Joachim Gielnik, Chairman and CEO
After graduate the technican high school Joachim Gielnik started his career at the German Airforce devision for electronic combat (EloKa) on weapon system Tornado. Apart from education in leading of people and other career training, he went through the technical education in areas of communiation and radar systems. Subsequently, he went through the graduation for specialized computer experts and studied master in electronics at the University for applied sience of Augsburg. He financed his study with applications as a technical designer for production plants, elevator, and climatic systems as well as quality manager for the development of laptop power supplies. At the end of his study he was already in a permanent position as project manager of the research & 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 & development department, including for the implementation of CAD and CAE systems. The responsibility over four years as project manager for the development of a Project Information System in Engineering departments (PRISE) in a 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 science of Augsburg and later at the University of Hagen. Finally, he become the CTO and IT manager of Zeuna Stärker / ArvinMeritor, Inc. being responsible for the entire IT of eight engineering locations and/or production plans in five countries. 2002 he moved to the Consileon Business Consultancy, a management consulting company, responsible as unit director for the area research & development and automotive industry. 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 year of work he presented the Integrated Methodology driven Estimation (IME) solution first time in December 2006.
Benedikt Barbe, Board member
After graduating 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 he was responsible for the sales department at Signal Berlin GmbH before he became a sales director for Marotz Inc. After the spin-off Cost Xpert Group, Inc., based in San Diego, CA from Marotz Inc., he works there to this day as CEO. Since December 2005 he is also on the board of Cost Xpert AG, the German parent company of the Cost Xpert Group, Inc.
Patricia Burkert-Espich, Board member
Patricia Burkert-Espich started her career 1989 at EADS, aerospace industry in Augsburg at the procurement department. She was responsible for purchasing standard parts for all airbus types and military products. In 1994, she commenced a masters study of marketing at the University of Applied Science in Augsburg. After successful academic degree she gained experience as a marketing manager in different marketing agencies. Furthermore, she worked as a marketing researcher at the publisher Weltbild. In 2006 she began working for the Cost Xpert AG becoming the marketing manager. In June 2008, she became marketing director and an executive member being responsible for the strategic and operative marketing of Cost Xpert worldwide. Since June 01, 2011 Mrs. Burkert-Espich is also a board member of Cost Xpert AG.
