Bob Hanning is the colourful dog of German handball. For years, the charismatic manager has determined the heartbeat of his sport. Always full of passion. Always hard at the limit. He is considered one of the most influential handball officials in the world and the strong man in German handball. He is opinionated and known for his courage in confrontation. He always finds clear words. Both in sport and on stage. In Berlin, he has built up an internationally successful sustainable handball club in recent years. His great passion is training young people to become personalities / national players and coaches, such as Jaron Siewert, Torsten Jansen, Michael Hegemann or Florian Kehrmann, all of whom are active in the Bundesliga, to name just a few examples.
Bob Hanning Lecture topics:
- Leading through personality
- Change Management
- The well-rehearsed team beats every budget
- Motivation through identification
- Elite promotion – from talent to national player
- Development of a sustainable company
- Leadership in competitive sport
- Leadership in junior competitive sport
Born in the handball city of Essen in 1968, the 1.68-metre goalkeeper quickly attracted attention as a handball coach. First, he worked as a youth coach in Cronenberg, then at the tradition-rich TUSEM Essen. With the SG Solingen, he then succeeded in advancing from the third division to the Handball Bundesliga. Hanning had his first contact with the national team in 1997 as Heiner Brand’s co-trainer and head coach of the B national team. He held this position until the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000.
After working in Wuppertal and Willstätt/Schutterwald, Bob Hanning, whose real name is Robert Hans, moved to the big city of Hamburg. He rescued HSV Hamburg, a major project under construction there, from financial ruin and led the team as head coach until it broke up in 2004. His time in Berlin then began.
As managing director, he led the club to the Handball Champions League for the first time in 2011 and established the leading youth performance centre in the male handball sector, from which other sports continue to learn today. Bob Hanning is passionate about turning athletes into not only good handball players, but also good people. The managing director is still a passionate youth coach today and is in the hall himself early in the morning to lead training sessions with the talents.
From 2013 to 2021, Bob Hanning also served as Vice President in the Competitive Sports Department at the German Handball Federation. With his concept “Amateurs Hope. Professionals Work. he made a significant contribution to the professionalisation of the association. His tenure included the European Championship title in 2016, the Olympic bronze medal in the same year, as well as the awarding of the World Championship wildcards and various international competitions such as the men’s and women’s home World Championships in 2025 and 2027 to Germany.
Bob Hanning has written many of the stories in his 2021 autobiography „Hanning. Macht. Handball.“, published in 2021, and thus attracted attention far beyond the sport of handball.