Kolja Spöri
Kolja Spöri is a German economist, author, adventurer, and former Formula 1 manager.
Spöri was born in West Germany in 1969. He grew up with parents in the German Foreign Service in Istanbul, graduated from the German High School Istanbul Alman Lisesi, and holds an MBA from studying Economics and Marketing at Goethe University Frankfurt and UCLA. For his academic thesis "Transformation in Russia vs China" Spöri was awarded the DM 5.000 CEPES Prize 1995 by the Comitée Européen pour le Progrès Economique et Social. Over 7 years he taught as senior lecturer at the IOC's University of Lausanne faculty AISTS on the topic "The Business of Formula 1". He holds a Doctorate from Atlantic Business School Porto.
After working as the Sponsoring Manager of Hugo Boss AG, he was as a Formula 1 sponsorship agent and marketing manager for various racing teams and athletes. Spöri belongs to Michael Schumacher's and Hans-Joachim Stuck's inner circle of friends. Through major projects such as the Compaq WilliamsF1 Team, the Turkish Grand Prix in Istanbul, and the BMW Oracle Racing Team in the America's Cup, he was named "one of Europe's leading sponsoring agents" by BusinessF1 Magazine.
Kolja Spöri was a consultant for Kempinski Hotels, Rothschild Bank, the Prinz von Hessen estate, and the secret service spin-off GeoReach. He is now a retired investor in Monaco.
Spöri's legal case for US$ 4.000.000 sponsorship commission against the former richest man in the world Larry Ellison attracted a lot of media attention. He was also featured three times on RTL Formel Exklusiv and other Formula 1 TV programmes.
Kolja Spöri was a leadership commitee member of the Most Traveled People Club. In his Amazon Bestseller Nr. 1 travel book "I Was Everywhere" he reports on his travels to crisis areas such as Chechnya, Afghanistan, South Sudan and remote areas such as the Road of Bones in Eastern Siberia in winter, where he experienced -62°C. He also participated at the North Pole Marathon. Spöri's online blog has been identified as the biggest non-monetized travelblog on the internet. As the founder of ETIC - the Extreme Traveler International Congress he organises the annual meeting of the most traveled persons in the most difficult places. Often as the first foreign visitor group since years or decades, such as the world's northernmost Anabar Ice Road, remote islands like Rockall, Clipperton or Selvagens, conflict zones such as Grozny, Mogadishu, Baghdad, the FARC's former republic of Marquetalia (together with United Nations - VMC), ghost towns such as Varosha/North Cyprus or Agdam in Karabakh/Azerbaijan, and Jolo Island in Bangsamoro/Philippines.
Kolja Spöri's adventures were featured in the movies "Generation Hustle" on HBO MAX, "Danger Zone" on ZDF INFO, "Vacances en Zone de Guerre" on ARTE TV, "Memorias de Marquetalia" on RED+ TV, and "El turismo de aventura llega a Marquetalia" on the United Nations TV channel.
