Bernd Hallier – a cosmopolitan professor

Bernd Hallier is managing director of the Cologne-based EHI Retail Institute, founder of the European Retail Academy, doctor honoris causa of several universities all over the globe and a restless world citizen. He regularly organises outdoor workshops/team building exercises for foreign students, cruising on his sailboat ‘Kruzenshtern’. During EuroShop he practically lives at the venue of the trade fair, he makes speeches at 3-4 receptions each evening and only has time to check out the pavilions at night. In 2010 he participated in the International Student Competition and Forum in Yekaterinburg, at the end of which participants marched on the border connecting Europe with Asia. From here 300 students and professors rode a nostalgia train to Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan where Dr Hallier and three economics Noble Prize winners presented prizes to students at the ‘Sustainable economic growth after the crisis’ conference. Later Bernd Hallier wrote a bilingual book with Mikhail Fedorov about the two events, which is titled ‘Team Spirit for Networking’. Where does the energy of the 63-year-old professor come from? He says he is like that because he has been doing what he likes for 26 years, but he also owes a lot to his family and his Calvinist heritage. Bernd Hallier personally knows the founders of Metro, Tengelmann, Aldi, Ahold, DM and many of their key employees too. When he was leading a European environmental project Angela Merkel was member of his team. He loves arts and has written 8 books so far. The professor told Trade magazine that during his university years he went abroad as an exchange student each summer. This is how he got to South Africa where he first met with tobacco product manufacturers Rothmans. He started working for them as a sales rep in 1974 when the company entered the German market. In 1983 he wrote his dissertation on retail innovations. He was assigned the task of putting these ideas in practice in 1985, when he was appointed head of the institute’s predecessor. He has been dealing with the same topics ever since and he created the Retail Tornado theory. In Germany EHI owns 50 percent of GS1, the group that is dedicated to the design and implementation of global standards and solutions to improve the efficiency and visibility of supply and demand chains globally and across sectors. In 1994 six German retail chains and EHI established the Orgaivent system, making the formerly anonymous route of meat products traceable from the farms through the abattoirs to store shelves. In 1997 EHI was spearheading the formation of EUREGAP, a European system for tracing fruits and vegetables that in 2007 became a global standard called Global GAP – which is also owned by EHI. Bernd Hallier founded the European Retail Academy because he thinks that international competence centres are needed: they can be the bridge that connects countries and continents.