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Olaf Kretschmar

Managing Director & Chairman of the Board Berlin Music Commission eG -. Olaf Kretschmar entered Berlin's music and club scene in the early 90s after studying philosophy and completing a marketing apprenticeship. In 1993 he co-founded the "Delicious Doughnuts Research" in central Berlin, followed five years later by the "oxymoron" in the Hackesche Höfe. In 2000, he was involved in the founding of "clubcommission berlin e.V.", where he served as managing director and press spokesman until 2008. In 2007 he was co-founder of the "Berlin Music Commission eG" (BMC). Since 2008 he has been Cluster Manager and since 2011 Chairman of the Board of BMC. In 2009 Kretschmar was the initiator of the Berlin Music Week and one year later chairman of the organizing committee of the 1st Berlin Music Week. From 2010 to 2012, he led the campaign "Music 2020 Berlin," whose primary goal was to prepare and establish the Musicboard Berlin. In 2014, together with many BMC colleagues, he established the Music Business Competence Center, co-founded the Berlin Music Award "listen to berlin: Awards" in 2015 and the Music Business Conference "Most Wanted: Music" in 2014, for which he still serves as General Director. In addition to his work on the BMC board, he volunteers as a member of the advisory board in the umbrella organization of cultural development associations in Germany (DAKU), which was co-founded in 2018, and in the Berlin Jazz Advisory Board. As a member of the presidium of the Landesmusikrat Berlin (Berlin State Music Council), Kretschmar is responsible for the topics of popular music, the music industry, digitization and work with refugees. He is also chairman of the board of the Bundesverband Pop. Photo: Danny Prusseit