Norbert Muhrer
Chief Executive Officer

Before taking up the position as Chief Executive Officer at Cinterion on June 1st, 2008, Norbert Muhrer served as President and CEO of Siemens’ Wireless Modules division since 2006. He achieved much in the two years of his leadership. In this time, Wireless Modules’ market share grew steadily and the division won the biggest contracts in its history. 

With more than 20 years industry experience, Mr. Muhrer has held management positions across the globe. Prior to joining the Wireless Modules division, he was President and CEO of Siemens Communication Networks in Beijing. Mr. Muhrer had gained rich management experience before taking up the assignment in China, serving Siemens in the United States, Thailand, and Germany.
 
After earning a Master’s degree at the Technical College of Electronics and Communications in Salzburg, Austria in 1985, Mr. Muhrer launched his career at Siemens Public Communication Networks.

Sebastien Gallois
Chief Financial Officer

As Chief Financial Officer, Sebastien Gallois brings extensive experience to his responsibilities including financial accounting, planning, controlling and reporting. Sebastien Gallois held several Finance positions in Germany and France within Gemalto since 2001.  Before joining Gemalto, Sebastien Gallois worked for Yves Rocher in Stuttgart (Germany) and for PricewaterHouseCoopers in Frankfurt (Germany).

M. Gallois speaks multiple languages and studied economics at the universities of Metz and Saarbrücken.

Lars Thyroff
Chief Marketing Officer and EVP Sales EMEA Region

Cinterion’s Chief Marketing Officer Lars Thyroff heads the European, Middle East and Africa business and steers the overall market activities. Mr. Thyroff’s previous posting had been Vice President of Product and Portfolio Management at Siemens Wireless Modules.
 
Before joining the management of Siemens Wireless Modules in 2003, Mr. Thyroff was General Manager of Siemens Mobile’s global procurement organization in Japan and Korea. He served Siemens for more than ten years, holding various international management positions at Siemens Mobile Communications. Before that, he was Sales and Product Manager with the Arrow Group.
 
Mr. Thyroff holds a degree in Precision Engineering and Information Technology from Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences.

Akhan Urgun
Chief Operations Officer

Chief Operations Officer Akhan Urgun is responsible for Cinterion’s Supply Chain Management and Procurement. Prior to taking up this position, Mr. Urgun was Vice President of Global Procurement of Production Material at Siemens Home and Office Communication Devices in Bocholt, Germany.
 
Holding various positions in Siemens Procurement departments from 1996 to 2004, Mr. Urgun Initially served the Private Networks division, and later Siemens ICM. When ICM and ICN merged to form the Communications (Com) division in 2004, Mr. Urgun became Director of Local Procurement for two Siemens locations at Bocholt and Kamp-Lintfort.
 
Mr. Urgun completed an Industrial Business Manager training program at Siemens, where he also earned European Merchant qualifications.

Axel Hansmann
Vice President, Strategy & Marketing Communications

As vice president of strategy & marketing communications for Cinterion, Axel Hansmann brings more than 15 years of telecommunications and technology management experience to the management team.  In this role, he’s responsible for developing strategies to drive business growth in new and existing markets, enhancing the customer experience worldwide and building brand awareness as the market leader in M2M technology.  Before joining Cinterion, Mr. Hansmann was with boardeleven Management Consultants where he focused on evaluating market entry and strategic growth options in the M2M industry for a leading module manufacturer and mobile network operators.  Prior to that, he worked for eight years at Telefónica O2, a leading telecommunications carrier in Europe where he took on various responsibilities covering network technology, product management and business strategy.

Mr. Hansmann speaks multiple languages and earned degrees in electrical engineering and telecommunications management.

Winfried Sturm
Vice President Human Resources

Vice President of Human Resources Winfried Sturm joined Cinterion in 2009. Mr. Sturm is looking back on more than twenty years of professional experience in international Human Resources Management; he is a true HR Executive with a deep, broad and extensive strategic and operational experience, predominantly gained at internationally linked Corporations with R&D/Engineering, Sales/Marketing and Production/SCM sites around the globe.

Amongst his former assignments, Mr. Sturm served as a Consultant and Interim HR Director from 2005 to 2007. From 1995 to 2004 he served as Director Human Resources for Europe & Asia at Force Computers, a global leading company in the Embedded Computing.
 
Mr. Sturm earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economic Education from the University of Mannheim, Germany, and a Master Degree in Business Administration with Human Resources Management as major subject from the University of Applied Sciences in Ludwigshafen, Germany.

Jörg Erdmann
Vice President Quality Management

Prior to taking up the position of Cinterion’s Vice President Quality Management, Jörg Erdmann headed Quality Management and Services at Siemens Wireless Modules. Before that, he helmed the Technical Planning Group at Siemens Medical Solutions. Mr. Erdmann joined Siemens in 1995 when he signed on with Siemens Electromechanical Components as a development engineer for micro machining. Earlier he had served Biotronik, a German electronic engineering firm, as a quality engineer and Inkjet Systems as a development engineer.
 
Mr. Erdmann holds a degree in micro mechanical engineering from the Technical University Berlin.

Peter Fowler
Regional President, Cinterion Wireless Modules, Americas

Peter Fowler, Regional President of Cinterion Americas, has overseen operations since the business units launch in 2002. Under his leadership, Fowler has grown the region to "Global Region of the Year" for FY '07 and continued this growth trend into 2008 with the Americas region reporting a record $100M+ in sales.

Fowler brings 20 years of technology industry management experience to his current position. Prior to joining Cinterion, he held a series of increasingly expansive assignments including overseeing the distribution of cellular data products for the America's Region of Sierra Wireless, National Sales Manager for the Panasonic Computer Equipment Division, and various management roles at a 3M and Harris Corporation joint venture.

Marcel Visser
Vice President Automotive

Marcel Visser, Vice President Automotive of Cinterion is responsible for managing the business development activities worldwide. Visser has recently been promoted to this position after successfully launching and growing Cinterions APAC region as Vice President of Sales, Cinterion Wireless Modules, APAC.

Visser brings a broad variety of industry experience to Cinterion, including an electrical engineering degree from the Hogere Technische School located in the Netherlands, which launched his career within the Siemens semiconductor business unit and the technology industry. He held a variety of positions within Siemens, including engineering, product and sales managing, as well as heading up the Siemens CIO EMEA corporate infrastructure department, which has given him a thorough understanding of the industry.