Born in 1968, Mr. Hinrichsen started his professional career as an apprentice for industrial machinery and control engineering. With this professional training he began working in the industry and quickly grasped core production issues and difficulties. He subsequently completed a Bachelor degree/ (Industriemeister) in Electro and Energy Technology at the IHK Nurnberg. He then returned to a commercial position as Technical Department Manager in charge of among others maintenance of the machinery park, developing new production machineries and energy consumption management. He returned to university at Märkische Fachhochschule to study Electrical Engineering.

In 1997, Hinrichsen moved to Japan to work for an international German-based company as Vice Director for Product Certification. During this time he was in charge of 200 employees and 40 million Euro turnover. In this leadership position he doubled company revenue and achieved 2-digit EBIT growth annually. After Hinrichsen returned to Germany at the end of 2011, he started his career as Regional Manager Western Europe for Product Testing. He developed two countries and implemented a restructuring program in another two countries. This resulted in the region’s first-time positive EBIT in 2013. Hinrichsen developed strong intercultural communication skills and proved his flexibility in new situations to guarantee turnaround. As Interim Manager Hinrichsen was assigned to Australia, Hungary, Turkey and The Netherlands.

During these assignments he focused on sales, restructuring, start-up, established a furniture laboratory and headquarters including laboratories of 4,500 sq., post-merger integration, business development and provided training for the local employees.

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Makiko Tanaka has an M.A. in Education from University of Bath, UK, and finished the Ph.D. program in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature at National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan. During her studies, she became competent in computer programs for conducting researches such as SPSS, PRAAT and DMDX software. She also has extensive experience collecting, analyzing and reporting data for quantitative research methods. She has moved in Germany since 2018 and develops further her career.

In Japan she worked as a translator at a patent office as well as English instructor at a university. She also taught Japanese for various levels of students at universities in Taiwan for 15 years. Meantime she established and managed a Japanese and English language school. Throughout her career, she has facilitated the development of strong planning skills, adaptability, and working with co-workers with various kinds of backgrounds in Japan and Taiwan. Her unique background and cultural experience in Asia and Europe can add valuable insight to management of TH international.

In view of her hard-working and thoughtful personality, her long-lasting work experience as a lecturer and her valuable cultural background, we certainly expect her to be an outstanding project manager in TH international.

Mrs. Dr. Chiharu Kato will support our clients to expand their business overseas. After working several years as a postdoc researcher at the University of Bonn, she started a new career at a German manufacturing company in 2015: Her tasks include market research and marketing in general, developing business networks and sales channels in Japan, translating user's manuals into Japanese, editing product catalogues, organizing exhibitions and businesses trips –  always in Japanese-German cooperation. In addition, Mrs. Kato spends most of her private time for intercultural research, visiting exhibitions and participating in various study tours.

Born in 1972, Mrs. Kato early put her interest in international cultures into practice by choosing “German culture and German literature” as her major at a private university in Japan. After graduating her B.A. in “International Culture” she decided to move to Germany in the year of 2000. In the same year, Mrs. Kato started her studies in biology at the Freie Universität Berlin, which she finished in 2008 with the best grades in her master’s degree.

After her masters she moved to Bonn and changed her research focus on structural analysis of marine organisms. During her doctoral studies she visited – amongst others – the “Marine Biological Laboratories“ (Woods Hole, USA), the “Station biologique de Roscoff” (France), the “Seto Marine Biological Laboratory” of the renowned Kyoto University and the “Usa Marine Biological Institute” of Kochi University (Japan). Through this, Mrs. Kato not only obtained a PhD Degree (magna cum laude) at the University of Bonn in 2013, but also gained far-reaching experiences in intercultural work in different countries.