Ragnar Kruse

CEO & Co-Founder

As a serial entrepreneur with 20+ years experience in IT, Ragnar Kruse understands the unique challenges in bringing new technologies to market. He has built up several companies from inception to market launch in both the US and Europe.

At Intershop Communications, a leader in E-Commerce software solutions, Ragnar was VP of Sales and Marketing in San Francisco. During his tenure, Ragnar was instrumental in the company’s growth and ushering it through a successful IPO on NASDAQ and the “Neuer Markt” in 1998. More recently, Ragnar held key management positions at high-tech companies in the U.S. and Europe including eCharge and Xtramind. Through his many years in IT, Ragnar maintains strong relationships with companies in the telecommunications and mobile sectors, including Deutsche Telekom, Telekom New Zealand, Telstra, Telia, Cable & Wireless, Siemens, T-Online, T-Mobile, France Telecom, HP and SUN.

Ragnar started his career as an entrepreneur. In 1980, he founded IPT GmbH, a computer retail business that imported products into Germany from the USA and Taiwan. In 1987 he expanded his business by starting DTP Partner GmbH, a distribution company in Hamburg. DTP Partner was the exclusive distributor of several desktop publishing solutions such as Corel and was instrumental in establishing international distribution agreements with American and Taiwanese companies. Ragnar studied law at the universities of Hamburg and Munich, Germany.

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Harald Neidhardt

CMO & Co-Founder

Harald has over 20 years of experience in marketing and business development, having led interactive agencies and marketing consulting firms in both the US and Europe. He was the CEO of Pixelpark (US), a former Bertelsmann company based in New York and headquartered in Berlin. As VP International he set up offices and new business initiatives in New York, Paris and London in preparation for Pixelpark's IPO in 1999.

More recently, Harald managed a successful viral marketing company, Cardmine in New York. Cardmine serves clients in the luxury beauty market including Estee Lauder and Procter & Gamble. In his career, Harald has served clients such as France Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, Siemens, EMI, Lufthansa, Bertelsmann, BMG, Unilever and MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Harald has a BA in Marketing Communications from Communications Academy, Hamburg.

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Marc Junker

CTO

Marc Junker has over 10 years experience in IT and mobile business. Before joining Smaato, he was Co-Founder and CTO of mobileview, one of Europe’s leading Wireless Application Service Provider (WASP) for mobile entertainment, infotainment and data services. For seven years Marc has successfully led the company, with 35 employees to being profitable after only three years and having a turnover of 27 million Euros. In his position Marc also established client relationships to leading international carriers and companies like Lufthansa, Talkline and T-Mobile in 17 countries and mobileview has worked with over 50 MVNOs globally.

Before Marc co-founded mobileview, he was Vice-President Development for OBS-AG and worked as an IT consultant for Geo++, Germany. Marc Junker has studied Mathematics, IT and Business Studies at the University of Hanover.

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Jörg Anhalt

Vice President Sales

Jörg brings over 20 years of IT sales experience to Smaato's executive team. In his role as VP Sales he is responsible to grow worldwide sales efforts with carriers, mobile developers and ad sales networks. At Intershop Communications, he was VP Business Development being responsible for growing the European and Asian markets. Jörg's list of client relationships include the who's who of telecommunications (T-COM, T-Systems, T-Online, KPN, Telecom Italia, Swisscom, Easynet, Freenet and Strato), mail order houses (otto group, Karstadt Quelle, Tchibo), media companies (Bertelsmann, Axel Springer Verlag, Gruner+Jahr) and consumer brands (Hewlett Packard, Sony). Jörg's broad professional experience covers the fields of electronic commerce, electronic communication, 1 to 1 marketing, database publishing combined with a strong high level sales background.

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Petra Vorsteher

EVP, Strategic Alliances & Co-Founder

Petra has over 18 years of business development experience in the US and Europe. She was VP of Business Development and Strategic Alliances at Intershop Communications, Inc. with responsibility for all strategic, business and technical partnerships globally. As founding member of Intershop, Petra was instrumental in growing the company from a start-up to a publicly listed company with a market cap of $12B and worldwide offices in Europe, Asia, Australia and South America. She was largely responsible for Intershop's $25M licensing deal with Deutsche Telekom and their subsequent investment in the company. Petra has formed partnerships with IBM, HP, Apple, Intel, SAP, Oracle, Procter & Gamble, eBay, Visa, FedEx, UPS and major telecommunication companies including AT & T, Sprint, Telstra, Hong Kong Telecom, France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom.

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