Michael Dehn is the new Managing Director of Messe Frankfurt South Africa. He starts on October 1 this year and succeeds Joshua Low, who has elected to resign from the company.
“In Michael Dehn, we have found an excellent expert from our own ranks who brings with him extensive international trade fair expertise from his management positions in our subsidiaries, most recently as General Manager of our Indian subsidiary at the Mumbai and Delhi sites,” says Detlef Braun, Member of the Board of Management of Messe Frankfurt.
Braun would like to express his gratitude to his predecessor Low, who has been Managing Director at the South African subsidiary since April 2019 and has elected to pursue his own entrepreneurial opportunities, for which he is well placed, having run several of his own businesses in the past.: “We greatly appreciate Joshua Low’s successful work, especially in these challenging pandemic times. During his time at the subsidiary, Joshua Low oversaw the growth of the subsidiary, from two trade fairs in 2017 to over eleven in 2021. He has made a significant contribution in building a strong team and growing the reputation of the subsidiary in the local market. With his background in management consulting, he was able to brings strong strategic direction to the team and company. We wish him every success in his future career.”
The new Managing Director Dehn (43) looks back on more than two decades of trade show experience. Before becoming General Manager of Messe Frankfurt India in September 2018, where he was responsible for over 18 trade fairs, he worked for Messe Frankfurt Middle East for 16 years, serving as Group Exhibitions Director since 2012 and in charge of the entire exhibition portfolio, including Automechanika Dubai, Beautyworld Middle East and Intersec. During this time, he also expanded the business in Saudi Arabia by adding four new trade fairs.
Prior to that, he worked as Exhibition Manager, launching Automechanika Dubai, which became one of the largest and most successful trade fairs in the region under his leadership. Dehn began his training in 1998 as a dual student at Messe Frankfurt and completed it in 2001 with a bachelor’s degree in business management at the Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University (DHBW) in Ravensburg. The portfolio of Messe Frankfurt South Africa, founded in 2014, currently includes eleven trade fairs, including Automechanika and the Festival of Motoring in Johannesburg, Allfashion Sourcing Cape Town and Solar Power Africa in Cape Town, as well as AERO South Africa in Pretoria and Emerald Speed Fest in Vanderbijlpark.
