Dr Michael Frenzel was born in Leipzig on 2 March 1947. After matriculation, he studied law at Ruhr University in Bochum, and successfully completed his doctorate (Dr. jur.) whilst working at the University as a scientific assistant.

Frenzel joined the Westdeutsche Landesbank (WestLB), Düsseldorf in 1981, where he was promoted to various managerial positions: he became manager of the Industrial Holdings Department in 1983, and overall manager of WestLB’s Equity Holdings Division in 1985 – including holdings in banking, leasing and real estate.

In 1988, he became a member of the Preussag AG executive board, being responsible for Trading and Logistics.

He was promoted to chairman of the executive board in January 1994. Under his leadership, the multi-business conglomerate Preussag was repositioned into Europe’s leading tourism Group within only a few years. One of the main milestones was the acquisition of a stake in Hapag-Lloyd in 1997. This was followed by the acquisition of leading tourism companies such as TUI/Hanover, Thomson Travel/London, and Nouvelles Frontières/Paris.

On 1 July 2002, the annual general meeting passed a resolution to change the name of Preussag AG to TUI AG.

On 3 September 2007 Frenzel was appointed Chairman of TUI Travel PLC. He resigned with effect as of 25th March 2013.

With effect from 13th February 2013 he resigned as Chief executive officer of TUI AG.

In his capacity as the president of BTW (Federal Association of the German Tourism Industry) as well as the Immediate Past Chairman of WTTC (World Travel & Tourism Council) Frenzel represents the interests of the tourism within important associations.

Furthermore, Frenzel is member of the board in a number of supervisory boards, such as AXA Konzern AG and Deutsche Bahn AG.

All Sessions by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan