Norman Rentrop (born 1957 in Bonn) is a German billionaire, publisher, author and investor.
A self-confessed admirer of Warren Buffett and longstanding shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway, he is owner/shareholder of the German - based "Rentrop publishing group", "Rentrop & Straton" in Romania, "Wiedza i Praktyka" in Poland. His charitable foundation holds 51% of the charitable Bibel TV foundation.[1] Since 2002 he supported the satellite television channel Bibel TV with 6.9 million Euro.[2] In 2004 he sold his minority shares in news channel n-tv to CNN.[3]
Norman Rentrop is the first of five children of Friedhelm Rentrop, CPA. In 1975 he foundedRentrop publishing. He made his A-Levels at the Jesuit boarding school Aloisiuskolleg in Bonn. Having been an exchange student to England he got his business idea: publishing a business magazine called Die Geschäftsidee which still is one of the flagship publications of his publishing company, which focuses on publishing newsletters and looseleaf services.[4]
In 2000 he moved from his position as chief executive officer to the non-executive position as chairman of the supervisory board of his publishing company and started the charitable Rentrop foundation.
Rentrop is main sponsor of BG Rentrop Bonn 92 e.V. a women's professional basketball team in the German WNBA.His private investment office includes the "Dr. Elsässer Beteiligungsgesellschaft Nr II mbH" which in 2003 bought a major stockholding in one of the top German soccer teams, Borussia Dortmund from Deutsche Bank.[5] The stake was sold in 2004.