© Amptown System Company
24 INT ERVIEW
Despite his mother being a teacher, Leif Witte was always more interested in sporting pass-times as a child, but at the same time, he had a strong work ethic, which he took from both his mother and his father, who was an interior designer and upholsterer. As soon as he had completed his compulsory education, Leif was keen to enter the world of work. He remembered: “I didn’t go to university, instead I took a job as a transport manager - a position which specialised in logistics and freight forwarding - where I would learn a different type of education. I became successful at the company and quickly progressed, and discovered my talent for sales and marketing. In that position, I learnt how to bring people together, how to get them to talk to each other, and how to understand processes and make them more efficient.” A quick learner with an eye for business, it wasn’t long before Leif was promoted to Head of Sales for the company, which again acquired him more skills. But ultimately, Leif had huge ambitions as a young professional and so he soon outgrew the regional company and set his sights further afield. “I had a friend living
in Hamburg,” he continued. “He was working in the rental and staging market, putting on shows but he didn’t have a sales department. So, he asked me - back in 2000, I think it was - if I wanted to head the sales, and my response was… I’d love to do that.” Around the turn of the millennium, Leif moved away from his hometown of Flensburg to Hamburg, began working in the rock ‘n’ roll industry and travelling around the world. “One of my first gigs was the 2000 Sydney Olympics,” he recalled. “It was the first time I really smelt the spirit of the industry.” Some years later, Leif was on a delegate trip in Shanghai, where he met Peter Matthes - co-founder of German system-integrator Amptown System Company (ASC) - they got on well and formed a friendship, but none of them could have predicted at the time that their paths would cross again in the future. Leif said: “The meetings on the trip were a little bit boring, so it was all about the nightlife, and once we’d found the good bars we had a good time and a great laugh together. But after the trip, he went back to his job and I to mine.” www.mondodr.com
• Above Ulrich Mueller, Leif Witte and Peter Matthes. • Opposite Top Anthem of the Seas. • Opposite Bottom Ultra-modern media technology in Two70°, show lounge of the Quantum class cruise ships, offers a transformative experience during night and day.
“Peter said to me, ‘do you like driving to and from Cologne every week?’ To which I replied, well Hamburg would be better.”