ABOUT APPIA
The Experts of the APPIA AUTOMOTIVE GROUP
In organisational terms, the APPIA Automotive Group is made up of different companies, joint ventures with complementary expertise and resources as well as selected partnerships with proven experts in the industry.
The APPIA Automotive Group, founded by Marco Wimmer and Heiko Hempe, was launched in 2018 as a strong superstructure for a network of companies and experts. The aim was to implement projects in the mobility sector effectively by bundling various specialist competences from the network that had been built up over many years.
With our specialist areas of property development, consulting & development, club models and a professional event agency with its own classic car fleet and workshop, we offer expertise on a broad front when it comes to mobility, heritage, events and the fascination of driving.
Fuel for your project
Our team and our experts are deeply rooted in the scene and passionately active with different specialisations. This makes the APPIA Automotive Group your link to the market and target groups.
Marco Wimmer
Managing Partner of APPIA Automotive Group GmbH
Marco Wimmer lives and breathes classic mobility and is not only known as a project coordinator and property developer in the classic car scene. As co-founder and former managing director of Klassikstadt Frankfurt, initiator of today’s Classic Depots and creator and realiser of numerous event formats in the scene, he can draw on an extensive and personal network in the classic car sector.
Various successful business models in the field of classic mobility have been created under his leadership and are continuously being developed further. Marco Wimmer is also passionate about supporting a wide variety of participants in entering or developing the classic mobility market – always creative, networked, entrepreneurial and with a keen sense for differentiated positioning.
Marco Wimmer
Heiko Hempe
Co-founder and Managing Director Joint Venture Partner
Heiko Hempe is managing partner of the contagi group of companies and AUTOMOBILE MEILENSTEINE. His professional career has included various positions in the field of management consultancy with a clear focus on sales and retail excellence topics as well as various successful start-ups in professional services.
Among other things, his great passion for classic cars and his constant involvement in productive networks led to the founding of AUTOMOBILE MEILENSTEINE GmbH & Co. KG in Frankfurt: Classic Car Sharing & Events.
With the two core competences of consulting experience and extensive networking in the classic car scene, the APPIA Automotive Group was founded together with Marco Wimmer. His cross-industry network and that of the entire group of companies help APPIA to achieve a far-reaching radius of action, effective solutions and access to relevant resources and expertise.
Heiko Hempe studied business administration in Passau, is married and the father of two sons. He lives with his family in the Hochtaunus district. He can rarely hide his enthusiasm for modern and classic vehicles. There is no exclusive brand focus, but when he thinks of 911, he certainly doesn’t think of the emergency number in the USA.
Heiko Hempe
Tim Hallas
Partner & Lawyer
Tim Hallas is, on the one hand, a licensed lawyer, organised in the contagi ADVOKATUR and the AdvoCARtur law firm, which focuses on classic cars. Tim Hallas is also a founding partner of AUTOMOBILE MEILENSTEINE GmbH & Co. KG, WHICH IS PART OF THE GROUP. He has supported and advised all parts of the company in legal matters since its foundation and is responsible for structural matters.
After studying law at the University of Passau, Tim Hallas began his legal career in the automotive sector as an in-house lawyer for a major automotive supplier. Tim Hallas’ main areas of legal activity are contract management, classic car and damage law, labour law, data protection law, insurance law and general contract law advice for companies.
In his private life, he has been a car and classic car enthusiast since childhood and drives a BMW 6 Series E24, among other things, whenever time permits.
Tim Hallas
Christian Schamburek
Associate Partner & Representative in Austria
Christian Schamburek is at home in the classic car scene in Austria. As publisher and author of the OLDTIMER GUIDE and editor-in-chief of the magazine OLDTIMER MARKT Österreich Spezial, he takes care of projects and consulting focussing on the subject area of historic vehicles.
The solidarity and unified opinion-forming of all interest groups on all topics relevant to historic mobility is the basis for preserving the rolling cultural asset ‘classic car’ on Austria’s roads.
One of the most recent projects is the support in the conception and realisation of the Classic Depot Vienna. A new anchor point for the classic car scene with garage spaces, event and sales areas was created here from a blank sheet of paper in the centre of the metropolis.
Christian Schamburek
Thomas Borst
Associate Partner
Thomas Borst is a ‘petrolhead’ who is passionate about both classic and modern vehicles. He has over 25 years of experience in top management in German and American companies with turnovers ranging from hundreds of millions to several billion euros.
His expertise lies in international sales and marketing, as well as global strategy development in the BtB environment. He knows how to successfully develop, build and manage brands worldwide. He has the experience to develop and implement the necessary sales concepts, coupled with the necessary marketing communication.
Naturally, his enthusiasm for automotive technology was also reflected in his professional activities as a representative of companies that supply high-quality technology to automotive OEMs. He was also closely associated with one of the most successful Formula 1 racing teams for several years.
Today, he contributes his experience as a member of the advisory and supervisory boards of several companies. Thomas Borst studied law and economics at the University of Bayreuth and further qualified in strategy development and change management at the University of Charlottesville.
He loves the Italian way of life, the country and the people. This has inevitably led to a small collection of historic Alfa Romeos. But it’s not just Italy that is represented in his garage – the iconic 911 is not to be missed either.
Thomas Borst
Jorge da Conceicao Lopo
Partner and automotive retail expert
Jorge da Conceicao Lopo is Managing Partner and Managing Director of contagi INTERIM, one of the companies behind the APPIA joint venture. In this role, he is responsible for the professional provision of temporary specialists and managers and has access to a pool of > 2000 specialists.
The economics graduate began his professional career in management consulting with a clear focus on the automotive industry, sales and management issues at all organisational levels from OEM to dealer.
He can contribute his wealth of experience in the APPIA context, particularly in the context of complex consulting approaches and especially in projects related to automotive retail excellence.
In his private life, he lives with his wife and child in the centre of Frankfurt am Main and feels equally at home on two and four wheels.
Jorge Lopo
Dominik Helmling
Project management & digital
Combining digital media and analogue technology – Dominik Helmling has been lucky enough to be able to pursue his hobby as a professional field since 2015.
After successfully completing his master’s degree in German studies, he specialised in communication and digital management in the mobility sector. He contributes his skills to various projects at AUTOMOBILE MEILENSTEINE and, since 2020, the APPIA Automotive Group. His topics range from the design of analogue and digital media of all kinds, communication in general, digital project and product development, to consulting and project management activities.
Dominik Helmling is married and has a daughter, who first developed a linguistic feeling for car brands and only then a further vocabulary. He is passionate about classic motorbikes and saloon cars from the 1970s.
Dominik Helmling
Matthias Braun
Matthias Braun is not only the former Secretary General of the AvD, but has also been at home in the automotive sector for many years.
Today, he is a senior advisor to the Aramco Research Centre Paris and sits on the MOTORWORD advisory board.
Matthias Braun
Ulf Schulz
Associate Partner
MotorKosmonaut Ulf Schulz is deeply rooted in the classic car scene in and around Berlin. As a trained car mechanic, Ulf has the perfect knowledge base for his work as a book author, motoring journalist, presenter, project developer and universal car professional. He demonstrates this effectively in his radio programme on rbb and his service tips on television.
He is not only a qualified marketing economist, but also runs his own agency, motorKosmos, which co-operates with the APPIA Automotive Group.
His core competences here are the creation of marketing concepts, the go-to-market support of innovative business models in the classic mobility market environment and his large and far-reaching network with the press and the entire classic car scene.
Ulf Schulz is a family man, lives in Berlin and is addicted to the spirit of the AVUS like no other. Naturally, he also drives historic vehicles of various makes with two and four wheels in his everyday life. And there is probably no better connoisseur and ambassador for the BMW 7 Series of the legendary E32 model series.
Ulf Schulz
Gregor Müller
Expert in classic car technology and maintenance
Gregor has been interested in mechanics and technology since his earliest childhood. That’s why he specialised in engine construction for classic and modern engines after completing his training as an automotive mechatronics technician at Mercedes-Benz in Frankfurt. After 2.5 years working for a well-known company for the repair and optimisation of high-performance engines (partly on behalf of the factory), he joined a restoration company for vintage and classic cars.
After successfully passing his master craftsman’s examination, Gregor Müller joined AUTOMOBILE MEILENSTEINE and since the opening of AM ClassicsRepair, Gregor Müller has been in charge of the classic car workshop team as a partner. In a very short space of time, the workshop has become a renowned centre for classic cars and has been able to quickly expand its staff.
As part of the APPIA Automotive Group, Gregor and his team take care of the maintenance and repair of the vehicles in the company’s own fleet as well as those of customers. At events, the workshop takes care of technical scrutineering, trackside services and much more.
Gregor used to be one of the wild ones on two wheels, at home in various racing series. Now married with two daughters and living not far from Frankfurt am Main, he still rides just about anything with wheels in his spare time – but now particularly enjoys riding the Harley of a deceased friend of his beloved father.
Gregor Müller
Mathias Landau
Mathias is an entrepreneur and owner of the company RISCOM from Heidesheim near Mainz. He specialises in vehicle and passenger transport. He is also a passionate mechanic and specialist for Italian classics and racing cars.
Within the Appia Automotive Group, his core competence is working on projects such as Pista Piloti or as a universal contact for the Classic Depots. He was born with organisational talent at an early age and over the years he has built up an appropriate network that he can draw on when required. He can also safely transport vehicles in a closed trailer for customers if required.
Mathias Landau lives with his partner in Heidesheim am Rhein. Together they maintain and move the Italian vehicles with two or four wheels that have accumulated over the years. Lancia and Maserati are his favourites. And with a good eye, Mathias Landau can occasionally be spotted on the racetrack.
Mathias Landau
APPIA Automotive Group – Tradition & Modernity
More than 2,300 years ago, the VIA APPIA served the ancient Romans as a connecting road between Rome and Brindisi. This road still exists today with exactly the same route, is still used as a traffic artery and is even partially preserved in its original form, paved with stones that were almost two and a half thousand years old. A street as its own brand, full of history and at the same time leading into the future.
Just as this inimitable building combines tradition and modernity, it is a core objective of the APPIA Automotive Group to link brand heritage and modern mobility.
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