Our guest on 23.05.2010 Martin Kind, Businessman and Soccer Official

Martin Kind seems to have effortlessly spanned the gap between running a football team and a business. That's partly because he has brought his business acumen to football management. The appointment of Martin Kind as president of Hanover Football Club in 1997 came as a surprise to many. The businessman had had little to do with sport previously. Football is an emotional business. He's seen as a cool calculator, an outside untainted by the sport. Martin Kind managed to secure promotion for the club from the third division regional league to the top flight of German football, the Bundesliga.

Martin Kind earned the money he invested in the club with hearing aids. The business is in his blood. Kind was born close to Hanover in 1944. First he studied to become a hearing aid engineer and then did a degree in business. When he was 24 he took on a leading role in the family business, Kind Hearing Aids. He led the growth of the company to what it is now, a world leader with 2000 employees.

His most difficult time in charge of Hanover was the period in November 2009 after Hanover goalkeeper Robert Enke took his own life. It was a personal shock for Kind too. 40 thousand people gathered in the Hanover stadium on the 15th of November to bid farewell to Enke.

After that tragic event the club found things tough going. They lost one match after the other and only secured survival in the Bundesliga on the last day of the season. Martin Kind has a lot more work ahead of him, as president of Hanover and as a businessman. The 66 year old has no thoughts of retiring yet.