Management
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Dr. Peter Smeets (CEO)
Dr. Peter Smeets has been leading gateProtect since February 2012. Peter has been closely affiliated with the company since 2003, as shareholder and chairman of the supervisory board. For over ten years, he has been involved in several technology enterprises via the „Constantin Bastian Leander Venture Capital GmbH“ which he founded. Acting in a leading entrepreneurial role, he has strategically realigned a multitude of companies through dynamic growth periods, and positioned them on the market. Peter has also worked as a very successful lawyer, specialising in corporate law, at several esteemed international law firms. |
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Dr. Reinhard Festag (CFO)
Dr. Reinhard Festag heads the finance department of gateProtect AG.
He holds a Masters degree and a PhD in physics. He finished his academic work on a NASA project in the States. Reinhard started his business career as management consultant with McKinsey where he worked on strategy and operational improvements for clients in the high tech, telecom and IT industry. He left McKinsey as an Associate Principal and joined the IT service division of Siemens (SIS). There he acted in several management positions. His responsibilities ranged up to 500 Mio. Euro p.a. order entry as Commercial Head of Outsourcing Sales.
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Stephan Ziegler (CTO)
Within the board of gateProtect Stephan Ziegler is responsible for research, development and support. Before joining gateProtect he acquired several years of experience in different IT leadership positions, such as divisional director at BITKOM for IT-architecture, quality management, software development processes and cloud computing. At the same time he additionally worked as an independent IT-expert for both the private and the public sector. Prior to that he acted as IT-consultant for SAP AG . He holds a diploma in computer science, has published several articles in renowned specialist journals and has represented the IT-sector in the "German IPv6-Council".
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Christine Fassnacht (Marketing Director)
Christine Fassnacht is responsible for marketing communication and public relation strategies and operations. Before joining gateProtect, Christine led the corporate publishing and online communication at the German Hightech-association BITKOM for several years. She managed and optimized the organisational relations with its public and members. Christine studied communication sciences and business administration with focus on marketing in Berlin and in Paris (CELSA). |
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Steffen Marckardt (Vice President Sales)
Steffen Marckardt is the Vice President Sales at gateProtect. He is responsible for the development of international sales and all sales activities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. After graduating in industrial engineering Steffen acted for 15 years with outmost success in several leading sales positions in the consumer electronics industry. During this time he has established worldwide sales channels and subsidiaries in Germany, Russia, China and MENA. He has broken sales records and has launched several new innovative products and product categories. |
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Christo Ivanov (Head of Development Managed Security)
Christo Ivanov is Head of Development Managed Security at gateProtect. He has reinforced the team since 2004. For several years Christo headed the Frontend Team. He also played a significant role in the development of gateProtects eGUI-Technology. Christo started his professional career as software developer in an IT-company in Hamburg where he gained precious project experience in the banking and health sectors. He holds a master of science in physics. Christo has won several awards for his software projects during his studies and has published multiple articles in renowned American science magazines.
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Felix Blank (Head of Quality Assurance)
Felix Blank supervises all technical products and processes in his role as Head of Quality Assurance at gateProtect. He has been part of the management team since 2004. Felix gained deep knowledge in the field of IT-Security while working as Network- and IT-Security-Administrator at the data center of the Technical University Hamburg-Harburg. By administrating complex installations and clusters he became acquainted with all different kinds of modern firewalls. Felix studied engineer and information technology. He has published several scientifical articles both in English and German technical press.
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| Supervisory board |
- Dr. Rainer Zimmermann (Chairman)
Jörn Engelmann
Patrick Steingässer
Jürgen Mössner
Wolfgang Kroh
Dr. Dirk Schmalenbach
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