President and CEO
Opresnik Management Consulting and Opresnik Business School
Distinguished Professor of Marketing and Management
Technical University of Lübeck and University of Lübeck
Honorary Professor of Strategic Marketing and Leadership
New Delhi Institute of Management (NDIM), India
Global Thought Leader and Member
Academic Speakers Bureau, London School of Economics (LSE)
Chair of Marketing and Member of the Board of Directors
SGMI Management Institut St. Gallen, Switzerland
Dr Opresnik studied business administration at the University of Hamburg, specialising in marketing, human resources and business English, and subsequently completed a doctorate on the subject of ‘Corporate culture in the USA and Germany’.
After starting his career as a trainee in the retail business at DEA Mineraloel AG, Dr Opresnik worked as a sales manager for service stations in the field. After two years of professional experience as senior marketing manager shop assortments food, Dr Opresnik was responsible for business development in the marketing department of the newly founded joint venture company Shell & DEA Oil GmbH within the retail business. From 1st July 2003 to 31st October 2005, Dr Opresnik was responsible for the development of the service station network in the Retail Network Planning & Property department. From 1st December 2005 to 31st December 2007, Dr Opresnik was Global Coordinator Project Planning in the Strategy Department of Shell International Petroleum Co Ltd in London, managing worldwide projects that were implemented in over 130 countries and at 45,000 locations.
Since January 2008, Dr Opresnik has been Professor of General Business Administration with a focus on marketing and management at the Technische Hochschule Lübeck and a visiting professor at leading international institutions such as the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford, London Business School, and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
Dr Opresnik is the author of more than 50 articles and text books, including the international marketing standard work ‘Marketing: Principles and Practice. A management-oriented approach’. Together with Kevin Keller and Phil Kotler, the world’s best-known marketing professor, he is co-author of the German edition of ‘Marketing Management’, the ‘bible of marketing’. Alongside Gary Armstrong and Phil Kotler, Dr Opresnik is also co-author of the global edition of ‘Marketing: An Introduction’, the world’s most successful marketing textbook. He is also co-editor of several specialist journals and acts as a reviewer for various journals, including ‘Transnational Marketing Journal’, ‘International Journal of New
Technologies in Science and Engineering’, ‘International Journal of Management & Social Sciences’ and ‘Innovative Marketing’.
Since January 2013, Dr Opresnik has been Professor of Marketing and a member of the Board of Directors at the SGMI Management Institute St. Gallen, one of the leading business schools in the world.
Since 11 January 2019, Dr Opresnik has been a member of the advisory board of the Innovation Accelerator of the United Nations World Food Programme.
Dr Opresnik is the founder and CEO of Opresnik Management Consulting and President of Opresnik Business School, which offers innovative educational programmes. These programmes include an online MBA developed in collaboration with renowned English universities. Since 23 September 2024, he has also been Professor of Marketing and Executive Director of Academic Partnerships and Development at The International Business School (IBS) in Manchester
In May 2025, he was awarded an Honorary Professorship in Strategic Marketing and Leadership by the New Delhi Institute of Management (NDIM) in India, further recognising his contributions to global business education and leadership development.
In June 2025, he was honoured as a Global Thought Leader and accepted as a Member of the Academic Speakers Bureau at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) – the world’s leading institution in social sciences. This distinction recognises his impact beyond the field of marketing and management, positioning him among a diverse network of influential thinkers who shape discourse across business, policy, and society – including Nobel laureates and senior advisors to governments.
With the mission ‘Building a Better World through Education’ and the guiding principle ‘Optimising Potentials, Empowering Leaders, Transforming Futures’, he is consistently expanding the educational programme of his business school (https://bit.ly/Opresnik_Business_School) in order to promote leaders worldwide and bring about sustainable change.
In addition, he is the founder of PIVOTAL Thinking and creator of the PIVOTAL Infinity Marketing Canvas®. This internationally recognized framework for purpose-driven leadership and marketing has been endorsed by thought leaders such as Marshall Goldsmith and David Aaker as well as the United Nations. With PIVOTAL, Dr. Opresnik has established a new generation of strategy models that serve as a guiding compass for sustainable growth and purpose-driven transformation worldwide.
As a trainer, keynote speaker and consultant, Dr Opresnik supports international institutions, government organisations and leading companies such as Google, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Dräger, SAP, Porsche, Audi, VW, Shell, Unilever, Procter & Gamble, L’Oréal, BASF and adidas in developing sustainable leadership strategies and increasing their long-term impact. Through a combination of consulting and education, he empowers managers worldwide to act responsibly and with an eye to the future, thus anchoring positive change in their organisations in the long term.
Over 100 million people have experienced Dr Opresnik as a TEDx speaker and lecturer at congresses and symposia and as a trainer in seminars on marketing, sales and negotiation at home and abroad and have benefited from his impulses both professionally and personally.
With his extensive international experience and the development of PIVOTAL Thinking, Marc Opresnik is recognized as one of the world’s most influential voices in purpose-driven marketing, strategy, and leadership.