European Speechwriter Network's Podcast

Speechwriters & Business Communicators Conference 2014, Thursday, 3 April 2014, Oxford. Willi is a founder member of the German speechwriters association, Verband der Redenschreiber deutscher Sprache, launched in 1998 by the former speechwriter to Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, Thilo von Trotha. A trained journalist, he changed to public relations in 1968, working in managerial positions at British Airways, Lufthansa and EADS in Germany. In 1990 he became speechwriter to the newly elected Lufthansa CEO, assisting him to implement the airline’s major transformation and privatization process in the nineties. Speeches for executives of a variety of industries such as furniture, pharmaceutical, logistics, airports and a business development authority have been part of his freelance work as a communications consultant. As a “VRdS envoy”, he will train a spotlight on speechwriting traditions in his country together with the aims and purpose of his association.