People in June 2023

Celonis with Lead Transformation Evangelist

"The introduction of Object-Centric Process Mining is another milestone," says Celonis evangelist Rudy Kuhn.

Celonis announced the appointment of Rudy Kuhn as Lead Transformation Evangelist. The seasoned entrepreneur brings 14 years of process mining expertise and also has extensive experience in process automation. He will help Celonis' customers identify and leverage the optimization potential in their processes - to realize value faster and drive sustainable business transformation.

"The process transparency, intelligent optimization of processes and the analyses that Celonis enables are unique. The introduction of Object-Centric Process Mining is another milestone that enables customers to identify and exploit potential in and between networked processes," says Kuhn. Alexander Rinke, co-CEO and co-founder of Celonis, adds, "Rudy is a visionary and entrepreneur with a strong passion for always delivering the best results for customers. He recognized the potential of process mining many years ago and has built his career on it. I am delighted that Rudy has chosen Celonis and, together with Prof. Wil van der Aalst, will support our customers in extracting value from their processes."

Rudy Kuhn's appointment is the latest in a series of strategic personnel additions at Celonis: Prof. Wil van der Aalst, one of the ten most cited computer scientists in the world and "Godfather" of Process Mining, joined Celonis as Chief Scientist in September 2021.

Engineer Powerwoman 2023

An independent jury, consisting of the members of the WomenPower Congress Advisory Board, selected Christina Franke was named Engineer Powerwoman. The announcement was made at the opening of the WomenPower career congress on April 21 in Hannover. Every year, Deutsche Messe presents the Engineer Powerwoman Award to an expert who has made a special contribution to the scientific and technical disciplines. This year's winner, Christina Franke, honors a woman who is advancing her career in an industrial company. She has been head of development in the Assembly Technology business unit at Bosch Rexroth in Stuttgart since June 2022.

This year's winner, Christina Franke, honors a woman who is advancing her career in an industrial company.

After studying design and production engineering at Saarland University and spending a year abroad in Sweden, Christina Franke worked as a research assistant at the Chair of Production Engineering from 1999. In December 2003, she completed her dissertation in the field of "Process Chain Planning in the Digital Factory" at Saarland University. In June 2004, she started her professional career in the Bosch Group as a trainee and quickly took on management tasks in manufacturing and quality management. From 2011 to 2015, she helped set up manufacturing at the Powertrain plant in Wuxi, China. In 2017, she took over as Head of Technical Project Purchasing Commercial and Offroad Vehicles for Powertrain Solutions in the Bosch Group's Central Purchasing Division.

New CFO at Akquinet strengthens team

Michael Knopp joins IT service provider Akquinet as Chief Financial Officer. As CFO, he will be responsible for Finance, Controlling, Mergers and Acquisitions, Legal, Human Resources and Purchasing.

Michael Knopp, who holds a degree in business administration, was previously employed as Commercial Director and CFO at the Coeo Group, Materna Information und Communications and Süss MicroTec, among others. He brings many years of experience as CFO in internationally active medium-sized companies in the IT and capital goods industries. "Michael Knopp is not only a very experienced CFO. He has extensive knowledge around expansion strategies and is very familiar with the IT industry. We are therefore very pleased that he is coming on board with us," says Thomas Tauer from Akquinet's management team.

Michael Knopp, Olaf Zöftig, Thomas Tauer and Thomas Muszal together form the management team. As CMO, Thomas Muszal continues to be responsible for Sales and Marketing as well as SAP. As CEO, Thomas Tauer is responsible for IT and ESG as well as for the data center area.

Expert and designer at Viastore

Bernd Hotze has been in charge of sales at Stuttgart-based intralogistics specialist Viastore Systems since April 1, 2023. The fact that the 58-year-old likes to travel will certainly benefit him at the globally active company.

What distinguishes him even more for his new responsibility is his more than 30 years of experience in international business. As an independent consultant, the industrial engineer has supported medium-sized companies in the capital goods industry on their way to internationalization in recent years. Prior to that, he was responsible for sales, marketing and services at all Durag companies. Among other things, he realigned the global sales organization and promoted the digitalization of sales processes.

"We warmly welcome Bernd Hotze to our team and are sure that he will successfully drive even the most complex topics with his comprehensive know-how and his clear and precise manner," explains Thomas Hibinger, COO of Viastore. Bernd Hotze takes over the responsibility from Swen Mantel, who held this position on an interim basis in addition to his position as Sales Manager Retrofit.

Change at Myfactory: New Managing Director

Nadeem Ahmad has been Managing Director of Myfactory since April 1, 2023, succeeding Emmanuel Moritz, who additionally fulfilled the role since the acquisition of Myfactory by Forterro in 2022.

Ahmad has more than 20 years of experience in sales and marketing for technology companies and shines with his particular expertise in the SaaS market. Prior to joining Myfactory, for example, he played a key role in the success and growth of SaaS provider Weclapp as its Chief Commercial Officer. The personnel decision illustrates Forterro's focus on a balanced interaction of continuity, growth and innovation at its subsidiaries.

Thus, Myfactory's focus on medium-sized businesses as well as the digitization and addressing of SMEs, especially in the areas of production, trade and services, will remain unchanged with Ahmad. At the same time, however, measures for accelerated growth of Myfactory are at the top of his agenda. "I am very much looking forward to actively supporting Myfactory and our customers and partners in their further development," explained Nadeem Ahmad.

Christoph Röger will take over as CEO of Finanz Informatik Technologie Service on August 1. He is new to the company and completes the management team. Röger comes from the Mercedes-Benz Group, where he was responsible for the transformation of the global IT infrastructure.

BeyondTrust, a provider of intelligent identity and access security, has Jens Brauer a new Regional Vice President CEE. In this role, he is responsible for the strategic direction of the sales organization and leads the staff team of sales, marketing and technical experts in DACH.

Cloudera, a hybrid data cloud company, appointed May 15 Jens Lübben as the new Regional Vice President CEMEA. In this role, he works as Sales Manager in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Eastern Europe and reports to Benjamin Bean, Group Vice President (GVP) CEMEA.

Hedgehog, a provider of a managed endpoint operating system, has Klaus Oestermann has been appointed Executive Chair of its Board. In this position, he will help solidify Igel's leadership position in the end-user computing market and guide the company through its next phase of growth.

Esker, provider of the eponymous cloud platform and global provider of AI-driven process automation solutions for finance, procurement and customer service in the SAP environment, announced the addition of Claire Valencony as Deputy Chief Operating Officer.

The business information scientist Christian Senfter becomes a new associate partner and authorized signatory at the Austrian SAP consultancy CNT. In this role, he advises companies on the design and implementation of HR-related SAP solutions.