Dirk Rossmann

Dirk Rossmann was born on 1946 in Lower-Saxony, Germany, Germany. The eponymous company Dirk Rossmann founded when he was 25 has become the second-largest drugstore chain in Germany, with annual revenues of around $8.5 billion. In 1972, he opened Germany's first self-service drugstore in Hannover just as price deregulation of pharmacy products was beginning. The company now has over 3,400 stores in six European countries and more than 47,000 employees. Looking to finance an expansion the 1980s, he sold a 40% stake to a private equity firm, which in turn sold it to Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing's Hutchison Whampoa. Rossmann himself has made numerous private equity investments and owns stakes in private equity firms, commercial real estate, the German Bundesliga soccer club Hannover 96, and thermoplastic manufacturer Simona AG. Shunning many of the trappings of wealth, he prefers to spend money on traveling and books. In 1991 he created a charitable foundation, Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevölkerung (German Foundation World Population), focused on sex education and family planning, primarily in East Africa. He has a personal passion for magic tricks and supports the magician duo Ehrlich Brothers. He's been married to his wife Alice for more than 30 years and his two sons, Daniel and Raoul, hold managerial roles at Rossmann. Rossmann is said to be about to hand the reins to Raoul.
Dirk Rossmann is a member of Fashion & Retail