Michael Mronz (born 1 March 1967) is a German sports and events manager.

Early life and education

Mronz was born in Cologne in 1967 and grew up in Cologne-Junkersdorf, the youngest son of gallerist Ute Mronz and architect Johannes Mronz. He was very interested in sport at an early age. His brother is former tennis professional Alexander Mronz. Mronz began to organise

tennis tournaments List of current and past men's and women's tennis tournaments. Criteria for inclusion: *The tournament is notable enough to have its own article on Wikipedia *Historic tournaments are included if notability can be established by reliable third par ...

while studying economics in Göttingen. He completed his degree in Economics at the University of Cologne in the winter of 1999 and obtained the qualification as a business graduate.

Career

In 1989, Mronz organised his first tennis tournament, the Pohland Cup in Cologne, then later the

Cologne Open The Cologne Open is a defunct men's tennis tournament that was part of the ATP World Series of the ATP Tour for one year in 1992. The event was held in Cologne, Germany, from 14 September until 20 September 1992 and was played on outdoor clay c ...

. Michael Mronz e.K. was founded by Mronz in 1992 as MM Promotion Michael Mronz and was renamed Michael Mronz e.K. in November 2016. The focal point of the events that he organises are sports events such as

marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of , usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There are also wheelchair div ...

s, equestrian, tennis,

beach volleyball Beach volleyball is a team sport played by two teams of two or more players on a sand court divided by a net. Similar to indoor volleyball, the objective of the game is to send the ball over the net and to ground it on the opponent's side of the ...

and hockey tournaments. Mronz advises companies, associations as well as individual people and clubs on issues concerning sports sponsoring and sports marketing. He is also responsible for the marketing of major TV events, the most well-known of which are

Stefan Raab Stefan Konrad Raab (born 20 October 1966) is a German television producer, businessman, musician, and former entertainer and television host. From 1999 to 2015, he hosted the late-night comedy talk show ''TV total'' and has also created a numbe ...

’s Wok World Championships, the Bundesvision Song Contest and the TV total Diving Competition. Mronz (who himself does not ride) has been the General Manager of the Aachener Reitturnier GmbH (ART) since 1 October 1997, which is responsible for the marketing of the CHIO Aachen, the largest equestrian event in the world. Based on the competences he acquired in this position, Mronz was also appointed Head of the Organising Committee of the

World Equestrian Games The FEI World Equestrian Games are the major international championships for equestrianism, and are administered by the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI). The games have been held every four years, halfway between sets of consecutive ...

in 2006, the second largest sporting event in Germany after the

Football World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament has ...

that was staged in the same year. For the first time since the Equestrian and Driving World Championships were founded in 1990, this event succeeded in closing on a positive net result. After the great success of the FEI World Equestrian Games, the trade magazine "Horizont" elected Michael Mronz as "Sports Manager of the Year". In his capacity as Marketing Director, Mronz was responsible for the marketing and ticketing of the World Athletics Championships in 2009 in Berlin. In 2002, Mronz became a member of the board of the Hanne-Nüsslein Foundation of the KTHC Red-White stadium. The foundation has set itself the aim of promoting young tennis talents. Up until December 2003, he was

shareholder A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of a corporation is an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the legal own ...

and Managing Director of the American Sports GmbH, under the umbrella of which the first ladies’ and the first men’s team of the German basketball league club, RheinEnergie Cologne, fall. He stepped down due to differences of opinion concerning the future alignment of the organisation’s structure. Since January 2007, Michael Mronz has been a member of the board of the German America's Cup team,

United Internet Team Germany United Internet Team Germany is a yacht racing team that competed for the Louis Vuitton Cup 2007, the challenger series held prior to the America's Cup. They planned to compete in the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series in 2009. However, they withdrew du ...

, where he is responsible for the press activities. Since 2013, he has been the organiser of the famous ATP tournament,

BMW Open The Bavarian International Tennis Championships (german: Internationale Tennis-Meisterschaften von Bayern, known since 1990 by its sponsored name BMW Open) is a men's tennis tournament held at the MTTC Iphitos in Munich, Germany. Held since 1900, ...

by FWU AG, in Munich. He advises the organisers of the German racing series

DTM DTM may refer to: Sport * Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, a motor-racing series staged annually in Germany since 2000 * Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft, a motor-racing championship staged in Germany from 1984 to 1995 Computing * Deterministic T ...

and of the

2018 European Athletics Championships The 2018 European Athletics Championships were held in Berlin, Germany, from 6 to 12 August 2018. The championships were part of the first European Championships with other events happening in the United Kingdom. For the second Championships in a ...

in Berlin. Mronz is the initiator and organiser of the "Rhine-Ruhr Olympic City 2028" initiative that is backed by the private sector. This idea of the Rhine-Ruhr region putting in a bid to stage the 2028

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...

is being met with great enthusiasm from economic and political circles. Mronz has developed a concept that relies upon sustainability and the usage of existing sports and event facilities. Mronz took over the Chair of the Westerwelle Foundation in 2016, which asserts itself on an international basis for democracy, the

rule of law The rule of law is the political philosophy that all citizens and institutions within a country, state, or community are accountable to the same laws, including lawmakers and leaders. The rule of law is defined in the ''Encyclopedia Britannica ...

, the social market economy,

tolerance Tolerance or toleration is the state of tolerating, or putting up with, conditionally. Economics, business, and politics * Toleration Party, a historic political party active in Connecticut * Tolerant Systems, the former name of Veritas Software ...

and political and economic participation.

Other activities

1. FC Köln 1. Fußball-Club Köln 01/07 e. V., commonly known as simply FC Köln () or FC Cologne in English, is a German professional football club based in Cologne in North Rhine-Westphalia. It was formed in 1948 as a merger of the clubs ''Kölner Ballspi ...

, Member of the Advisory Board (since 2020) * "A heart for children", Chairman

Personal life

Mronz was the partner of German FDP politician

Guido Westerwelle Guido Westerwelle (; 27 December 1961 – 18 March 2016) was a German politician who served as Foreign Minister in the second cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel and Vice-Chancellor of Germany from 2009 to 2011, being the first openly gay person ...

from 2003 to 2016, when Westerwelle died of leukaemia. Mronz and Westerwelle entered into a registered civil partnership in Bonn on 17 September 2010, at a time when Westerwelle was serving as Germany's

Foreign Minister A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between cou ...

under Chancellor Angela Merkel.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mronz, Michael Living people 1967 births Gay sportsmen German referees and umpires Sportspeople from Cologne University of Cologne alumni Businesspeople from Cologne German LGBT sportspeople