Prof. Dr. Rolf Gminder

He   became   Sales   Manager   and   later   General   Manager   of   the   weapons   department,   now   under   the   Mauser Jagdwaffen   GmbH   name.   He   had   a   good   and   close   working   relationship   with   Samuel   Cummings,   owner   of Interarms. After   a   restructuring   of   the   company   in   1977,   he   became   Managing   Director   of   marketing   and   sales   of Mauser-Werke Oberndorf GmbH. Dr.   Gminder’s   academic   career   began   with   studies   in   Vienna,   Austria   and   Paris,   France.   He   received   a   PhD   in economics   and   after   post   graduate   studies   in   the   USA   (Harvard   Business   School)   he   received   an   AMP   degree and had a Professorship in Freiberg, Saxony after the German reunification. He   was   requested   by   Quandt   group   chairman   Herbert   Quandt   to   investigate   and   prepare   the   sale   of   Mauser   to Steyr   in   Austria.   As   a   trade   off,   the   Steyr   motorcycle   production   was   supposed   to   go   to   BMW   (which   was   also part   of   the   Quandt   Group   and   a   personal   success   for   Herbert   Quandt,   who   was   hailed   as   the   ‘savior   of   BMW’). The   sale   didn’t   follow   through   and   the   Diehl   group   became   the   new   owner   of   a   part   of   the   Quandt   group companies,   including   Mauser   and   MFT   and   NWM   in   the   Netherlands   in   1979.   Following   the   Diehl   takeover, Gminder resigned from the company in 1979, but kept a role as consultant for the company, a role he has to this day.