Gerald Böse

Gerald Böse, Chief Executive Officer of Koelnmesse, can look back on more than 30 years of experience in the international trade fair business.

Gerald Böse was born in Munich in 1962. After studying business administration at Munich University of Applied Sciences, he started his career in the trade fair business in 1989 as a trainee at the Messe München trade fair company. As a member of the administration team and project manager there, he got to know the trade fair business in all its facets, including trade fair marketing and services, international activities and conference management. He came in contact with the fashion business as head of the MOC Veranstaltungscenter München project group.

In 1992, he moved to the IGEDO Company in Düsseldorf as assistant to the management. Until 2005, as Managing Director, he was responsible for the rescheduling and the international activities of the subsidiaries in Italy, China and Great Britain. In addition to fashion, he established new trade fair themes there, such as OMD (Online Marketing Düsseldorf), which would eventually become the leading trade fair for the industry in Düsseldorf for years.

In 2005, Gerald Böse became the Speaker of the Management Board of Karlsruher Messe- und Kongress GmbH and joined the Management Board of Neue Messe Karlsruhe.

Since 1 March 2008, Gerald Böse has been CEO of Koelnmesse GmbH in Cologne. In 2010, he initiated a comprehensive efficiency programme and radical reorganisation. Under his leadership, the company has grown continuously since overcoming the global financial and economic crisis. In 2019, Koelnmesse achieved the largest turnover and some of the highest profits in its history to date.

The company is focused on internationalisation, driving new business models through the digital transformation process and constant development of established trade fairs and core thematic competencies. In Cologne, Gerald Böse stands up for the integration of trade fair themes into the city and region as well as joint destination marketing aimed at promoting the location as a venue for trade fairs, conventions and business. By 2034, Cologne will boast one of the world’s most attractive exhibition centres. Its creation is being managed under the Koelnmesse 3.0 programme, which encompasses investments of more than 700 million euro.

In June 2008, Böse was elected to the Board of Directors of the Association of the German Trade Fair Industry (AUMA). Since December 2009, he has had a seat on the General Assembly of Cologne Chamber of Commerce and Industry and is today chairman of the International Affairs Committee there. In June 2010, he was elected to the executive body of the German-Swiss Chamber of Commerce. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of TÜV Rheinland Berlin Brandenburg Pfalz e.V. since 2020. Gerald Böse is a Member of the Board of Directors of the UFI (The Global Association of the Exhibition Industry). In 2021, he was appointed to the advisory board of KölnBusiness Wirtschaftsförderung (Business Development).