The Walter Knoll company has a long history that goes back to 1865 and Wilhelm Knoll’s “leather shop” in Stuttgart. Under his active son Walter, the furniture manufacturer was later closely linked to the developments of modernity. Light aluminium armchairs found their place in wide-bodied aircraft such as the Dornier DoX and the gondolas of zeppelins, and when the Werkbund exhibition “Die Wohnung” (The Apartment) at Stuttgart’s Weißenhof in 1927 set new standards for modern building and living, Walter Knoll furnished five flats by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in the model estate and nine flats in total. In 1993, Hilde and Rolf Benz acquired the traditional company from Herrenberg. Rolf Benz, founder of the furniture brand of the same name, saw the purchase of Walter Knoll as a continuation of the family’s entrepreneurial goals. He placed responsibility for the company in the hands of his son Markus, who was 32 years old at the time. He restructured the company in the following years, established a new corporate and management culture and expanded the cooperation with internationally renowned architects and designers such as Norman Foster, Ben van Berkel and Kengo Kuma.
Now Markus Benz is preparing the future of the company as CEO of Walter Knoll AG & Co. KG. As a first step, his daughter Mara Benz is joining the management. “Making our company fit for the future,” says Markus Benz, “and at the same time continuing the family legacy is and always has been a great concern of mine. With Mara, we are preparing for the generational change.” As Chief Information Officer (CIO), Mara Benz will henceforth be responsible for and push all topics in the area of systems and processes. “We have chosen this path in order to usher in a new era of digitalisation with the next generation at Walter Knoll,” Markus Benz continues.
Mara Benz studied business administration in London and St. Gallen and received her Master’s degree in Strategy and International Management in 2020. In recent years, she worked as a consultant in strategy consulting at Oliver Wyman in Zurich. Other stages of her professional career include work experience and internships at various luxury goods companies, including Porsche, Bulgari, LOEWE and Louis Vuitton.
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