Program committee
Richard Seibt (Chairman)
Born in 1952, Richard Seibt has a degree in commerce and 25 years
of international business experience in the IT industry. He began
his professional career in sales at IBM in Stuttgart, followed by
management positions in the fields of Business Development, Sales
and Marketing first in Germany and later in other European
countries. As the Managing Director at IBM Deutschland, he handled
sales and marketing for IBM software products in Germany, Austria,
and Switzerland; later, he was also responsible for North America
as Vice-President. Most recently, as General Manager OS/2 at IBM
he was responsible for the operating system OS/2. In 1998, Richard
Seibt became a board member at United Internet AG. In January at
2003, he became the CEO and chairman of the board of SUSE LINUX AG.
In February of 2004, he was appointed President of Novell EMEA.
Since he left in May of 2005, he has been focusing on a select
group of Linux and Open Source projects. In August of 2005, he
served as chairman of the Open Source conference "Open Source Meets
Business" organized by Heise Zeitschriften Verlag.
Joerg Benischke (Deutsche Bank)
Since 2004, Joerg Benischke (36) has directed the Corporate Access
Channels Division of Deutsche Bank AG, where he handled the
development, testing, maintenance, operation, and support of cash
management applications for business customers and financial
institutions. In the task force of the Zentraler Kreditausschuss
(ZKA, "Central Credit Committee" of German banks), he contributed
to the specification of the new Internet-based standard for
electronic banking for business customers in Germany (Electronic
Banking Internet Communication Standards or EBICS). He gained
experience with Open Source both during the selection process for
software components in numerous IT projects at Deutsche Bank and in
the practical use of banking and customer applications. Joerg
Benischke has a degree in business administration and has been
working for Deutsche Bank since 1997.
Thomas Siekmann (Herford Brewery)
Since March of 2003, Thomas Siekmann has been IT Director at
Herforder Brauerei (Herford Brewery). After getting his degree in
the sociology of technology in Bielefeld, he began working in
software programming and consulting before joining the Chief
Information Office at Siemens Business Services GmbH, where he
worked for several years. In addition to developing the application
landscape at Herforder Brauerei, he is currently focusing on
modernizing the company's infrastructure for the future.
Martin Urban (Berliner Stadtreinigungsbetriebe)
Martin Urban, born in 1965, has been responsible for the IT of
Berliner Stadtreinigungsbetriebe (BSR), the sanitation department
of the German capital, since the end of 2000. As a physicist and
MBA (Stuttgart, Berlin and Cambridge/UK) he worked in several
positions in the areas of IT, organisation and finance. Most
recently, he headed the IT of ÖTV, the former German union of
public employees (now incorporated in the Verdi union). The focus
of his work at BSR, besides process optimisation and the
advancement of an integrated ERP landscape, is on the competitive
operations of desktop services.
Hans-Jürgen Götz (IBM)
Born in 1957, Hans-Jürgen Götz has been Director of Channel
Marketing since February 01, 2004 in the Business Partner
Organization at IBM Deutschland, where he is responsible for
serving the German business partners of IBM. Hans-Jürgen Götz
studied electronics at the Senior Technical College of Furtwangen.
Upon completing his studies, he began working as a process engineer
at IBM's plant in Sindelfingen in 1981. Later, he worked as an
application developer and system engineer. In 1989, he went to work
at IBM's PC development lab in Boca Raton, Florida for three years,
where he took part in the international support team fur PC
hardware and the OS/2 operating system. In 1993, Hans-Jürgen Götz
came back to Germany to handle marketing and support for PC
software before moving on to PC hardware and the Personal Computing
Division (PCD). Starting in 2002, he was responsible for global
marketing at Allianz for SAP. Before moving to his present
position, he handled the marketing division "Routes to Market"
starting in 2003 in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA).
Jean Pascal Lendermann (Novell)
Jean Pascal Lendermann, 35, took over as Novell's Area Marketing
Director Central Europe effective from 1. May, 2006. For the time
being, he is responsible for Marketing activities in Germany,
Austria and Switzerland and reports to Volker Smid, Area General
Manager Novell Central. Lendermann has been working for Novell
since October 2003, first as Senior Marketing Manager in the
Marketing, Communications and Operations division of Novell
Germany. His focus was on communicating and steering the Novell
brand, the coordination of marketing and sales processes and on
planning and organisation of central Novell events like CeBIT and
the Novell Tour. Prior to joining Novell, Lendermann led, among
other responsibilities, integrated marketing campaigns and launches
of new products for Airdata AG in Stuttgart. Before that, he
gathered experiences in event management and communication of Uunet
Germany.
Dirk Kissinger (Red Hat)
Dirk Kissinger (38) is Senior Manager of EMEA Marketing at Red Hat
and thus handles all marketing activities in the EMEA region. He
previously worked in partner marketing at Red Hat, where he
established relations to such technological partners as Intel and
Red Hat's OEM partners. Kissinger has been working in the
IT/communications industry for more than nine years. For a large
part of his career, he has been responsible for marketing, sales,
and business development. In 1995, he joined Bay Networks, later
Nortel Networks. There, he moved to EMEA headquarters near
Valbonne, France as Marketing and Business Development Manager.
Before Kissinger came to Red Hat in 2004, he had also worked as
Marketing Manager at Centile in France.
Dr. Uwe Kracke (Emlix)
Born in 1966, Dr. Uwe Kracke is Managing Director at emlix GmbH of
Göttingen. As an entrepreneur, he has been working on the
integration of Open Source software and Internet technology in
devices and systems since 1999. His team is focusing on the
development of customized, product-specific software solutions
based on Embedded Linux. Trained in logistics, he studied economics
and later joined the staff at the Institute of Business Data
Processing at the University of Göttingen. There, he began work in
1995 on several projects concerning the use of free Internet and
operating system standards in businesses. As an author, speaker,
and independent consultant, he later also worked on projects
related to e-business, procurement, and logistics.
Dr. Oliver Diedrich (c't magazine for computer technology)
Born in 1963, Dr. Oliver Diedrich, is an editor at c't magazine,
where he is responsible for Linux, Open Source and related issues.
Since 1998, he has been monitoring the rise of Linux from a
hacker's toy to a platform for mission-critical applications and
the evolution of Open Source solutions from the sandbox into data
centers. Before he began working at Heise Zeitschriften Verlag, he
was a researcher in the neurophysiologic foundations of emotions.
André von Raison (iX magazine for professional information technology)
Born in 1960, André von Raison first came into contact with Open
Source software during his studies. He has been using Linux and
operating system since 1993 (privately as well) and has mainly been
covering free and commercial PC UNIX systems since the beginning of
1996 for the monthly iX magazine.
Heinrich Seeger (Editor-in-chief of Heise Enterprise)
Born in 1959, Heinrich Seeger has been covering the economic and
strategic aspects of information technology as a journalist since
1989. Among other things, he developed and managed the monthly
magazine CIO. Since October 2005, he has been the editor-in-chief
of Heise Zeitschriften Verlag's Enterprise division, which provides
events and publications for the information needs of IT
decision-makers.
Eduard Heilmayr (Conference Director)
After eight years as the editor of Markt & Technik, a weekly
newspaper for electronics, engineer Eduard Heilmayr (born in 1954)
joined the same company's management team. In 1992, he founded the
IT and electronics publishing firm AWi Aktuelles Wissen
Verlagsgesellschaft mbH in Grasbrunn near München. After the AWi
Verlag was sold to the Konradin Publishing Group in the spring of
2004, he cofounded cip verlag corporate international publishing
GmbH. This firm publishes the industry portal verlagswelt.de and
verlagswelt-Magazin. At the same time, Eduard Heilmayr also founded
the consulting firm Delphin Consult. For Heise Verlag, he is the
project director for the conference "Open Source Meets Business".