU) (2018 – now)
Provadis School of International Management and Technology AG, Frankfurt am Main (2014-now)
Professor for Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management
Mercator School of Management University Duisburg-Essen (2020 – now)
Visiting Professor Intrapreneurship and Innovation
Maastricht School of Management (MSM) (2018)
Visiting Professor International Business
Since Feb. 2020: | Africa GreenTec AG, Solar Minigrids in SubSahara Africa Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer |
| Since July 2006: | Consmart GmbH, Management & Innovation Consulting, Company Building, Duesseldorf Managing Partner / CEO |
| since 06/2015 | eit ClimateKIC Accelerator @ Provadis Hochschule, Frankfurt/Main Executive Manager Content Responsible for the processes, the content management and the coaching of rd. 85 European start-ups from 13 countries, EU government-funded international Cleantech Accelerator |
| 04/2017 – 02/2020 | AfricaGreenTec AG, Hainburg am Main Investor / Business Angel & Chairman of the supervisory board Solar Power Supplier in rural areas of Afric |
| since 12/2014 | CERAFON a brand of Consmart GmbH, Düsseldorf Founder Global Mobile Service, based on an international SIM card |
| 01/2019 - 04/2019 | Deutsche Bahn AG, Frankfurt am Main Executive Consultant Concept on the impact of eSIM-Technology on the IoT solutions of Deutsche Bahn |
| 10/2017 - 04/2018 | Unitymedia NRW GmbH, Köln Entrepreneur / Founder Realizing of an Ethno-Brand concept as a turnkey company building service including whole IT infrastructure (CRM, ERP, website, sales portal, call center) as well as team staffing and marketing & sales activities (advertisement, branding, social campaigns) |
| 11/2014 - 05/2015 | Deutsche Post AG, Bonn Executive Consultant Preparation of a Business Plan (Product Roadmap and Business Case) for a subsidiary company in the field of ID-Management and BigData |
| 04/2016 - 08/2016 | Telekom Deutschland GmbH, Bonn Executive Consultant Strategy-concept about partnering with start-ups in the department of business sales of Deutsche Telekom |
| 05/2008 - 03/2017 | Vodafone D2 GmbH, Duesseldorf - Key-Account Management in Consumer Online Sales for the Prepaid Mobile Brand CallYa (07/2016-03/2017) - Project management for the introduction of eSIM services (embedded SIM) as well as definition of business processes in cooperation with Samsung and G&D (08/15-04/16) - Project Management with regard to the lunch of a Vodafone-KabelDeutschland-Campaign (07/14-03/15) - Project Management KD/VF merger: Definition and launch of CrossSell offers - Program Management / Change Management eCommerce: Globalisation of Vodafone’s eCommerce Platforms - Marketing Management (Go-to-Market ) Mobile Services Postpaid - Programme Management, incl. Governance processes for internal project funding and reporting in the department of eCommerce / Internet Sales - Programme Management: Launch of a Fixed-Mobile-Convergent Product, especially regarding sales activities - Product Management: Product Concept for Location Based Services, especially GPS-based navigation services |
| 03/2008 – 04/2008 | Turkish Telekom, Instanbul, Turkey Executive Consultant Development of a Fixed-Mobile-Telco Market Entry Strategy following an ethno based market approach. |
| 11/2007 – 02/2008 | Schallehn Family Office, Bonn, Germany Interims CFO for a company out of the investment fund’s portfolio in the area of ‘Whole-Food’. |
| 10/2006 – 09/2007 | Ya.com/T-Online Telecommunications Spain, Madrid, Spain Interims Manager as Head of Product Development, including launch of a GSM/Wifi Dualmode mobile device in the Spanish market |
| 02/2004-02/2006 | Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa Sp. Z o.o., Warsaw, Poland Director of Strategy Corporate Strategy Development and Implementation // Business Development // CRM-Strategy // Regulation Issues // Portfolio Management // Partner Strategy |
| 07/2002-01/2004 | T-Venture Holding GmbH, Bonn, Germany Senior Investment Manager Technical, financial and market due diligence for investment opportunities |
| 01/2000-06/2002 | T-Com, Deutsche Telekom AG, Bonn, Germany Head of Product Marketing for Convergent Products Management of the existing fixed-mobile-convergent product portfolio |
| 05/1998-12/1999 | T-Mobile Germany GmbH, Bonn, Germany Project Manager Customer Retention Identification and implementation of measures to increase the loyalty of T-Mobile’s customers |
| 11/1996-04/1998 | T-Mobile Germany GmbH, Bonn, Germany Manager Corporate Development and Strategy Corporate strategy development and planning // Portfolio management |
| 09/1994-10/1996 | T-Mobile Germany GmbH, Bonn, Germany GSM Testing Engineer GSM conformance testing for BSS // Specification at ETSI |
2021
- Neubert, M., & Rams, W. (2021). Africa GreenTec – Sustainable Internationalization in Sub-Saharan Africa (Live Case Study)
2020
- Neubert, M., Rams, W., & Utikal, H. (2020). Experiential learning with live case studies. International Journal of Teaching and Case Studies, 11(2), 173-190.
2003
- Rams, W. (2003). S. Patent No. 6,600,925. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
2001
- Gerpott, T. J., Rams, W., & Schindler, A. (2001). Customer retention, loyalty, and satisfaction in the German mobile cellular telecommunications market. Telecommunications policy, 25(4), 249-269.
- Gerpott, T. J., & Rams, W. (2001). Bindung, Loyalität und Zufriedenheit von Geschäftskunden im deutschen Mobilfunkmarkt. telekom praxis, 78(2), 11-22.
- Gerpott, T. J., & Rams, W. (2001). Kundenzufriedenheit und-Loyalitat-Einflussgrossen der Kundenbindung. Telekom Praxis, 78(2), 11-21.
- Rams, W. (2001). Kundenbindung im deutschen Mobilfunkmarkt: Determinanten und Erfolgsfaktoren in einem dynamischen Marktumfeld. Springer-Verlag. (Dissertation)
- Rams, W. (2001). Ansatzpunkte für die weitere betriebswirtschaftliche Forschung. In Kundenbindung im deutschen Mobilfunkmarkt(pp. 297-302). Deutscher Universitätsverlag, Wiesbaden.
- Rams, W. (2001). Status des deutschen Mobilfunkmarktes Ende des Jahres 2000. In Kundenbindung im deutschen Mobilfunkmarkt(pp. 69-143). Deutscher Universitätsverlag, Wiesbaden.
- Rams, W. (2001). Branchenübergreifende Grundlagen der Kundenbindungsforschung. In Kundenbindung im deutschen Mobilfunkmarkt(pp. 23-68). Deutscher Universitätsverlag, Wiesbaden.
- Rams, W. (2001). Kundenbindung im deutschen Mobilfunkmarkt als empirisches Problem. In Kundenbindung im deutschen Mobilfunkmarkt(pp. 145-255). Deutscher Universitätsverlag, Wiesbaden.
- Rams, W. (2001). Zusammenfassung sowie konzeptionelle und praktische Implikationen. In Kundenbindung im deutschen Mobilfunkmarkt(pp. 257-296). Deutscher Universitätsverlag, Wiesbaden.
2000
- Gerpott, T. J., & Rams, W. (2000). Kundenbindung, -loyalitat und -zufriedenheit im deutschen Mobilfunkmarkt. BETRIEBSWIRTSCHAFT-STUTTGART-, 60(6), 738-755.