Daniela Herz

Daniela Herz was born on 1940 in Hamburg, Germany, Germany. Daniela Herz-Schnoeckel is the only daughter of coffee magnate Max Herz and his wife, Ingeburg. After Max died in 1965, her brother Guenter grabbed the reins of the family business and built upon Max's idea of opening stores where coffee could be both sipped and sold over the counter -- a forerunner to Starbucks. (Ingeburg died in 2015, at age 95.) Guenter ran the business for almost 35 years, building Tchibo into a retailing force by adding a wide range of other consumer goods and services. A family feud heated up after he advanced a plan to take the company public to finance acquisitions and fortify itself against deep-pocketed competitors. In 2003, Daniela and he sold their combined 40% interest in the family holding company -- which included a stake in skin-care products maker Beiersdorf, whose brands include Nivea -- for an estimated $5 billion. They plowed a chunk of those funds into private equity firm Mayfair SE, which, in 2006, acquired shipping classification company Germanischer Lloyd. In December 2012, the company agreed to merge with Det Norske Veritas of Norway. The combined DNV GL Group, of which Mayfair owns 36.5%, has 15,000 employees and annual revenue of around $2.8 billion from providing classification and certification services to clients in the oil and gas, maritime and renewable energy sectors. Mayfair also owns 44% of Vapiano Group; a franchiser of self-serve Italian food restaurants, it was founded in 2002 by the German entrepreneur Gregor Gerlach. With over 175 outlets in 31 countries, Vapiano is looking to establish a presence in Japan and China.
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