Lucia Urban

Lucia studied Communication and Politics at the University of Vienna and went on to gain a Masters of Advanced Studies in Public Relations. During her studies she worked as a freelancer for several PR agencies and press offices. After graduating in 2002 Lucia joined Pleon Publico, Austria’s largest PR agency, where she was promoted to Senior Consultant. After a sabbatical, which she used for a round-the-world trip, Lucia joined the team in February 2008.

Lenz Simon

Bavarian born Lenz Simon started his career at the Federation of Austrian Industries where he has already been working during his studies. After graduating with a Master of Science degree in Business Informatics from the University of Vienna and the DTU in Copenhagen, he joined the Viennese public affairs agency “The Skills Group”. From 2012 Lenz had been working in the position of the CEO at the Young Industry and as project manager of the Federation of Lower Austrian Industries. In 2017 Lenz Simon became a part of the team with Gehrer Plötzeneder DDWS.

Lena Doppelhofer

Lena Doppelhofer obtained a degree for city tourism and event management at the Vienna Business School. After a few years working in sales and the event organization for Hotel Le Meridien Vienna, she moved to a PR agency. Lena Doppelhofer was responsible for clients from a wide range of industries such as retail trade, hotel industry, food & beverages, fashion and sports. The creation of strategic communication campaigns and operational measures were also part of her tasks as well as the continuous contact maintenance with media houses and preparation of press documents and events. In addition to her professional work, Lena Doppelhofer worked as member of the district parliament of Vienna-Hietzing from 2005 to 2010. Since May 2017 Lena Doppelhofer is part of the team of Gehrer Plötzeneder DDWS.

Michael Penz

Michael Penz, a native lower Austrian, studied business law at the Vienna University of Economics. At the beginning of his studies, he was already part of the team of GP DDWS. During the following years, he gathered experiences in the political sector and was also a consultant in the parliamentary investigation committee. Since May 2017, Michael Penz is working for GP DDWS.

Matthias Stecher

Matthias Stecher studied journalism and communication science at the University of Vienna, specializing in multimedia and print. He gained his first professional experience in journalism working for two Austrian newspapers. During his studies, he completed a semester abroad at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland and has also lived in Belgium, where he was able to improve his language skills.

He joined the team at Gehrer Plötzeneder DDWS in January 2021.

Maria Arabelle Estrella

Arabelle accomplished her English Secretarial Training at the European Business School in Vienna. She worked as a sales secretary at a renown Import/Export company. Further she gained profound administrative knowledge at a viennese law firm. Arabelle has been working for DDWS since December 2004.

Petra Schiessler

Petra graduated from an Austrian higher secondary school for economic occupations (HLW) in 2002. In May 2003 she began work at Panasonic Eastern Europe, as a sales assistant for Balkan and Baltic countries, taking on an additional role as a product coordinator in the Marketing Department in 2007. Petra joined the GP DDWS team in September 2008 and is Personal Assistant of both Managing Partner.

Clara Girstmair

Born in Tyrol, Clara completed her Master's degree in media studies (MA) and her Bachelor's degree in German studies (BA) at the Leopold Franzens University in Innsbruck. During her studies, she spent a semester abroad at the University of Manchester (UK). She started her career in communications with an internship in the department for Public Relations & Cooperations at Peek & Cloppenburg. After this followed several years of experience in lifestyle agencies where she worked for clients in the categories Food and Beverages as well as Fashion and Beauty, most recently as a senior consultant. Clara joined the Gehrer Plötzeneder DDWS team in November 2021.