BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : FEBRUARY 7, 2000 ISSUE
BUSINESS WEEK E.BIZ -- SPECIAL REPORT -- LEADERS Paulus Neef: Pixelpark AG Paulus Neef Pixelpark AG Position Founder and CEO Contribution Created one of Europe's leading Web design shops Ambition Move beyond nuts and bolts of setting up Web sites and offer complete e-business solutions In most areas of e-business, Europe's myriad cultures and languages represent gigantic obstacles. But Paulus Neef has turned them into an advantage. The 39-year-old chief executive of the hot Berlin-based Web-site design firm Pixelpark is building a unique worldwide empire that specializes in straddling borders. And no wonder. With a German father and a Spanish mother, he grew up in a stew of cultures. Neef has opened satellite offices in the U.S., France, Austria, Britain, and Switzerland. And that has helped him to land an impressive roster of multinational clients, including Procter & Gamble, Bertelsmann, Lufthansa, and UBS. He often designs a series of sites for different national markets. Pixelpark doubled its revenues last year to $22.8 million, making it the top Continental Web design agency and the sixth in the world. ''When it comes to localizing Web sites, the Europeans are well ahead of the Americans,'' says Lars Wagstein, a Stockholm-based analyst at Jupiter Communications. Now, Pixelpark is moving well beyond simple site design. ''That will just be a commodity, but innovative Web consulting will add value,'' says Neef. His firm advised Procter & Gamble to lure customers to its Hugo Fragrances Web site by allowing them to download video clips and bits of music and make their own mini-movies. And Pixelpark created a site for Swiss food giant Nestle that polls consumers on new kinds of chocolate they'd like to try. ''We see Paulus as the best conceptualist in the world for total e-commerce solutions,'' says Klaus Eierhoff, an executive board member at Bertelsmann, which has invested in Pixelpark in addition to being a customer. English may still dominate the Internet, but if Paulus Neef has his way, a mixture of German, Spanish, and other European ideas will help bring it alive with innovative design. By William Echikson _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP					RELATED ITEMS Europe's Top e.business Leaders Ola Ahlvarsson: Result Venture Knowledge International Tomasz Czechowicz: Poland.com Nina Brink: World Online International N.V. Hasso Plattner: SAP Renato Soru: Tiscali Mark Schneider: United Pan-European Communications Kurt Hellstrom: Ericsson Ernesto Schmitt: peoplesound.com Chahram Becharat: Europ@web Paulus Neef: Pixelpark AG INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online

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