Marcus Körner

Managing Director

Managing director and sole shareholder of the IWD Group, he acquired professional experience in the areas of neurobiology, marketing, media production and technology before founding the IWD market research Institute in Magdeburg, Germany, in 1998.

Born in 1971, in Magdeburg, he completed a medical-technical education in 1988 and 1989 at the Institute for Neurobiology and Brain Research Magdeburg. There, he was mainly involved in the technical measurement of brain functioning. After further studies in the area of radio technology and IT electronics in Wuppertal from 1990 to 1993, he studied marketing in Leipzig until 1998.

In the final year, he founded the media agency Körner & Partner, which is specialized in the European radio market. He assumed the role of chief editor of the radio station Radio Europe based in Daun/Eifel from 1998 to 2001. He founded the IWD market research Institute in 1998.

In 2004, together with a partner, Körner founded Medialysis GmbH, a company that is specialized in telemetric measurement of radio usage.

For that reason, he was chosen among the „30 people of Magdeburg’s future“ in 2007. In the following year the IWD market research Institute was nominated for the German Market Research Award for its Medialysis System; and in 2009, it was honoured as the most family-friendly company in Magdeburg with the „Work-Life-Balance Award“.

Sandra Baethge

Managing Director

Sandra has been supporting our national and international retail clients as a Business Development Manager for 15 years in the implementation of their projects. With a lot of passion and curiosity, she is always looking for new challenges and individual solutions.

Sandra has been part of the management team since June 1st, 2021.

Furthermore, Sandra teaches “Quantitative Market Research” at the Dual Cooperative State University Baden-Württemberg (DHBW) in Heilbronn for the dual courses consumer goods retailing, fashion management and digital retail.

Kordula Later

Senior Project Manager / Authorized Officer

As senior project manager for the German clients, Kordula mainly coordinates CATI & CAPI studies in Germany and in Europe.

During her studies, she actively participated in various projects within the scope of an internship, and was able to acquire many experiences and insights in market research. Since her graduation in 2001, she has been working in Project Management at IWD market research GmbH. She is responsible for the planning, organization and managing of different projects. Her main task is to coordinate F2F, CAPI and mystery shopping projects.

As an authorized signatory, Kordula also collaborates with the management since June 2021.

„I was born, grew up and wanted to grow old in Magdeburg. I love traveling through the big wide world, going to concerts and to the theater. My job constantly provides me with new challenges and exciting demands of my clients. That keeps it always interesting.”

Kristin Wesemann

Project Manager Germany / Austria / Switzerland

Kristin Wesemann began working as project manager for Germany, Austria and Switzerland after completing her studies in sociology and pedagogy in March 2012.

She started working at IWD market research GmbH in August 2004 as an interviewer and continued in this field till 2008. In consequence of the experience and insights acquired in a multitude of various projects, Kristin assumed the position of Supervisor and Field Lead in Germany. Nowadays she is project manager for Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

„To balance out my often turbulent workdays, I relax during reading a book, going to the cinema or to the theatre.“

Alina Kahl

Project Manager International

Alina has been part of the IWD team since 2012. Her studies brought Alina to Magdeburg in 2008. At the University of Magdeburg, she completed her bachelor‘s degree in International Management and spent an exciting semester abroad in Riga. Through an internship during her subsequent master’s studies, she came to IWD in 2012, and started working in the area of data preparation. After finishing her master studies she started working as project manager in 2013.

What Alina especially likes about her job are the new and exciting challenges, which every single project brings along.

In her free time she enjoys spending time with her dog during long walks in the park.

Maria Wyss

Head of Accounting / Office

Maria has been working at IWD market research GmbH since 2006. During the first three years, she successfully completed training as a management assistant in office communication. Beforehand, she already received an applied degree in Economics. Today, Maria is head of accounting, HR management and administration. She is the very soul of the IWD market research GmbH.

Maria finds balance to her work in her family, her house, and her hobbies. She is an enthusiastic football and ice hockey fan!

Van Hoang

Head of Business Intelligence

Van comes from Vietnam and has lived in Magdeburg with her family for years. During her studies in Business Economic she was doing an internship at the IWD market research. She took place in several interesting projects. Thereby Van got to know the diversity of market research.

She has been employed by IWD in 2006 and is responsible for the preparation of studies and design. The reasons why Van became a part of the IWD are the variety, the freedom for being creative and the visible results of her job.

She likes to spend her spare time with her family. Furthermore Van loves cooking. „It is not a hard job to prepare a meal it is more fun.“ A meal in company with her Family is very important to her. It shows gregariousness and is part of her daily routine.

Madeline Primus

Senior Data Analyst

In September 2007, Madeline Primus became a part of the IWD team. Her tasks include the processing of survey data received by IWD Market Research GmbH. This includes, along with data control and preparation, analysis of all the data. Her job includes also the administration of the Blackberry and Samsung devices technology.

She began her career in 2004, with school training as a design assistant with a focus on media/communication. This was followed by a successful completion of a one-year technical school training course in design. After that, she continued a two-year double study program to become a communication specialist. During this time, she did an internship at IWD market research GmbH. Having already started her professional career, she began the last stage of her professional training by obtaining an IHK certification for marketing communication assistant, while continuing to work.

In her personal life, she is often creative in her free time and likes to design projects for her family and for herself, which she then gladly implements.

She is also a passionate acrylic painter and is slowly building her own studio.

Malena Lüdemann

Project Manager Germany / Austria / Switzerland

Malena grew up in a village near Hamburg. After graduating from high school, she trained as a paralegal - a bit too dry for Malena's taste, which is why she started further training as a specialist in office and project organisation on the side. Well, if that doesn't suit us perfectly! A Magdeburg girl of choice who came to our beautiful city because of love and an inquisitive personality with a passion for planning and organising. Welcome, Malena, to Project Management DACH. We are happy to have you at our side since January 2022 and look forward to working with you on exciting projects in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Malena is an absolute family person. And when she's not visiting family and friends in her old home country, she has many other cities on her agenda. Otherwise, sports, cooking and reading are Malena's way of relaxing.

Simon Meinecke

Assistant Accounting / Office

Simon and Maria are together the very soul of IWD. Since he finished school in 2004, Simon went straight away to the University. At the Otto-von-Guericke-University he was studying cultural science from 2005 to 2008. Subsequently after his academic career he started the professional one. Simon did an apprenticeship as office administrator in 2008. Once he finished it successfully he was employed. In March 2014 he started working for the field of administrative accounting at IWD.

Simon loves to listen to music for that reason he became a passionate collector of sound recording mediums. He is also a fan of American Football. If he wants to calm down after a hard day of work, he watches one of his favorite series.

Sören Grunenberg

Working Student Business Intelligence

Sören is a native of Brandenburg. Before he came to us in beautiful Magdeburg to study Business Economics, he had already completed his Bachelor's degree in Economics and English Studies in Halle (Saale). As part of his thesis, he analysed a data set using statistical methods, which eventually sparked his interest in market research. Then he found a job with us where he could explore his interest even more and gain practical experience in a field that would fit his future career path. Study creation, text coding and transcription of audio recordings are some of the tasks Sören has been gaming on as a working student in our Business Intelligence department since November 2021

Going to concerts and festivals are among his favourite leisure activities. But he also follows football and American football matches with enthusiasm.

Julia Richter

Project Manager Germany / Austria / Switzerland

Julia loves Magdeburg, which was one reason for her to study in Magdeburg after she finished school in 2012. At the Otto-von-Guericke-University she finished her Bachelor of Science in the field of economics in 2015. What follows was an internship in the public service sector and the financial service sector. Julia made her first working experience in the field of customer care service at a well-known airline.

She is very companionable. For that reason Julia spends most of her time with family and friends. She also likes it to go to the cinema or to stroll around the inner city of Magdeburg. Another passion of her is travelling. Julia already went to parts of Asia, America and Europe.

Stefan Neumann

Project Assistant Germany / Austria / Switzerland

Stefan did his A level in 2000 and afterwards joined the basic military service for one year. He was born and raised in the Altmark and wanted to stay close to home, so he decided to study electrical engineering in Magdeburg at the local college. During his studies, Stefan began to work for IWD as a part-time job. First, he was doing CATI-Interviews in 2010, but soon conducted Face-to-Face surveys and became a supervisor in 2013. Stefan’s scope of activities changed to recruiting, training instructor and support in 2016. After many years and many practical experiences gained in the field, he now supports project management Germany / Austria / Switzerland as project assistant.

In Stefan’s spare time, he is enthusiastic about NFL, Fitness and certain TV series. Moreover, he likes reading books that go over the boundaries of human being, space and the universe.

Kalina Sempf

Project Manager International

Kalina has Bulgarian roots. She was born and grew up in Sofia. After graduating high school, she obtained a Master’s degree in Industrial Management from Technical University in Sofia. Then she felt the urge to travel.

Before she made Magdeburg her home, she gained experience from various places around the world. Starting at Deggendorf University of Applied Sciences in Bavaria, where she earned her Bachelor´s degree in International Management. Afterwards she participated in the “Work and Travel in the U.S.” program and also spent a semester in Chennai, India. Now Magdeburg is her dream home and she lives here with her small family.

In order to get a cool head again and to think about nothing, she often dives into the water to swim a few laps.

Maren Zwernemann

Assistant Accounting / Office

Maren was born and raised in Magdeburg. She finished school and started her apprenticeship as management assistant in office communication at Magdeburg Städte Werbung. She was working for this company for 15 years until she went to IWD market research GmbH in 2017. Now she is one of our assistants for accounting/office.

In her leisure time Maren relaxes during cooking or reading an interesting book. But most of the time she spends with her family and friends, likely to go to the cinema.

Anja Müller

HR Manager

Born and raised in the Börde district, Anja set out in 2004 and began an apprenticeship in Hanover. Further education and training in retail followed, and so it came to many assignments as a department manager´s assistant in various cities in Germany. After seven years, she realized that "home" is the nicest place to be, so Anja returned home. Professionally, she then took a closer look at retail from the other side in product management/purchasing. After her parental leave, Anja initially found her way to IWD market research GmbH as an office assistant in 2017. Since 2020, she has been taking care of all HR matters as HR Manager with us.

She likes it most spending her free time with her little family or playing games with friends. In winter, she is passionate about skiing and in summer she is often out and riding her bike. She also loves to bake and, of course, to eat the baked goods : )

Sebastian Tennert

Data Analyst

2012 Sebastian finished his studies of Sociology at the University of Halle-Wittenberg with his diploma. During his time as a student he was working as student assistant at the Institute of Sociology and the Center of Social Research e.V. He worked in empirical data and empirical studies. Subsequently to this he worked in the field of event management at the Stiftung Bauhaus in Dessau. Afterwards Sebastian became a freelance editor and now also works for the IWD market research GmbH in 2017. In our company he is part of the team for Data analysis.

For relaxing Sebastian likes reading a book or enjoying a good dinner. But he is interested in concerts and other languages, too. Sebastian has also a passion for soccer games and is a big fan of his favorite team.

Laura-Charlott Irocki

Project Assistant Germany / Austria / Switzerland

Laura comes originally from Colbitz but did her extended high-school diploma in Wolmirstedt. Afterwards she started her working career at Sport Scheck, where she was employed for 12 years. Since 2017 we welcome Laura as a team member at IWD market research GmbH. She works as project assistant Germany / Austria / Switzerland.

Her leisure time Laura spends riding a bike in summer or going snowboarding in winter. She loves travelling. Otherwise she loves to spend her time with her family and friends. If she can combine it with watching a movie in the cinema it is the best.