Lothar was born in the British Occupation Zone of Germany. His father was with the Polish army and air force during World War II and met his mother in Germany when he was with the British occupation forces. Lothar's parents emigrated to the U.S., settling in Springfield, home of his mother's aunt. His father worked for Fiat-Allis Heavy Equipment and his mother worked for Franklin Life Insurance and the Illinois Department of Revenue.
Lothar went to Springfield High School and then to the University of Illinois in Urbana, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in geography and a Master of Social Sciences (urban and regional planning - geography). Later he received an MBA from the University of Illinois in Springfield.
His first major job was as an assistant editor in the geography department of Standard Educational Corporation in Chicago, writing articles about countries, cities and geographic features for New Standard Encyclopedia. After that Lothar worked for the Illinois Department of Transportation as a grant administrator, transportation planner, aviation planner and as an internal consultant for the Illinois Aeronautics Board. He became marketing manager for the Bureau of Railroad's Passenger Rail Program, a very interesting job promoting the statewide network of 24 daily trains operated by Amtrak for the department and was involved with the high-speed rail program.
He recently retired from the Illinois Department of Transportation to pursue his own company, Zukunft Group Worldwide LLC, known as ZG Worldwide (www.zgworldwide.com), an international business, media and healthcare consulting firm.
After researching what kinds of consulting services were available in the central Illinois region and Midwest, he realized that outside of Chicago there were no diversified global consulting companies to serve a market of several million people and an prosperous economic base of manufacturing, agribusiness, healthcare, insurance, education, public sector, etc. He decided to form an integrated company with a variety of specialized business, media and healthcare consultants who can work together on interdisciplinary projects. ZG Worldwide is also culturally diverse and highly multilingual. Some of the expertise and the languages offered can be difficult to find in even nation's largest metropolitan areas.
ZG Worldwide has become a company with some 30 associates serving six states plus Japan, Germany, South Korea, Argentina, China, Sweden, Canada, Egypt, Israel, Gabon, the Philippines and other countries. To minimize travel costs the consultants in these other countries can form expert local teams when the client has major projects.
ZG Worldwide is a member of the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce, and the Chicago Chamber of Commerce.
