About Frank

Why are you here?

I am curious about that. If you feel like it, send me an Email and tell me something about yourself too. I’ll get back to you, guaranteed.

The pure facts (positions, education, languages) are available on LinkedIn and what’s currently on my mind on my NOW page. Here is the story told in a bit more detail.

many professions

I’ve been on adventures professionally. I’ve been a host in the cinema and hospitality industry at one time or another, and worked at digital agencies. Most of all, I’ve been an entrepreneur. Two of these episodes have gotten a bit longer and more intense.

Students.ch

From 2001 I worked with Jan, Markus and Adrian to build a web platform for students. We were studying ourselves and solved our own challenges with web applications for all students. In the following years Students.ch became the most active contact point for students in Switzerland.

At Students.ch I took on the following roles and learned for the first time how to fulfill them:

• Co-Founder and Entrepreneur
• Head of Development / Teamlead
• Scrum Master
• Full Stack Developer (PHP, MySQL, own framework with XML and XSLT)
• Personnel development and coach
• Project Manager (internal and external)
• Event Management

In 2007 we employed a team of about 15 people and sold Students.ch to Axel Springer Switzerland after long negotiations and extensive screenings. As an existing team, we continued to develop the platform. In 2010 I left the company.

Students.ch has changed hands several times since then and is no longer being developed further.

anundpfirsich

In 2005 I started a culture company together with Matthias, Katharina, Anna and Christian. Based on improvisatin and theater we implemented cultural events, theater trainings and personnel and organizational development.

At anundpfirsich I have taken on the following roles, among others:

• Co-founder and entrepreneur
• Managing director for many years
• Department and project manager Impro for Business (OE, PE, seminars, trainings)
• Actor
• Lecturer for improv theatre courses
• Trainer for applied improvisation in organizations
• Coach for leaders
• Responsible for IT infrastructure and processes
• Personnel administration and accounting

anundpfirsich continues to be the most important improvisation company in Switzerland and radiates from the Theater im Zollhaus in Zurich out into the world. At the time of my departure, the team comprised around 12 permanent employees and 30 freelancers.

Moments

In every life, there are events that turn out to be moments of destiny (usually in retrospect). This is where my story took a turn:

• 1979 I am born on a long summer day.
• 1987 my family moves to a village in the countryside, where I meet two of my future co-founders.
• 1991 I make the transition to high school and enjoy the freedom of the long way to school.
• 1993 my father dies of a brain tumor. I am 14.
• 1994 I play a first leading role in the theater class at the high school.
• 1999 I travel for 7 weeks through the southern states of the USA. I lose all photos and a friendship of many years.
• 1999 I am exempted from army service due to an anxiety disorder and start my first job. I design user interfaces for the web.
• 2001 fun becomes a company: Students.ch.
• 2005 I cut and make some connections: I live and study in Berlin for 10 months.
• 2007 negotiations with a big publishing house come to an end and I sell (as co-owner) my first company Students.ch.
• 2010 I open my own small theater in Zurich with anundpfirsich. The “töpferei” becomes a bit my home.
• 2011 I am on tour for two months with improtheater through D-A-CH. It will be 19 performances, 4 days of workshops and 24 beds.
• 2012 I haul Marianne’s moving boxes and luckily meet Simona.
• 2013 I start my coaching training. I look for tools and find myself above all.
• 2014 I attend a participation event of the building cooperative Kalkbreite about the new project Zollhaus. I joke with the managing director that we will be running the theatre in the new building with anundpfirsich.
• 2018 I’m dirty for months. We are renovating our 200 year old house.
• 2019 a herniated disc forces me to slow down for a few months.
• 2019 my child is born.
• 2019 my old VW bus “Jimmy” is beyond repair. I go car-free.
• 2021 I open the Theater im Zollhaus with anundpfirsich as a livestream event during the pandemic lockdown.
• 2021 I sell my shares in anundpfirsich and leave the organization in spring 2022.