Born in 1955, Bernd Marenbach is currently living his ‘third working life’, as he puts it.

After graduating, he worked as a journalist for nearly ten years, mainly in radio and television. While working his way up from trainee to head of programming and editor in chief, he got to know many facets of the media: he was a commentator at football matches, he interviewed politicians, hosted shows, produced items for news broadcasts. Later he was in charge of complete programmes and broadcasters, increasingly taking on strategic tasks such as monitoring markets and competitors, as well as developing the profiles and structures of broadcasting organizations. His other responsibilities have included programme development, building up editorial teams, and training staff. Among the stations for which he has worked are RPR (Duty Editor), RTL (Head of Current Affairs) und Antenne Düsseldorf (Editor in Chief).

In the early 1990s Marenbach changed sides by moving to the information department of the German Chambers of Commerce and Industry (DIHT), he now found himself informing former colleagues on the views of German business regarding current and general issues. For seven years he worked at this interface between business, the media and the politicians, and also set up a company for the DIHT that provided SMEs with information on technological innovations.

In 1998 Marenbach set out on his third ‘working life’ by forming his own company: ‘POP – Public Opinion Partners GmbH’. In this network of communications specialists, he is able to bring together the experiences gathered during his previous ‘working lives’.

Marenbach and Public Opinion Partners advise globally operating corporations and SMEs, lobbying organizations in business or sport, and also individuals on communication strategies, and help to implement these in practice.

He himself has concentrated in recent years on one-on-one training and coaching. His clients include such personalities as government ministers from Germany and other countries along with their closest staff, ambassadors and other top diplomats, company CEOs and senior managers, heads of business associations and public authorities, as well as other leaders in the fields of business, politics and sport.

From 1992 to 2001, Marenbach was a member of the Council of Deutsche Welle, and from 1998 to 2001 chair of its Television Committee.