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Time for a break!

Yes, it was time for a break! 🧳

ADAC

Just like in the Kitkat commercial it was time for a break. So, I’ve finally done it. After 2.5 years as the Managing Director of ADAC Finanzdienste GmbH, I have made the active decision to step down.

It has been a privilege to serve this organization for the past 2.5 years and I am incredibly proud of what we have accomplished together during that time.
After careful consideration, I concluded that I am at a stage in my personal career where I would always look back and regret not taking this step. End of March 2023 felt like the perfect time for me to make this change.

We live in turbulent times with a high degree of uncertainty, but I have full confidence that ADAC will continue to thrive with its great and visionary colleagues and especially the small but highly talented financial services team that has built up an impressive track record over the years. Well done!

Let’s never forget it’s great people who can make the difference.

Therefore, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to everyone in the ADAC organization who has supported me during my tenure. I would also like to extend my sincere thanks to the external partners, who have undoubtedly played a crucial role in the recent development of ADAC financial services. It has been an absolute pleasure and a privilege to work with these exceptional professionals during my time, especially the external advisory teams of: Dr. Thede Consulting, Linklaters Munich, and Frankfurt, Deloitte Legal, and Rock&Stars Hamburg. Special thanks go to Renke Weger, Christopher Freitag, Dr. Wolfgang Krauel, Nikita Selivanov, Michael Leicht, and, of course, the Deloitte team with Dr. Till Contzen, Sven Albertsen, and Dr. Michael Fischer.

Furthermore, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude for the outstanding collaboration and numerous joint successes with our highly valued business partners such as Landesbank Berlin, represented by Andreas Urbanczyk and Christine Schulz, and Dr. Andreas Matuschke. I also want to acknowledge the record breaking years with the Bank11 team, including Jörn Everhard and Patrick Rittich, and lastly, my dear friends from Solaris: Joerg Diewald, Florian Redeker, Baha Jamous, Chloé Mayenobe, and, of course, Roland Folz. I am confident that Solaris will continue to lead the ADAC Credit Card portfolio to new customer and member-centric successes. As I look towards the future, I am filled with excitement, anticipation, and a strong desire to engage in new endeavors. I have a wealth of new ideas, valuable contacts, extensive experience, and unwavering motivation to take that leap of faith.

2021 Christian Reinicke ist der neue Präsident des ADAC.

ONLINE-HAUPTVERSAMMLUNG

Christian Reinicke  ist der neue Präsident des ADAC. Der 56-jährige Rechtsanwalt und Notar aus Hannover wurde am Samstag auf einer Online-Hauptversammlung gewählt

Der neue ADAC-Präsident Christian Reinicke will die Digitalisierung und Öffnung des Traditionsvereins für neue Angebote vorantreiben. „Wir müssen liefern, was unsere Mitglieder brauchen“, sagte er am Samstag in München nach seiner Wahl auf einer Online-Hauptversammlung. Der 56-jährige Rechtsanwalt und Notar aus Hannover tritt die Nachfolge von August Markl an, der nach sieben Jahren an der Spitze nicht mehr kandidierte. Reinicke war der einzige Kandidat und erhielt 78 Prozent der Delegiertenstimmen, 22 Prozent stimmten gegen ihn. Als oberster ADAC-Jurist seit 2016 hatte er zusammen mit Markl die Reformen bei Deutschlands größtem Verein vorangetrieben. Seine Amtszeit als ADAC-Präsident beträgt zunächst vier Jahre.

Reinicke sagte den Delegierten vor der Wahl, dass „die Pannenhilfe und Leistungen rund um die persönliche Mobilität für mich weiterhin an erster Stelle stehen“. Der ADAC sei stolz auf seine automobilen Wurzeln. Aber „wir engagieren uns auch für die Lösung von Verkehrsproblemen aus der Sicht von Fußgängern und Radfahrern“. Egal mit welchem Verkehrsmittel ADAC-Mitglieder gerade unterwegs seien, sie müssten sich auf die Leistungen des Clubs verlassen können. Der ADAC müsse „auch Trends und den technischen Fortschritt aufgreifen“ und jederzeit digital erreichbar und präsent sein. Im August werde er eine Gesundheits-App starten

Das neugewählte Präsidium wolle auf seiner ersten Sitzung einen Fahrplan für die wichtigsten Themen festlegen. Es habe auch viele interne Themen abzuarbeiten, etwa die Neubesetzungen im Vorstand der ADAC SE und der ADAC-Stiftung, sagte Reinicke. Den 47 der 217 Delegierten, die gegen ihn gestimmt hatten, bot er einen Dialog über ihre Kritikpunkte an. „Es ist gar nicht so einfach festzustellen, wer das ist“, sagte er, berichtet die Deutsche Presse-Agentur. Man ringe aus verschiedenen Perspektiven um Antworten, aber am Schluss müsse es gemeinsame Lösungen geben: „Die große Linie muss stimmen. Das ist in den nächsten Monaten eine wichtige Aufgabe, das zusammenzuführen.“

Der 72-jährige Markl erinnerte in seiner Abschiedsrede an die „teilweise erbitterten“ Kämpfe um die Neuausrichtung des ADAC nach seinem Amtsantritt 2014. Nach Aufdeckung der Manipulationen um den Autopreis „Gelber Engel“ hatte Markl dem Traditionsclub denrechtlichen Status als Verein gerettet, indem er ihn in drei Säulen aufspaltete: Den inzwischen auf 21 Millionen Mitglieder gewachsenen Verein mit der Pannenhilfe, die Aktiengesellschaft ADAC SE mit dem Versicherungsgeschäft und die ADAC-Stiftung, die sich um Luftrettung und Unfallverhütung kümmert. Die Aufgaben der ehrenamtlichen Funktionäre und angestellten Geschäftsführer wurden klarer aufgeteilt, Ämterhäufung beschnitten.

2020 The Brighter Digital Future

The emergence of COVID-19, Wirecard Head of Issuing Product North America Sean Healey told PYMNTS in a recent conversation, reset the entire payments and commerce landscape in a breathtakingly swift fashion. Several older forms of technology persisted not because they were particularly good or beloved so much as they were familiar. In the post-coronavirus landscape, however, things like checks just don’t work at all. Consumers are experimenting with entirely new modes of interaction — and learning that there are a lot of better ways to conduct their daily financial lives.

And those ways will still be better even after the active pandemic has passed, he noted, as consumers go about restructuring their lives, but not necessarily resetting them back to what they once were.

“I think COVID-19 has changed the way businesses and consumers think about payments and every level of and type of interaction — from shopping to eating out to working and beyond. I think we have areas where adoption has generally been slow where we’re certainly going to see a major uptick that won’t ever go back to the way they were,” Healey said.

And it won’t just be a lot of “out with the old” on display in a post-COVID-19 world — but a lot of “in with the new,” which would have seemed impossibly futuristic as recently as six months ago.

Reorienting The Marketplace

Check-based disbursements are the best example of a persistent payment method that may, at long last, be ready for retirement in the wake of COVID-19. Checks have mostly stayed around on the strength of being familiar, Healey noted, even if they brought little else to the table.

Today, they simply aren’t adequate for the needs of the market — printing, cutting and handling checks is a hassle for firms that have gone remote and also presents a public health risk. And as firms are finally ready to move past the check, he said, other innovations become possible for the workers for whom they are most critically relevant.

“When workers are no longer waiting for checks to clear, that opens up the potential to be paid more frequently — that traditional biweekly timeframe can go out the window if it needs to,” Healey said.

For businesses that aim to either boost employee satisfaction or help employees improve their cash flow, having those options readily available is very important. And, Healey added, the rapid shift to a digital-only world has pushed consumers into a host of experiences that have thus before now been slower to ignite in the U.S. market. His list is extensive: contactless payments, mobile wallet adoption and use, mobile app-based shopping, grocery delivery and curbside pickup.

The trendlines before the coronavirus pandemic were already driving up in all of those areas — but there were still wide swaths of consumers who were reluctant to explore an upgrade when what they had been using was still functional, if not optimal. The pandemic has changed that menu of choices, and compelled consumers to try products and services they may have been hesitant to experiment with in the past.

“Consumers are going to encounter the innovations and realize a digital disbursement is better than a check, it’s better to click a link to pay than to do so in person, it’s easier to order online than to search in a store,” Healey said. “I was rarely using grocery curbside pickup before. If it isn’t an option now, that shop is no longer even in the ballgame for me going forward.”

And that readiness for change won’t just eliminate what’s out of date, but will also open the door for what’s next.

The Brighter Digital Future

Predicting what will follow in the post-COVID-19 world is incredibly challenging, given that the situation is still unfolding and developing in real time. There will be all kinds of interesting things to watch for, Healey said. Dining and shopping experiences will now be highly omnichannel going forward, as consumers will restrict activities to their home, particularly in the phased transitional period out of social distancing, he noted.

For merchants and retailers everywhere, being able to sell online will be critical no matter what business they are in, because consumers’ transactional lives will be more digitally anchored from here on out.

But the most interesting changes, Healey said, are the ones that aren’t yet in focus, but that will be enabled by consumers who have now lived a digital-only life and have created new routines and expectations. What that will mean is still an emerging picture, but the possibilities are wide — and in some cases, long-anticipated.

“I think all of this will pave the way for things like smart cities, which seemed like such futuristic ideas even a couple of years ago,” said Healey. “With our society now better prepared to adapt to changes and respond in an agile fashion, I think there are a lot of amazing things we will be able to do together.”