Berlin, September 29, 2023 – Today, FIWARE Foundation e.V. announced that, effective November 1, 2023, FIWARE’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ulrich Ahle will become CEO successor of the Gaia-X AISBL headquartered in Brussels.
The selection of a new CEO for FIWARE Foundation is already in progress, targeting an orderly transition from Ulrich to his successor in order to guarantee a smooth hand-over, continuity and the execution of the Strategic Plan announced in 2017.
Dario Avallone, Chairman of FIWARE’s Board of Directors said: “Ulrich has been an exceptional CEO for FIWARE and we are grateful for his leadership and energy during the last seven years. With Ulrich, we have built a solid basis for future growth, including strengthening our team, focusing our core competencies, achieving the market entry in North and South America, Asia - above all India, Japan, and South-Korea - North Africa, and the Middle East, evolving and growing our community, improving our operations and building strong collaborations and alliances, like the DSBA (Data Spaces Business Alliance). The Board and I are committed to the execution of the Strategic Plan and continuing to move our business and market-leading standards forward as we have done for the last seven years.”
Ulrich comes from a long career in Manufacturing and the Industrie 4.0 System Integration business and brought more than 25 years of experience in the IT & Digital industry before he created the FIWARE Foundation in 2016 and joined as its CEO in 2017. In this role, Ulrich has played a pivotal role in growing FIWARE Foundation to today’s presence on all continents and to more than 600 members, advancing open source solutions for smart cities, industry, energy, and other sectors, and supporting the strong market adoption of FIWARE-based digital platforms.
Before Ulrich joined FIWARE, he was vice president and leader of the Manufacturing and Industrie 4.0 System Integration business at Atos in Germany. He is also founder and member of the Board of the International Data Spaces Association (IDSA) in Germany and served 16 years in the Board of the prostep IVIP organization.
Ulrich explains his decision and expectations saying: “At this point, I would like to thank the FIWARE Foundation team and the whole ecosystem for the extraordinary engagement during the last years. In the future, I will contribute my experience in transferring innovative solutions into market adoption and building a sustainable global ecosystem to the Gaia-X organization together with the whole Gaia-X team. I will carry on the clear vision and strategy of deliverables provided by GAIA-X creating value for its members and the market. Finally, I will further work on the success of Data Spaces Business Alliance strengthening the collaboration between BDVA, FIWARE, Gaia-X and IDSA.”
Furthermore, Ulrich laid out: “The FIWARE plan is on track - I am proud of the achieved and the progress the whole team has made, and I am committed to ensuring its uninterrupted execution. Dario, the Board of Directors and the whole Board of Officers will always be an inspiration to me, and I am grateful to have had this experience.”