Career Overview
Sven is a global media executive and broadcast leader who has spent nearly three decades at the intersection of journalism, corporate communications, and digital content innovation. He studied Mass Media and Communication Business graduating in the top 1% of his class. He began his career at IPA Plus GmbH, part of RTL Group and Europe’s largest TV advertising sales house, where he developed the business plan for Germany’s first TV news channel.
Investigative Journalism
His journalism career took him from writing features for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung to the newsdesk at ZDF Second German Television and then to ARD First German Television, where he spent eight years as a Senior Investigative Correspondent. At ARD’s Plusminus, Germany’s leading prime-time business programme, he specialized in technology, mobile phone, and internet fraud investigations during the early years of those industries.
His reporting had real-world impact: one investigation into mobile billing fraud at two cellular companies led to $25 million in consumer refunds and a new federal law in Germany. Another investigation into BMW brake safety issues affecting 80,000 motorcycles prompted the company to recall and develop an entirely new brake system. He also uncovered a display failure in the Nokia 8210, then Nokia’s best-selling phone, leading to fundamental product changes and a new customer satisfaction program. Beyond investigations, he produced prime-time documentaries for ARD, including 66 Hours Around the World with Lufthansa Cargo.
International Correspondent
From Los Angeles, he covered news, entertainment, and technology for ProSiebenSat.1 and other TV networks across Europe, working as a correspondent and TV format consultant.
Corporate Leadership
At SAP, as Global Head of TV, he directed all visual content creation and worldwide TV media relations, managing a global team of journalists and communication experts across the U.S., Europe, and Asia. With his team he won the 2010 German Political Award for CSR.
Shell
At Shell in London, he served as a Global Vice President Marketing & Communications building and leading a global team of journalists and digital experts. He recruited television professionals from CNN, CNBC, BBC, ITV, Channel 4, National Geographic, Discovery Channel, ABC Australia, Channel News Asia, and CCTV, with team operations spanning the US, Europe, Singapore, China, Australia, and Nigeria. As a member of Shell’s 10-person Global Marketing and Communications Executive Leadership Team, he helped steer a 600+ person function with a budget exceeding $500 million. Under his leadership, Shell rose from 19th to 12th among the world’s leading brands, and for the first time, a broadcaster paid for a documentary produced and commissioned by an energy company.
What Sven Brings to LiveTube
Sven brings this rare combination of hands-on journalism, global corporate leadership, deep platform and technology knowledge, and an understanding of compliance and safety standards that comes from operating at the highest levels of regulated industries.
Awards and Memberships
He is a member of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), the German Federal Association of Journalists. Awards include two Georg von Holtzbrinck Awards for Outstanding Documentary and Outstanding Feature, the German Federal Government Award for Outstanding Documentary, the Cannes Corporate Media and TV Award for Best Corporate TV Series and Best Web Documentary, the Telly Award, and the Award of Excellence from the International Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts.
