Team
Everything connects in the business HQ. This is where the BMC directors sit. Supported by the board of trustees and supervisory board, this is where projects are conceptualised, events planned and day-to-day business optimised.
Olaf „Gemse“ Kretschmar
(He/Him)
CEO & Chairman
Olaf Kretschmar has joined the music business after studying philosophy and marketing in the early 90s and “co-invented the club culture in Berlin” (Berliner Zeitung April 2007). In 2007 he co-founded the Berlin Music Commission eG (BMC). Since 2008 he has been the Cluster Manager and since 2011 the CEO of the Berlin Music Commission. Later on, in 2009, Olaf Kretschmar was the initiator of the Berlin Music Week and a year later Chairman of the organizing committee of the Berlin Music Week. From 2010 to 2012, he also organized the campaign “Music Berlin 2020”, whose primary objective was the preparation and establishment of the Musicboard Berlin. In 2014 he established together with many colleagues of the BMC the so called competence center – music industry, is co-founder of the listen to berlin: Awards 2015 and the music business conference Most Wanted: Music 2014, for which he is still General Director today. In addition to his work on BMC’s board of directors, he is also involved in the “Jazzbeirat” Berlin, in the presidium of the “Landesmusikrat” and is chairman of “BV Pop”.
Luanny Tiago da Conceição
(She/Her)
Chief Operating Officer
Eva Kiltz
(She/Her)
Chief Financial Officer, Head of Finance & Human Resources
Since 2022, Eva Kiltz has been responsible for financial management and controlling, as well as human resources management and digitalization at BMC. In 2023, she was appointed to the BMC’s board by the supervisory board. She has curated the program and led the ever-growing program team of the Most Wanted: Music Convention since 2021.
Previously, she worked as CEO for VUT e.V. and as a transfer manager for the Federal Center of Excellence for the Cultural and Creative Industries. As a freelance consultant, she prepares reports, working papers, qualitative studies, and participation formats on topics such as cultural urban development, social and creative entrepreneurship, change management, new forms of work and collaboration, and agility in cultural management and cultural policy. She is a certified Scrum Master, musician, and cultural manager. In her free time, she travels the world on 2 or 4 wheels.
With that, both the right and left sides of her brain are well occupied.
Musical tastes: Dancing: electronic, above 130 bpm. Listening: urban music styles from around the world and across all genres
Currently on the turntable: Lil.Lili
Tim Joppien
(He/Him)
Project & Event Manager
Tim Joppien is responsible for MW:M Live and for international projects and supports the office with organisational and operational tasks and the planning and realisation of events.
Tim previously worked in the area of booking & management, as an assistant at Fritz Unsigned and has been involved in the organisation of various festivals on a voluntary basis for several years.
Paula Petersohn
(She/Her)
Working student for project & network management
In her job as a student trainee, Paula Petersohn is responsible, among other things, for the administration and support of the cooperative’s committees, working groups and members. This also includes planning various member events, such as the “musikalischen Frühschoppen” or the annual members’ meeting. In addition to her work at the Berlin Music Commission, she is studying media and event management in her last semester. Previously, she worked as an intern in the trade marketing and events department at STUDIOCANAL.
Eva Balaban
(She/Her)
Sustainability manager
Eva has experience in event and project management in international environments. She holds a bachelor’s degree in tourism and a master’s degree in creative event management. She is particularly interested in audience behavior change and transformative experience design. Her master’s thesis, titled “Using transformative design for long-lasting pro-environmental attitudinal change in reluctant music festival audiences,” was evaluated with distinction by Falmouth University.
Additionally, Eva is a certified assessor for A Greener Future since 2021 and has experience with ISO 20121 certification. She is also certified by Attitude is Everything in Disability Equality For The Live Event Industry.
Louisa Zimmer
(She/Her)
Communication/PR
Louisa Zimmer is responsible for Communication and PR at BMC. She studied in Berlin and Stockholm, earning her M.A. in Social and Economic Communication from the University of the Arts. In addition to her work at BMC, she is a freelance journalist for various newspapers and magazines.
Pauline Schulz
(She/Her)
Paul Wach
(He/Him)
Intern
Paul Wach is our new intern. The 24-year-old Berliner aspires to become an event manager and is currently handling much of the communication for us. He is a big hip-hop fan and brings fresh energy to the team!
Daniela Lürßen
(She/Her)
Chief Financial Officer, Head of Finance & Human Resources
After training as an event manager at a concert agency in Munich, she moved to Berlin in 2005. There she gained experience at MTV, the Bread & Butter fashion fair and Trinity Music. She has been a freelance accountant with various clients from the music and media industry since 2017 and has been working for BMC since 2019.