Joachim Gielnik, Chairman and CEO
After graduating from the technical high school, Joachim Gielnik started his career at the German Airforce devision for electronic combat (EloKa) on the weapon system Tornado. Apart from an education in leadership and other career trainings, he passed the technical education in areas of communiation and radar systems. Subsequently, he graduated as specialized computer expert and studied master in electronics at the University for Applied Siences in Augsburg. He financed his study with postions as a technical designer for production plants, elevator, and climatic systems as well as a quality manager for the development of laptop power supplies. At the end of his study he achieved already a permanent position as project manager in the research and development department of Zeuna Stärker, a development supplier for exhaust systems in the automotive industry. In this position he was responsible for the entire IT of the reasearch and development department, including the implementation of CAD and CAE systems. The responsibility as project manager for the development of a Project Information System in Engineering departments (PRISE) in cooperation with the Bavarian Research Institute for knowledge based Systems (FORWISS) over four years, was the initial reason for him to decide to study master of computer science at the University for Applied Sciences in Augsburg and later at the University of Hagen. Finally, he became the CTO and IT manager of Zeuna Stärker / ArvinMeritor, Inc. being responsible for the entire IT of eight engineering locations and production plans in five countries. 2002 he moved to the Consileon Business Consultancy, a management consulting company, where he was responsible for the area of research and development and automotive industry as unit director. In July 2005 he founded the Cost Xpert AG, located in Augsburg, Germany, which aquired the Cost Xpert Group, Inc., located in San Diego, USA in October 2005. After some years of work, he presented the Integrated Methodology driven Estimation (IME) solution first time in December 2006.
Benedikt Barbe, Board member
After graduating from the business school in Zurich, Benedikt Barbe studied economics at the University of St. Gallen. He started his career at Novoiform in the area of corporate ratings and then changed to Managing Director of ITT Intertrade Inc. From 1997 onwards he had been responsible for the sales department at Signal Berlin GmbH, before he became a sales director at Marotz Inc. Since the spin-off of the Cost Xpert Group, Inc., based in San Diego, CA from Marotz Inc., he has been working there as CEO and joined the board of directors of Cost Xpert AG, the German parent company of the Cost Xpert Group, Inc. in December 2005.
