Dietrich Mateschitz

Red Bull beverages + media-as-marketing operating model

Austrian entrepreneur Dietrich Mateschitz co-founded Red Bull GmbH in 1987, adapting a Thai energy drink for Western markets and building it into the world's dominant energy drink. He is credited with inventing a category-defining operating model in which media production, sports team ownership, and event sponsorship function as distribution for the brand rather than costs. He remained majority owner and chief executive until his death in October 2022.