Primary Job Title Chairman Primary Organization
World Travel & Tourism Council
Location London, England, United Kingdom Regions Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) Gender Male
Investor Type
Dr Michael Frenzel was born in Leipzig on 2 March 1947. After matriculation, he studied law at Ruhr University in Bochum, and successfully completed his doctorate (Dr. jur.) whilst working at the University as a scientific assistant.
Frenzel joined the Westdeutsche Landesbank (WestLB), Düsseldorf in 1981, where he was promoted to various
managerial positions: he became manager of the Industrial Holdings Department in 1983, and overall manager of WestLB's Equity Holdings Division in 1985 - including holdings in banking, leasing and real estate.
In 1988, he became a member of the Preussag AG executive board, being responsible for Trading and Logistics.
He was promoted to chairman of the executive board in January 1994. Under his leadership, the multi-business conglomerate Preussag was repositioned into Europe’s leading tourism Group within only a few years. One of the main milestones was the acquisition of a stake in Hapag-Lloyd in 1997. This was followed by the acquisition of leading tourism companies such as TUI/Hanover, Thomson Travel/London, and Nouvelles Frontières/Paris.
On 1 July 2002, the annual general meeting passed a resolution to change the name of Preussag AG to TUI AG.
On 3 September 2007 Frenzel was appointed Chairman of TUI Travel PLC.
Furthermore, on 20 April 2012 Dr Frenzel was appointed Chairman of the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) Executive Committee.





