Bio

How do you become a professor when you're actually a flight attendant?

The story begins above the clouds. In the late 90s, Alexander Holtermann flies around the world — boarding pass on the left, book on the right. He reads what others read in lecture halls, except his lecture hall is a Boeing with three hundred and fifty passengers.

Reading turns into a doctorate. The doctorate into a second. The second into a third. Three doctorates later he officially holds the title „Prof. Dr. Alexander Holtermann, Ph.D., DBA“.

Today he lives in Groß-Gerau, teaches digital transformation, founds AI companies, writes books (over 30 by now), advises boards and mid-sized firms, gives keynotes — and has a son who regularly explains what he's doing wrong on TikTok.

What drives him: the conviction that the AI revolution won't be decided in Silicon Valley, but in German mid-sized firms, in classrooms, in boardrooms. His job is to answer the question of what to do with this new machine. On stages, in books, in mandates — and from Q2 2027 with his humanoid co-speaker NEO.

The Boeing, by the way, still flies — no longer with him aboard, but a photo hangs at a desk in Groß-Gerau. Next to it, in flowing script: boarding pass on the left, book on the right.