Managing Partner
Karl Schwitzke

Karl Schwitzke, born in 1955, founded his first architectural firm while studying in Kaiserslautern. After graduating as a designer and interior designer, he sold his shares and traveled to the USA and the Caribbean for a year. Back in Germany, he gained further professional experience at Kohlbecker in Gaggenau before going back to the USA on a scholarship from the Carl Duisberg Society. There he worked for Associated Space Design in Atlanta for two years and won his first major competition. Upon his return, he was responsible for interior design at Hentrich, Petschnigg and Partner with projects in Germany and abroad. Karl Schwitzke’s view of marketing and retail, store and branding was shaped by his years at Esprit, where he, as head of the architecture department, decisively shaped the appearance of the fashion and lifestyle brand in Europe. In 1989 he left Esprit to set up his own design office again, Schwitzke & Partner GmbH. With its specialization in retail, the agency quickly became a success story with numerous national and international awards. From these beginnings, a group of companies has emerged with various services related to retail, brands, F&B, hospitality, offices and shopping centers. In addition to his role as managing partner of the Schwitzke Group, Karl Schwitzke is the managing director of Schwitzke Retail GmbH and Schwitzke Gorski in Kraków.

Managing Partner
Klaus Schwitzke

Klaus Schwitzke, born in 1959, studied design and interior design in Kaiserslautern. After completing his studies, the graduate designer moved to the Esprit fashion brand, where he initially worked in a leading position on shop-in-store and franchise stores. Through his later role as department head for the areas of architecture, facility management and visual display as well as through various trips and experiences in the USA, he became aware of holistic brand communication. In 1991 he joined the Schwitzke & Partner architectural firm founded by his brother Karl. Together with his brother, the company was gradually expanded, renewed and developed strategically. The general contractor Schwitzke Project was founded in 2002 with the idea that the company that does the planning should do the building as well. As managing director, he managed the successful subsidiary for the first three years. This was followed by further start-ups: In 2010 he became managing director of Schwitzke ID, the agency for branding & communication, and in 2013 of Schwitzke Lab, the strategic brand consultancy. Today, as managing partners, both are responsible for the strategic development of the entire group of companies, which now has 200 employees in three countries, advise international companies and see themselves as pioneers and visionaries – without losing their own close customer contact.

Corporate development & Corporate communication
Astrid Kaps

Astrid Kaps is responsible for all measures within Schwitzke Group to develop existing and new business areas and all concerns of corporate communication. During her commercial training in the travel industry, she realized her strength lay in dealing directly with people. She moved from sales to marketing for the international cosmetics industry. At Shiseido she was responsible for two cosmetics brands and as head of Marketing and Training she led the brands’ integration into L´Oréal group. It was her enthusiasm for developing brands which brought her to Schwitzke in 2017.

Finance
Kerstin Scherer-Lorenz

Kerstin Scherer-Lorenz heads the Finance department for Schwitzke group. As a trained business administrator and foreign language correspondent for English, her career took her from a mechanical engineering company, to the construction department at Commerzbank, then to the architecture department at Esprit, where she met Karl Schwitzke. The rest is history: When Schwitzke & Partner was founded in 1989, Kerstin Scherer-Lorenz became the Office Manager and the company’s first employee. From 1994 she was the financial director for Schwitzke & Partner and Schwitzke Project. With the foundation of the Schwitzke GmbH in 2006, she joined the Holding and has been Head of the group’s Finance department ever since. Since 2009 she has also been an authorized representative for the companies Schwitzke & Partner and Schwitzke Project.

Personnel & law
Kathrin Kirchhoff

Kathrin Kirchhoff is Head of the HR & Law department at Schwitzke group. She manages personnel processes throughout the companies and controls all legal and insurance matters. She grew up in eastern Westphalia and studied Law in Münster. She worked as a legal clerk at the district court in Krefeld, before moving to Düsseldorf in 2003, where she was appointed Head of HR & Law at the Medical One group of clinics in 2005. In 2007 Kathrin Kirchhoff joined Schwitzke.

Corporate Communications
Lara Czerwonka

Lara Czerwonka is responsible for all measures and matters within the group related to corporate communications. She studied German and Media Studies in Düsseldorf, did various internships in journalism, trade marketing and PR, before gaining four years of experience as a consultant with the communications agency K12. In 2015, she followed the call of the brand makers and joined Schwitzke ID as a Brand Consultant focusing on concepts and editing. Since 2018 she has managed the marketing and PR activities of Schwitzke companies at its Düsseldorf office and provided consulting to external clients on all matters of communications and marketing.