Ralf Hartmann.
Founder & CEO.
GlobalCom PR Network was founded in Munich in February 1990 with a simple proposition: international clients deserve PR that is locally credible in every market, and centrally accountable in one place. Thirty-six years on, that proposition has not changed.
The founder
Built from scratch. Still running it.
Ralf Hartmann started GlobalCom PR Network in Munich in February 1990, originally as Hartmann & Lotz, a two-founder consultancy serving German and European clients. The agency grew by following its clients into new markets: first Central and Eastern Europe, then the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Africa. In each country, GlobalCom added local partners rather than opening satellite offices from the centre.
The agency he built spans more than 100 markets across six continents, with industry-specialist consultants in every major market. The coordination model has not changed in 36 years: one senior lead owns the brief, local consultants execute, the client receives one consolidated report.
Ralf runs GlobalCom as its founder and CEO from Munich. He is the first call for new client relationships, the person who owns the network strategy, and the senior lead on GlobalCom’s most complex multi-market programmes.
“When I founded GlobalCom in 1990, the brief was simple: international clients deserve PR work that is locally credible everywhere, and centrally accountable somewhere. That brief has not changed. The way we deliver it has.”
Senior from the first call. Not handed off after it.
Ralf takes the opening conversation with every new client himself. He maps the markets, the sector and the brief before a programme starts, and stays accountable for the outcome throughout. Most agencies hand new clients down to junior teams once the contract is signed. GlobalCom does not. Clients tend to stay for years because of it, sometimes considerably longer.
He works most often on multi-market programmes spanning Europe, Asia and the Americas simultaneously, in sectors where technical credibility matters: B2B technology, cleantech and sustainable energy, industrial and manufacturing, and financial services. The network he built over three decades is what makes the current 100+ market coverage possible.
Three convictions after 36 years.
Local credibility cannot be faked.
A press release translated into seven languages is not international PR. It is translation. The journalist covering grid technology in Stuttgart and the one covering it in Seoul respond to different angles, different formats and different relationships. Getting it right in each market is the only thing that counts.
Industry knowledge pays for itself on the first call.
A trade journalist knows within thirty seconds whether the agency on the line understands the subject. Industry-specialist consultants earn coverage that generalists cannot, not because they work harder, but because they speak the same language as the editors and analysts who matter.
Coordination is a service, not a given.
Multi-market PR programmes do not run themselves. Someone has to own the strategy, chase the markets, consolidate the results and keep the story coherent across a dozen time zones. That ownership belongs at the centre, with a senior lead who is accountable for the whole, not distributed across agencies who have never spoken to each other.
Thirty-six years in brief.
Talk to Ralf directly
about your international PR brief.
A 20-minute call is enough to understand whether GlobalCom is the right fit, and what a first programme would look like.