Welcome to CK Stars
CK Stars is the holding company of the individuals Patrick Knippel and Leander Carell, hence Carell Knippel, hence, CK. The company’s mission is to enhance the shareholder value by making each of its operating units a driving force towards providing shareholders with a suitable rate of return on their investment.
Leander Carell
Co-Founder
Managing Director
Leander Carell completed his studies in business and audio-visual media at Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, a public TV-broadcaster. He also studied Production Management at Bayerische Akademie für Fernsehen in Munich; and in 2002 he attended the European producers program EAVE.
Over the course of the years, Leander produced and co-produced 15 feature films with his company SCHMIDTz KATZE FILMKOLLEKTIV and its affiliates along with the Oscar®-nominated IN DARKNESS (Academy Award Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film 2012). He also founded and developed the online distribution company Nowtilus, which he sold to ROVI Corporation (US) in 2011. He run Nowtilus together with Patrick within ROVI until 2014 when he managed an MBO and turned Nowtilus back into the hands of the Management and under the umbrella of the holding company CK Stars. Since then, he reshaped the business of Nowtilus with the objective to establish a leading personalized ad streaming company. In 2022 CK Stars sold part of its shares in Nowtilus to Equativ, a leading ad tech company headquartered in France.
Patrick Knippel
Co-Founder
Managing Director
Patrick holds a Master of Science degree from TU Berlin and an MBA in Media Management form Steinbeis University. He also studies history and philosophy at the Humboldt University Berlin. Patrick worked as senior auditor at KPMG Germany and as a film producer. In this capacity he produced 15 feature films with his company SCHMIDTz KATZE FILMKOLLEKTIV along with the Oscar-nominated IN DARKNESS (Academy Award Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film 2012).
He also founded and developed the online distribution company Nowtilus, which he sold to ROVI Corporation (US) in 2011. He run Nowtilus together with Leander within ROVI until 2014 when he managed an MBO and turned Nowtilus back into the hands of the Management and under the umbrella of the holding company CK Stars. Since then, he reshaped the business of Nowtilus with the objective to establish a leading personalized ad streaming company. In 2022 CK Stars sold part of its shares in Nowtilus to Equativ, a leading ad tech company headquartered in France.