An overview of this year`s Schedule and Participants you can find here.

PROGRAM
RULEBREAKER® EXPERIENCE
SILICON VALLEY
AUGUST 24 \\ AUGUST 28, 2015
As of: August 19, 2015. This information is subject to change without notice.
RULEBREAKER® EXPERIENCE
SILICON VALLEY
AUGUST 24 \\ AUGUST 28, 2015
Organizational matters:
Overnight Stay: Dinah‘s Garden Hotel, 4261 El Camino Real,
Palo Alto, CA 94306, USA
All overnight stays (including the extra nights before and after
the program) are booked and payed by us in advance! The hotel
may only charge you individually for extras such as the minibar. We will charge you for the refund of expenses in case you
booked extra nights afterwards in Germany.
Transport: To travel between the different stations in San Francisco
we will use the typical transport service of the tech-elite: The
Taxi alternative UBER
To get to the destinations in Silicon Valley we will use a hired
Executive Coach from Black Tie Transportation with 22 seats.
Every participant is responsible for his or her own transport
from the airport to the hotel.
Dresscode: The Silicon Valley is known for its casual style of
clothing. Even CEOs of multi-billion dollar companies are wearing sweatshirts and sneakers. Suits and ties are rather seen in
the Financial District of San Francisco. At all the other places
of our trip you are best suited with Business Casual. Jeans,
shirts and a pair of modish shoes should be the perfect style in
Silicon Valley…as well for our journey.
San Francisco is known for its unpredictable weather. A heat of
30 degrees can be followed by an ice-cold wind. That’s why it is
recommended to always carry a light jacket with you. Generally
though it should be nicely warm at this time of year and in the
Valley the temperatures can even become tropical sometimes.
Mobility Silicon Valley:
UBER
on-demand ride service
(App for iOS/Android/Windows)
Lyft
on-demand ride service
(App for iOS/Android)
RULEBREAKER® EXPERIENCE
SILICON VALLEY
AUGUST 24 \\ AUGUST 28, 2015
Monday \\ August 24, 2015
\\ Company profile: Swarm
Arrival & Get together at the Dinah‘s Garden Hotel, 4261 El
Founded in 2012, Swarm is a venture-backed technology com-
Camino Real, Palo Alto, CA 94306, USA
pany with headquarters in San Francisco, California, and offices in New York and Australia. Swarm is committed to helping
Tuesday \\ August 25, 2015
\ individually Breakfast at the Hotel
\ 9:30 a.m.
Start from the Hotel to Mountain View
\ 10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Samsung, ClydeAve, MountainView
\ 12:30 – 04.00p.m.
Facebook (incl. Lunch, guided tour, panel discussion),
Menlo Park
\ 4.30 – 6.00 p.m.
Swarm, Palo Alto
\ 6.30 – 09.00 p.m.
BBQ at the Facebook-house
small business retailers understand their business and customers better. The company’s family of “smart” retail devices,
coupled with advanced retail analytics and a comprehensive
retail management platform, can help retailers increase sales
through superior insights. Its ongoing commitment to building
innovative tools means that retailers can have detailed data
and advanced personalization and marketing techniques for
physical stores that are on par with online retail business.
\\ Person profile: Dr. Farzan Fallah (Idelan inc.)
Farzan Fallah is president of Idelan inc., an R&D company
providing different technology services and solutions specialised on wearable technologies such as smart watches and
glasses. Dr. Fallah also had breaking successes in the areas
of Human-Computer Interaction, trust establishing techniques
in cyberspace, low power design techniques etc. He received
a B.S in Electrical Engineering from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran and an M.S and Ph.D. in E.E and Computer
Science from MIT. Before starting his own technology firm he
also worked as Professor, Engineering Director and Scientist at
\\ Company profile: Samsung
From its inception as a small export business in Taegu, Ko-
Fujitsu and Stanford University. Furthermore he is a member of
the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).
rea, Samsung has grown to become one of the world’s leading
electronics companies, specializing in digital appliances and
media, semiconductors, memory, and system integration. Today Samsung‘s innovative and top quality products and processes are world recognized. This timeline captures the major
milestones in Samsung‘s history, showing how the company
expanded its product lines and reach, grew its revenue and
market share, and has followed its mission of making life better
for consumers around the world.
\\ Person profile: Oliver Hanisch
Mr. Oliver Hanisch is a Partner at Apaxys Ventures. He is based
in San Mateo, California. Previously, Mr. Hanisch served as a
Co-Founder and Consultant at VentureGate, Business Development, Director at Red Herring, Founder and Consultant at
8P Project Consulting, Contractor at Hewlett-Packard, and
Founder at pulque. He is a Facilitator at Founder Institute,
Adviser at International Economic Alliance, Co-Founder and
Adviser at SnipClip, and Co-Chair Entrepreneurship and Ven-
\\ Company profile: Facebook
Facebook, Inc. is a social networking service and website. Its
website allows people to communicate with their family, friends,
and coworkers. The company offers advertisers a combination
of reach, relevance, social context, and engagement to enhance the value of their ads. Its services include timeline, news
feed, messages, lists, ticker and mobile apps. Facebook was
founded by Mark Elliot Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, Chris R.
Hughes, Andrew McCollum and Eduardo P. Saverin on February
4, 2004 and is headquartered in Menlo Park, CA.
ture Capital Group at German American Business Association.
Mr. Hanisch studied at Karlstads universitet and Fachhochschule Pforzheim - Hochschule für Gestaltung, Technik und
Wirtschaft.
RULEBREAKER® EXPERIENCE
SILICON VALLEY
AUGUST 24 \\ AUGUST 28, 2015
\\ Person profile: Dirk Lammert
\\ Company profile: AirBnB
Prior to myNEXT, Dirk had joined Burrill & Company to lead the
Airbnb is a community marketplace for people to list, discov-
firm’s digital health investments. Throughout his career, Dirk
er and book unique spaces around the world through mobile
has been driving technology convergence through innovative
phones or the internet. Whether an apartment for a night, a
use of computer technologies and online, mobile, and interac-
castle for a week, or a villa for a month, Airbnb connects peo-
tive media in medicine, based on the premise that these tech-
ple to unique travel experiences at any price point, with over
nologies are providing a platform to fundamentally improve
500,000 listings in 33,000 cities and 192 countries.
access to and quality of healthcare worldwide. Dirk has served
With a growing community of users, Airbnb also provides an
on the boards of AliveCor and BetterDoctor. He has more than
easy way for people to monetize their extra space and show-
20 years of professional experience in healthcare, life scienc-
case it to an audience of millions. Founded in August 2008,
es, and high-tech industries. He has a combined medical and
Airbnb has acquired several of its competitors, including Acco-
computer science background. He holds an M.D. from Dues-
leo, CrashPadder, NabeWise, and Localmind.
seldorf University Medical School and trained in Neurology at
Airbnb was founded in August 2008 by Brian Chesky and Joe
the University of Cologne Medical Center. Dirk also received
Gebbia, and is currently headquartered in San Francisco, Cal-
Board certification in Medical Computer Science by the Ger-
ifornia, USA.
man Medical Association. Early in his career, Dirk developed
computer-based training programs for neurological patients
suffering from memory and cognitive deficits.
Wednesday \\ August 26, 2015
\\ Company profile: Shyp
Shyp, Inc. developed and published a mobile phone shipping
application. The App allows users to take a picture of itemst
hat they wish to ship and have it picked up by a driver and then
\ individually
have it professionally packaged offsite and shipped by com-
Breakfast at the Hotel
out the US. It was founded by Jack Smith, Joshua Scott and
\ 8:30 a.m.
Start from the Hotel
\ 10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
AirBnB, San Francisco
\ 11:30 a.m. – 1.00 p.m.
San Francisco – City
\ 1.00 - 2:30 p.m.
Shyp, San Francisco
\ 3:30 – 05.00 p.m.
Mesosphere, San Francisco
\ 6.30 – 09.00 p.m.
OSHA Thai Restaurant, San Francisco
mon carrier. Shyp markets its services in major cities throughKevin Gibbon in 2013, is already supported by 27 Investors and
has its headquarter in San Francisco.
\\ Company profile: Mesosphere
Mesosphere is dedicated to helping enterprises unlock the
next generation of datacentre scale, efficiency and automation
with Apache Mesos. Mesosphere’s commercial product is the
Mesosphere Datacentre Operating System (DCOS), a new kind
of operating system that spans the entire datacentre and pools
datacentre resources and automates IT operations. Backed by
Andreessen Horowitz, Data Collective, Fuel Capital and Kleiner
Perkins Caufield & Byers, Mesosphere is headquartered in San
Francisco with a second office in Hamburg, Germany
\\ Person profile: Hank Pellissier
Hank Pellissier is a humanitarian writer, editor, speaker and
producer, especially on futurist and transhumanist topics. He
wrote 22 articles for Hplus-Magazine in 2009-2010. In 2011
RULEBREAKER® EXPERIENCE
SILICON VALLEY
AUGUST 24 \\ AUGUST 28, 2015
he wrote 30 articles for IEET.org - the Institute for Ethics and
large-scale high-resolution representations and emulations of
Emerging Technology. Seven of his articles placed in the Top
activity in neuronal circuitry that are needed in patient-specific
12 in 2011 hits. In 2012 he was appointed the Managing Di-
neuroprotheses. He is a member of the Oxford working group
rector of IEET, plus he continued to write for the site, finishing
that convened in 2007 to create a first roadmap toward whole
the year with 4 articles in the Top 12. He left IEET in October
brain emulation.
2012 to start Transhumanity.net. He gave that site to Zero State
in February 2013, and started ImmortalLife.info. He sold that
site to Giovanni Santostasi in June 2013, and started BrighterBrains. At this site he producing the TRANSHUMAN VISIONS
conferences in the SF Bay Area.
\\ Person profile: Andres Gomez Emilsson
Andrés Gómez Emilsson is President of the Stanford Transhumanist Association. He is a Research Assistant at Stanford
University. He was previously Intern, Data Analyst at Kanjoya
\\ Person profile: Xiaoxi Wei
and Intern, Research Egineer at Klout. Andrés earned a degree
in Symbolic Systems, AI and CogSci concentrations at Stan-
As a supramolecular chemist with business experience Xiaoxi
ford. In 2013. He is completing a Master’s degree in Compu-
Wei is Founder & CEO at X-Therma. The incoroporation is de-
tianal Psychology at Stanford University. He also is known for
veloping a radical new highway of non-toxic, hyper-effective
winning many mathematical contests around the world.
antifreeze agents to fight unwanted ice formation in regenerative medicine (Ultimate Market), advanced formulation cosmetics (Entry Market), enhanced quality frozen food, and industrial
Thursday \\ August 27, 2015
de-icing applications using nature-inspired biomimetic nano-
\ individually
science. She also works at the Lawrence Berkeley National
Breakfast at the Hotel
laboratory and is in charge of the Vice Chair of the Younger
Chemists Committee
\\ Person profile: Randal A. Koene
Randal A. Koene is a Dutch neuroscientist and neuroengineer,
\ 9:30 a.m.
Start from the Hotel
\ 10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Meeting Ge Wang, Stanford
and co-founder of carboncopies.org, the outreach and road-
\ 11:30 a.m. – 1.00p.m.
mapping organization for advancing Substrate-Independent
Lunch at Coho with Catalin Voss (tbc), Stanford
Minds (SIM). Between 2008 and 2010, Koene was Director of
the Department of Neuroengineering at the Fatronik-Tecnalia
\ 1.00 - 2:30 p.m.
Institute in Spain, the third largest private research organi-
Meeting Dr. Dennis Wall, Stanford University
zation in Europe. Koene earned his Ph.D. in Computational
\ 3:30 – 5.30 p.m.
Neuroscience at the Department of Psychology at McGill University, and his M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering with a speciali-
Battery Ventures (tbc) or NASA (tbc)
zation in Information Theory at Delft University of Technology.
\ 6.30 – 9.00 p.m.
He is a former Professor at the Center for Memory and Brain
Dinner at Nola’s with: Matthias Hohensee – Wirtschaftswoche
of Boston University, and is co-founder of the Neural Engineering Corporation of Massachusetts. Koene established the
Eric Martindale (tbc), Sean Ironstag – Oceanus
MindUploading.org website and first proposed the term and
specific approach called whole brain emulation, the purpose
of which is the technological accomplishment of mind transfer to a different substrate. His professional research objective
is the implementation of whole brain emulation: creating the
\\ Person profile: Ge Wang
Ge Wang is an Assistant Professor at Stanford University in
the Centre for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics
(CCRMA). His research interests include interactive software
RULEBREAKER® EXPERIENCE
SILICON VALLEY
AUGUST 24 \\ AUGUST 28, 2015
systems for computer music, programming languages, sound
synthesis and analysis, new performance ensembles (e.g., laptop orchestras and mobile phone orchestras) and paradigms
(e.g., live coding), mobile music, interfaces for human-computer interaction, interactive audio over networks, and methodologies for education at the intersection of computer science
and music. Ge is the author of the ChucK audio programming
language, and was a founding developer and co-director of
the Princeton Laptop Orchestra (PLOrk). He is the founder
and director of the Stanford Laptop Orchestra (SLOrk), and of
the Stanford Mobile Phone Orchestra (MoPhO).
\\ Person profile: Dr. Dennis Wall
Dennis Wall is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Stanford University School of Medicine, where his lab is developing
novel approaches in systems biology to decipher the molecular pathology of autism spectrum disorder and related neurological disorders. Dr. Wall received his doctorate in Integrative
Biology from the University of California, Berkeley, where he
pioneered the use of fast evolving gene sequences to trace
population-scale diversification across islands. Then, with a
postdoctoral fellowship award from the National Science Foundation, he went on to Stanford University to address broader
questions in systems biology and computational genomics,
\\ Person profile: Catalin Voss
Catalin Voss is a German student entrepreneur at Stanford University. Voss founded the computer vision startup Sension during his freshman year at Stanford’s startup accelerator StartX,
where he is an Innovator in Residence. Sension gained traction
for developing expression recognition software used in education and for developing a Google Glass app to aid people
with Autism in recognizing social cues. Before, Voss worked in
mobile software engineering with the startup PayNearMe. He
work that resulted in comprehensive functional models for both
protein mutation and protein interaction. Dr. Wall has acted as
science advisor to several biotechnology and pharmaceutical
companies, has developed cutting-edge approaches to cloud
computing, and has received numerous awards, including an
NSF postdoctoral fellowship, the Fred R. Cagle Award for Outstanding Achievement in Biology, the Vice Chancellor’s Award
for Research, three awards for excellence in teaching, and the
Harvard Medical School Leadership award.
was interested in technology from a young age. When he was
twelve, he taught himself the basics of mobile software development when iPhone apps first became popular. A year later,
he started a German podcast about iOS development. Voss’s
tutorials quickly gained > 200,000 views and became the #1
podcast on the German iTunes store. In 2009, he began working with a startup in Stuttgart on iPhone apps for the U.S. Army
stationed in Europe and launched five applications before he
turned 15. Steve Capps hired Voss as a software engineer in
2010 to work on his Silicon Valley startup PayNearMe’s mobile product. Voss worked on the company’s iPhone, Android,
and web platforms and helped launch a mobile cash payments
platform. In 2012, Voss joined Stanford University at age 17 to
pursue a degree in Computer Science (advisee of Professors
Terry Winograd and Jerry Cain). During the same year, Voss advised the executive team of Germany’s largest media company
Axel Springer on structuring a technology partnership between
a Silicon Valley outpost and Germany. His role gained national
attention when the German magazine DER SPIEGEL covered
his work in 2013. Today, As an IIR in the StartX program, Voss
advises StartX’s founders on mobile engineering.
\\ Company profile: Battery Ventures
Battery Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in cutting-edge, category-defining businesses in markets including
software and services, Web infrastructure, e-commerce, digital media and industrial technologies. The firm, which was
founded in 1983, has offices in Boston, Massachusetts, Menlo
Park, California, San Francisco, California and Herzliya, Israel.
The firm backs companies at stages ranging from seed to later stage, with investments as low as a few hundred-thousand
dollars and up to $100 million. The investment team is adept
at sophisticated deal structures such as leveraged buyouts,
PIPEs, spin outs, rollups and take-privates, as well as debt arrangements and secondary transactions. The firm has raised
approximately $4 billion of investor commitments since inception across ten funds. As of 2013, Battery is currently investing
from its tenth fund, BV X and BV X Side Fund, a $900 million
fund.[1]Battery’s previous fund was closed in 2010 with $750
million of investor commitments.
RULEBREAKER® EXPERIENCE
SILICON VALLEY
AUGUST 24 \\ AUGUST 28, 2015
\\ Company profile: NASA Ames Research Center /
Space Portal @ NASA Research Park
The Space Portal of the NASA Research Park was established
in 2005 to provide a “friendly front door” for the commercial
development of space for public benefit. This collaboratory of
award-winning senior space scientists, engineers, technologists and educators began as a volunteer brainstorming group
that saw the potential of commercial space exploration and
development for public benefit. The National Aeronautics and
him a passion for building something revolutionary to address
the ever-expounding array of problems in the education space,
leading to him cofound Coursefork in early 2013.
Eric is also an avid adventurer and athlete, participating in activities ranging from wilderness survival camps and rock climbing to jiu-jitsu, muay thai, and mixed martial arts (MMA). He’s
previously participated in month-long Search & Rescue (SAR)
training exercises in the mountains of West Virginia and even
moonlighted as a musician at local venues.
Space Act of 1958 (as amended)* assigns NASA the mission to
“seek and encourage, to the maximum extent possible, the fullest commercial use of space”.The White House and Congress
\\ Company / Person profile: Oceanus / Sean Ironstag
have affirmed this mandate to NASA in multiple federal laws,
Oceanus’ (and Sean Ironstag’s) objectives are straightforward:
and in national policy.
Clean the pacific gyre, transform plastic debris into workable
material and build upon that. Our dynamic and efficient new
\\ Person profile: Matthias Hohensee
Matthias is US-Correspondent of the German economy-magazine Wirtschaftswoche and lives in Silicon Valley since 1998,
where he could spectate the rise of companies such as Goog-
ways of thinking about the gyres will pave the road to an infinetaly healthier, more productive marine environment. With the
goal to create a green-living community steeped from inception in the tradition of self-sustainability. Oceanus is embarking
on a promising journey. We invite you to make it with us.
le, Facebook, Yahoo and Ebay right on sight. Furthermore he
was able to interview about every one of the most influential
Internet-Businessmen. Since about 10 years Matthias pub-
Friday \\ August 28, 2015
lishes the column “Valley Talk” in the print version of WiWo, in
\ individually
which he introduces the newest Trends, business models and
Breakfast at the Hotel
businessmen from the Californian Hightech-Eldorado. For his
documentaries about Google and the Silicon Valley Entrepre-
\ 8:30 a.m.
neur Andreas Bechtolsheim he won the Georg von Holtzbrinck
Start from the Hotel
Award of Economy-journalism.
\ 10:00 – 11:30 a.m. Alta Motors, South San Francisco
\\ Person profile: Eric Martindale
\ 12:00 – 1.30 p.m.
Eric Martindale is a relentless maker and serial entrepreneur,
San Francisco - City
having founded his first successful company at 18 and continuing to lead early stage companies through the open source eco-
\ 1.30 - 3:00 p.m.
system throughout his career. His passion lies in world-chang-
Space VR, San Francisco
ing ideas and seeing them through to fruition, something that
\ 3:30 – 5.30p.m.
has driven him to acquire robust array of skills in entrepreneurship, technology, and design. Eric has been an autodidact from
an early age, devouring whole encyclopaedias at first before
moving on to libraries and eventually the Internet. His tenuous
relationship with the education system—spanning public, private, charter, home, and even personalized schools—has given
GSVA, Try Fleet, San Francisco
RULEBREAKER® EXPERIENCE
SILICON VALLEY
AUGUST 24 \\ AUGUST 28, 2015
\\ Company profile: Alta Motors
\\ Company profile: German Silicon Valley Accelerator
Alta Motors (formerly BRD Motorcycles) is a team of racers, rid-
To establish a permanent bridge between Germany and the
ers, designers, engineers, makers, builders, thinkers, mechan-
U.S. that facilitates transatlantic startups, provides inspiration
ics, and troublemakers. The Company is a very future-oriented
and drives demand, innovation, research and development in
one that builds quality electric bikes. It is privately owned and
Germany. It enables German startups to evolve into global cor-
has it’s headquarter in San Francisco.Alta Motors was founded
porations with lasting competitiveness and success in interna-
in 2010.
tional markets.
To accelerate the growth of German tech startups and to de-
\\ Company profile: Space VR
velop them into internationally recognized and successful ven-
If a single image of the Earth rising in the dark of space can
and access to U.S. market and financing opportunities.
spawn a national environmental movement, imagine how inspiring a live, 360-degree, 3-D video stream of our planet and
the International Space Station could be.
That’s the theory behind SpaceVR, a San Francisco startup
that’s planning to have its virtual-reality camera, known as the
Overview One, put into space and mounted on the space station as early as next year. Once it’s up and running, anyone will
be able to watch the video online, and those with virtual-reality
headsets such as the Oculus Rift, the Gear VR, and Google
Cardboard will be able to immerse themselves in the view from
space.
\\ Company profile: Try Fleet
Founded in September 2014 and based in San Francisco Fleet
changes the way small to medium sized businesses engage
and choose international freight forwarders. For customers
who need international transportation services Try Fleet provides a place to learn about service providers directly from the
customer perspective. For international freight forwarders the
company provides a platform to demonstrate the quality of services you provide. The goal is to simplify the global commercial
shipping industry by providing an easy-to-use platform, reliable shipments, fair pricing, and an unparalleled customer experience for shippers of any size. The Start-Up will create and add
new value features for both customers and service providers as
they grow together.
tures by providing an understanding of the U.S. startup culture
RULEBREAKER® SILICON VALLEY
PARTICIPANTS
MANAGING PARTNER, ABRAMS PREMIUM STAHL
Dr. Jürgen Abrams
Jürgen is founder of the Company ABRAMS PREMIUM STEEL.
He studied Industrial Engineering and Management and worked for Companies such as
Schoeller Group, G. Claas Group and Porsche before starting his own business with which
he became one of the top steel-suppliers in the wide range of all technical branches. His
brand was able to establish a significant amount of new products and developed a patented software for the steel industry which is by now installed more than 20.000 times
worldwide. Furthermore it is used browser-based by thousands of technicians in this niche
industry using speciality steel. The idea: using multi-dimensional parameters for the selection of most appropriate steel for an individual application, selectable in realtime.
Jürgen is currently introducing two new start-ups with the aim to generate business
knowledge based on big data. Due to the great impact it is already supported by the EU.
PARTNER INNOVATION & STRATEGIC GROWTH INITIATIVES, KPMG
Henning Bauwe
Henning Bauwe is Partner Innovation & Strategic Growth Initiatives at KPMG since
April 2015 and is responsible for building up the Business Eco-System. He has more
than 12 years experience in business development, strategy, innovation and commercial
management in the IT and telecommunications industry.
Before his job change to KPMG he worked for well-known companies (VW, Thyssenkrupp,
RWE, E.on, Comcast and Deutsche Telekom) in different management positions. As SPV
of Deutsche Telekom he was in charge of rebuilding the key account distribution to an
industry- and customer- oriented market model. At Deutsche Telekom and with partners
from finance industry he developed business process outsourcing and established that at
leading bank and insurance companies.
He also had the responsibility for various M&A processes and realized split-offs of organizational units as well as the integration of different cultures for additional growth impulses.
In the last five years his practice focus has been the implementation of disruptive innovations in collaborations, mobile, business intelligence, security and sustainability. By setting up industry comprehensive innovation network in cooperation with high tech industry,
startups and universities, he wants to enable new innovation speed for classic companies.
RULEBREAKER® SILICON VALLEY
PARTICIPANTS
SENIOR PROJECT MANAGER, IAV
Frank Fickel
Frank is responsible for future trends and technology transfer at IAV‘s Vehicle Integrated Functions Department in Germany. After studying electrical engineering in Ilmenau
and many years of professional experience in the semiconductor industry, he has worked
in the automotive industry since 2004. He gained valuable experience in the field of electric
mobility and autonomous driving. Today, he examines the effects of future technologies
and global trends on mobility‘s future. Frank also works as a consultant for the European
Commission in terms of new Intelligent Transport Systems‘ roll-out and is a corresponding
member of the Deployment Working Group of ITS America.
IAV is one of the world’s leading providers of engineering services to the automotive industry, employing over 6,000 people. The company has been developing innovative concepts
and technologies for the vehicles of the future for more than 30 years. Core competencies
include production-ready solutions in all fields of electronics, powertrain and vehicle development. Clients include all the world‘s premier automobile manufacturers and suppliers.
In addition to development centers in Berlin, Gifhorn and Stollberg near Chemnitz, IAV
operates from other locations in Europe, Asia, and North and South America.
SENIOR EXPERT CREATIVE STRATEGY & CONCEPTS, COSNOVA THINK TANK
Astrid Haury
After graduating University Astrid worked in diverse Communication Agencies for
more than 15 years. There she was responsible for strategy and conception of company
development, campaigns and account management. In 2007 she changed perspectives
and started at Cosnova to build up the communication department for both brands. “Our
aim was and is always to communicate on an eye level with the consumer - in a smart
way without spending too much money for media. Off this reason we were one of the first
cosmetic brands in Social Media channels.“ Since March of this year Astrid is part of the
Innovation Team and responsible for Creative Strategy and Concepts that will help the
company and brands to stay ahead.
RULEBREAKER® SILICON VALLEY
PARTICIPANTS
HEAD OF SYSTEMHAUS EFFIZIENZ, LEOPOLD KOSTAL
Ralf Heinze
ht!
Ralf Heinze followed the request of Mr. Kostal to return to the KOSTAL-Group in 2012
and was appointed Vice President for the Kostal EE.Labs / Think-Tank in Germany.
This business unit bundles and extends competencies of the KOSTAL-Group and generates innovative ideas, marketable products and services. His team works as Market-, Trendand Technology-Scout and identifies potential business models regarding future opportunities for the KOSTAL-Group. Previously, he served as Partner and Senior Manager for Lean
Management and Operational Excellence in the Kloepfel Consulting Group and Porsche
Consulting Group, focusing on DAX and MDAX customers.
Besides work, he studied Business Economics and Management, graduating with an MBA
in 2008. Ralf Heinze studied Mechanical Engineering in Germany, Italy and the USA and
graduated in 1993. After a one year freelancer employment for the European Communities
(Italy), he started his automotive career at Leopold Kostal GmbH & Co. KG , Germany, as
Project Manager for International Automotive Projects. Ralf Heinze is Board-Member of the
Alumni-Network of the South Westphalia University of Applied Sciences, Bochum and was
appointed to the Advisory Board of the Bochum University of Applied Sciences in 2014.
SENIOR ARCHITECT OF INNOVATIONS IN APPLYING IT, HANNOVER RÜCK
Jörg Heiß
Jörg is with the Hannover Re for 16 years now. During that time he had several roles including project manager for several Enterprise Content Management projects. Since 2012
he worked as a Senior Architect looking after innovations in applying IT technologies and
handling data within Hannover Re. Jörg finished a program for Enterprise Architecture in
2014 with a title “Approved Business Enterprise Architect by EuroCIO”.
MEMBER OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS, MÜNCHENER
RÜCKVERSICHERUNGS-GESELLSCHAFT
Dr. Doris Höpke
Dr. Doris Höpke was born in Georgsmarienhütte in 1966. She completed her law studies
at the universities of Osnabrück, Hanover and Leiden with a doctorate. She commenced
her career as assistant to the Board member responsible for industrial liability insurance
at HDI Haftpflichtverband der Deutschen Industrie V.a.G. in 1996. She subsequently became the HDI‘s in-house attorney responsible for the management and negotiation of large
industrial liability claims of corporate clients worldwide. Dr. Höpke joined Munich Reinsurance Company in 1999, where she worked as in-house legal counsel until 2001 and was
head of section at Munich-American RiskPartners (MARP Munich) until 2003. In 2003, she
took on the project management for „Business Group Master“ as part of Munich Re‘s global IT project GLORIA (Global Reinsurance Application). From 2006 to 2010, Dr. Höpke was
head of the divisional unit Aerospace & Special Services. In 2011, Dr. Höpke became head
of Munich Re, Madrid. Since 1 May 2014, Dr. Höpke has been a member of the Board of
Management of Munich Reinsurance Company, with responsibility for the Health Division.
RULEBREAKER® SILICON VALLEY
PARTICIPANTS
CO-FOUNDER OF SUBERG STRATEGY CONSULTANTS AND SECTOR
PRINCIPAL WITH HAMPLETON PARTNERS
Ralph Hübner
ht!
Ralph is a cofounder of Suberg Strategy Consultants. In Addition he acts as a Sector
Principal for London-based Hampleton Partners, a M&A boutique specialized in the tech
sector. Ralph began his career in the international fashion industry. Later on, while working
in both consulting and different industries, he focused on international expansion in markets such as Russia, India and China. Advising well-known brands for over 15 years Ralph
has spent most of the last decade specializing in digital strategy. This includes building
e-commerce solutions (b2b/b2c), selective distribution concepts and effective brand protection on the Internet. He frequently appears in the trade press and at industry events as
an author, speaker and moderator. Ralph is also an active investor in start-ups focusing on
advanced digital innovations such as UX/strategy by design or VR/AR.
FOUNDER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 2BAHEAD AND PRESIDENT OF
RULEBREAKER SOCIETY
Sven Gábor Jánszky
Sven is Germany’s best known economic futurist and trend researcher. The media call
his company „Germany‘s most innovative business think tank“. Annually, together with 300
top managers, he creates the business models for the next ten years. Sven is the author of
several books and dozens of future studies that have laid the basis for strategic decisions
in several industries in Germany.
HEAD OF INNOVATION FACTORY AND HEAD OF SUSTAINABILITY,
BASELLANDISCHE KARTONALBANK
Thomas Lauber
Thomas Lauber started his career with an apprenticeship in banking at UBS.
After several years as a relationship manager for private clients he moved in 2009 as a
product manager to Basellandschaftliche Kantonalbank. There he was responsible for
numerous product innovations. Nowadays he is in lead for the inhouse “innovation factory” and sustainability board. One of his main topics is the question, how traditional banks
have to change their business modell and lead offering in times of disruption due to new
digital players in the banking environment. Thomas Lauber is 39 years old, lives in Basel,
Switzerland, and has two children at the age of five and three.
RULEBREAKER® SILICON VALLEY
PARTICIPANTS
C.E.O, BUSINESS4YOU
Andrea Roch
ht!
Andrea was born in 1974. She finished her apprenticeship as a commercial clerk in
Bern and first started working in Travel agencies in Switzerland. In 2003 she founded the business4you Holding AG in which she works as C.E.O. ever since. Business4you
is a All-Line Marketing Agency that is an owner-managed and has 4 venues around the
world: In Biel (CH), Zurich, Ho-Chi-Minh and Honkong. Meanwhile the Agency leads two
subsidiaries and has 56 Employees. Andrea is also a professor at a university of applied
sciences teaching innovation-management and strategic management, President of the
economic chamber Biel/Seeland and Co-President of the Brand-and Marketingday Bern/
Biel/Seeland.
CHAIRMAN TECHNOLOGY HORNBACH BAUMARKT
Andreas Schobert
Since January 1, 2015, Andreas Schobert is appointed as Chief Technology Officer.
The 42 year-old assumes responsibility for the Technology division at which group-wide
information technology and the e-business activities will be pooled. As Director of E-Business, Schobert has been responsible for the international development and enhancement
of the Hornbach-Baumarkt-AG Group‘s online business since 2012. He previously headed
the sales innovations department for five years, focusing among other areas on the development of new business fields. Schobert, who holds a doctorate in business administration, began his career at Hornbach as assistant to EO Steffen Hornbach in 2004.
DEPARTMENTAL DIRECTOR OF TAXES, BAYERISCHE
LANDESBRANDVERSICHERUNG
Alma Schroedter
As the Head of tax at the Bayerische Landesbrandversicherg in Munich, Alma is in a
challenging management position in the insurance industry. She has advanced knowledge in taxation of German insurance business and more than twenty years of experience
in tax consultancy. Alma has proven her ability to combine strategy with organized change
and people. She also has a strong record of and is always looking to improve operational
efficiencies as well as structuring new complex problems. She is also Co-leader of the
project Solvency II within the VKB Group, which is the new European regulatory law for
insurance companies. Additionally she is the head of a group of 10, representing the executives, elected from the VKB Group. She successfully completed her studies with the title
Diplom-Finanzwirtin (FH) at the University of applied Science Hamburg.
RULEBREAKER® SILICON VALLEY
PARTICIPANTS
HEAD OF INTERACTIVE, MEDIASCHNEIDER
Philipp Semmler
ht!
Phillipp is currently the Head of Interactive at the Mediaschneider AG in Zurich, which is the
biggest independent swiss media agency. He started his career with an apprenticeship and
studied at Swiss institute for Marketing and Communications (SAWI). At the Mediaschneider AG he is leading a team with 17 digital consultans, technology analystics and mediaplanning specialists. Furthermore Philipp is lecturing at different marketing and advertising
schools and leads the education partnership program in mass communication and online
journalism at the University of Zambia, Africa.
CEO, E-DOX
Frank Theeg
Frank is a passionate entrepreneur and founder of e-dox. He has the 7th sense for
market trends, strong analytical skills and the ability to convert trends into business
models. He understands himself as a digital visionary and states that the present working approaches and processes in offices are facing a dramatic change. With a strong
background in printing technology and all document related processes the 1999 founded
e-dox GmbH with its headquarters in Chemnitz/Saxony has today two subsidiaries and is
specialized in digitizing companies. e-dox‘ expertise is the digital transformation process
and the resulting chances for companies and the whole IT sector. Frank transformed e-dox
from analog to digital and lives the paperless office thoroughly.
VICE PRESIDENT BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, CONTROLEXPERT
Nicolas Witte
Nicolas is the VP of business development at Control€xpert GmbH, a family owned
business that helps all major insurance companies to bring more efficiency in their
motor claims processes. With engineering and business background Nicolas joined one
of his family‘s organizations, which are all automotive and claims related, to help them grow
internationally by setting up over 20 subsidiaries in international markets around the world.
Nicolas is 30 years old and after leading Control€xpert’s operations in Germany for some
years, he recently moved to Los Angeles to establish his company in the US market.
„RyanAir ist der Querdenker unter den Airlines.
Man könnte auch sagen, ein unvergleichlicher
Rulebreaker.“
Kell Ryan, Gründer RyanAir
Der Business-Club neuer Art
Der Gründer von RyanAir, der Vater der MediaMärkte, der Erfinder der AIDA: In der
RULEBREAKER® SOCIETY treffen sich Vordenker, Unternehmer und Impulsgeber. Alle
haben eines gemeinsam: Sie sind Rulebreaker ®! Ob Kell Ryan, Walter Gunz oder Horst
Rahe – sie alle haben bewusst oder unbewusst die Grundregeln ihrer Branchen verletzt!
Sie haben neue Märkte entdeckt, ganze Branchen an den Rand des Abgrunds gebracht
und mit eigenen Händen unsere Welt verändert.
Die RULEBREAKER® SOCIETY hat kein alt-ehrwürdiges Clubhaus. Sie ist permanent im
Wandel und trifft sich an jenen exklusiven Orten, an denen die wichtigsten Zukunftsentscheidungen getroffen werden. Seien auch Sie in dieser exklusiven Runde dabei! Sitzen Sie bei unseren Dinners am selben Tisch mit berühmten Rulebreakern®, lernen Sie auf den Rulebreaker®
Executive Days Vorstände weltweit führender Unternehmen kennen und lassen Sie sich von
ihrem Spirit anstecken und von ihren Stategien begeistern.
Die Mitgliedscha in der RULEBREAKER® SOCIETY ist strikt
exklusiv! Die Aufnahme in die RULEBREAKER® SOCIETY ist nur
auf Empfehlung eines der Club-Mitglieder oder durch ein ausführliches Vorstellungsgspräch mit dem Präsidenten möglich.
Information und Anmeldung, Jana Sorgalla, Director
jana.sorgalla@rulebreaker-society.com
Telefon: +49. 341. 12 479 620, Telefax: +49. 341. 12 479 611
Die Society bietet die Möglichkeit einer Mitgliedscha als
Society Member oder Company Gold-, Black- und Honorary
Member. Einen Rechtsanspruch auf Aufnahme in die
RULEBREAKER® SOCIETY gibt es nicht.
DIE RULEBREAKER-SOCIETY IM INTERNET
www.rulebreaker-society.com