ORCA Affairs GmbH

Michael T. Schröder is the founder and main shareholder of the agency ORCA Affairs, which was founded in 2010. He has over three decades of experience in art communication, cultural communication, and public relations.

In 1989, the disciplines of communication changed – from art and cultural communication to public relations. In the course of his career in the agency sector, Michael T. Schröder has led renowned communications agencies such as Ketchum, ABC EURO RSCG or Hill & Knowlton as well as Chairman and CEO Germany & Eastern Europe. From 2015-2017, he also held the position of Global President at IPREX.

Michael T. Schröder’s consulting mandates have included numerous public and private clients since 1989. Business customers included Lufthansa, BASF, E-Plus, Deutsche Bahn, CocaCola, OPODO, Easyjet and Vattenfall. In the public sector, Michael T. Schröder has advised various federal ministries and federal authorities, including the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the Federal Ministry of Economics, the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community, the Federal Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure and the Federal Ministry of Justice.

From 1998 to 2014, Michael T. Schröder held several teaching positions at universities, including the FU Berlin, THW Berlin and the Technical University of Munich. In his role as President of the Marketing Club Berlin, he introduced the “M – Marketing Award Berlin” for outstanding achievements of Berlin companies in 2008 and founded the “Initiative Deutsche Manufakturen – Handmade in Germany” in 2011, of which he is still chairman today.

Dr. Katrin Ehlers has returned to the ORCA Affairs management in January 2023, functioning as managing director from April 2023, as she had been in a similar position with the agency between 2012 and 2014. She started her career as a communications consultant in the mid nineties and has spent over 20 years in the agency business and app. 6 years on the corporate side since. Her focus is on public sector, (institutional) healthcare, digitalisation as well as communications strategy and networked communications.

Katrin took her first steps in the business at Media Concept (today: Fischer-Appelt) and Edelman Public Relations Worldwide. She worked for Trimedia Communications (today: Grayling) for 11 years, holding different management roles, such as Head of the Centres of Excellence Healthcare and Public Sector (also internationally), Head of the Berlin branch, and Member of the enlarged management board. After that, she spent some years as a free-lance communications consultant and served in project communication and the press team at gematik, Germany’s agency for the digitalisation of the healthcare sector. From June 2018 to end of 2022 she was responsible for the marketing in the public sector and the marketing of the security advisors at msg group, an IT- and consulting house.

Katrin Ehlers studied German Literature, Theatre and Communications Management at the Freie Universität Berlin and the University of Texas at Austin, U.S.A. She completed her PhD at Humboldt-Universität Berlin in 1997.