Always up to speed

“People often struggle to tell how old I am,” Marvin Kalberlah says with a chuckle. Some believe him to be in his early 20s, others guess his age as 35. “It might have something to do with my Ghanaian roots,” he adds. In actual fact, he is 28. One reason why people might think he is older is his job: Kalberlah started taking responsibility from a relatively young age. He has been with the TRATON GROUP since April 2020, supporting and writing the Company’s equity story, in other words its presentation on the capital markets, since the Group’s IPO in 2019. He joins the company as Senior Investor Relations Manager, in the meantime he was acting Head of Investor Relations.

Kalberlah’s career began working for an international automotive supplier in Hannover, where he also completed his combined work-study program. It was not just the new job that brought him to Munich — while Kalberlah himself was born in Lower Saxony, his wife is originally from Bavaria. Curiously, they met during a stay abroad in Ecuador. At TRATON, Kalberlah acts as the link between the Company and the capital markets. “A big part of what I do is always being up to speed,” he says. This means that the Investor Relations expert keeps in touch with the TRATON GROUP brands on a day-to-day basis, collecting information with capital market relevance. He then condenses this information in preparation for investors and analysts. “You could say that talking to colleagues throughout the Group is my daily bread,” he explains. “That is because my colleagues and I rely on understanding how the operating business there is doing at this moment in time.” The situation changes daily, the work is extremely fast-paced, and Kalberlah finds this kind of variety really exciting.

Be it communicating with his contacts within the capital markets or exchanging ideas across the TRATON GROUP: addressing a variety of topics, people, and points of view is part of everyday work for this financial markets expert. “This is exactly what I appreciate about my job and what makes it so appealing,” Kalberlah continues. A good example: during the Navistar merger in 2021, he maintained discussions on a wide range of topics with numerous counterparts. This makes for a heterogeneous landscape, which Kalberlah approaches with transparency and an open mind: “This is important in order to understand why other people think or act in a certain way. We are often prejudiced toward our fellow human beings and believe that we already know their motives.”

Kalberlah’s motto is: “If you are having fun, you are already halfway there.” This is something he lives by in both his work and his personal life. Kalberlah, who recently became a dad, spends as much time as possible with his family. His favorite thing to do is play outside with his one-year-old son: “Exploring the world together with a child is unbelievably fun,” he explains. “Kids see so many things that you stop noticing when you grow up. It is like seeing the world with fresh eyes.”