Leadership Team | Open-Xchange

At Open-Xchange, leadership is more a mindset than a title. The nature of our organization is geared towards a flat hierarchy and an open way of working together. The leadership team supports this approach through a mix of business expertise, entrepreneurial experience and operational know-how. Our culture encourages an open approach – exploring, experimenting and mixing things up. You can see the results everywhere – in our people, in our partners and how we develop multi-cultural teams.

Richard Seibt

Chairman of the Supervisory Board

Since 1978 Richard Seibt profits from a long experience in the IT business and has served as Chairman of the Open-Xchange Supervisory Board, apart from a short break in 2021, since December 2006. As Managing Director at IBM Germany, he handled software sales and marketing in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Eastern Europe. He then worked as VP Software Sales and Marketing North America and as General Manager for a worldwide operating system software Division. In 1998, he became an Executive Management board member at United Internet. In 2003, Seibt was appointed CEO at SuSE Linux and in 2004 (following the company’s acquisition by Novell), he became President of Novell EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa). Since leaving Novell in 2005, he has been working as a business angel and board member for several other international software companies.

Achim Weiß

Achim Weiß is the CEO of IONOS, where he is responsible for the company's overall strategy and product development. Weiß has more than 20 years of experience in the European internet industry and in 1995 co-founded Schlund + Partner, the German web hosting pioneer that was taken over by 1&1 in 1998. As Chief Technology Officer at 1&1 until 2008, Weiß developed, amongst other things, the world's first web hosting platform for the rapidly growing mass market. As one of the leading experts in the field of developing scalable internet infrastructures, Weiß founded ProfitBricks, the first German cloud infrastructure solutions (IaaS) provider in 2010. After 1&1 acquired ProfitBricks in 2017, he returned to the board and was appointed CEO of IONOS in October 2018.

Serguei Beloussov

Serguei Beloussov is a serial entrepreneur, the founder of the Schaffhausen Institute of Technology (SIT), Acronis, Parallels, Acumatica, Runa Capital and other technology companies. Serguei has over 20 years of experience building, leading, and growing high-performing, multi-national high-tech companies. Presently, he is focused on developing innovative cyber protection technology as the Chief Research Officer at Acronis and developing SIT campuses in Schaffhausen and Bremen.

Curt Gunsenheimer

Curt Gunsenheimer, Senior Partner at Iris Capital, joined the company in 2002. He is responsible for investments in late-stage and growth capital across Europe and supports companies across Germany and France in stages of global expansion. Gunsenheimer has twenty years of experience in venture capital and public-market financing of growth technology companies, with particular expertise in the field of software. Prior to joining Iris Capital, he worked at Goldman Sachs and Robertson Stephens.

Dr. Paul-Josef Patt

Dr. Paul-Josef Patt is CEO of eCAPITAL entrepreneurial Partners, a German venture capital company. He has worked as a Project Manager at Roland Berger & Partner, the leading German strategy consultancy and as Director of Corporate Strategy at Kaufhof Holding, managing the expansion of one of Germany’s biggest retailers. After his successful exit, Patt started working as a business angel and venture capitalist. He took over the lead at eCAPITAL in 2004 and has overseen the company’s impressive growth. He has a strong track record in financing and developing young high-tech companies and as lead investor, initiated the sale of Novaled to Samsung in 2013 – at that time, the largest venture capital deal in the German hi-tech sector. Patt serves on several boards, including sonnen, Jedox AG and Heliatek.