Christopher Schläffer

Christopher Schlaeffer (born August 23, 1969) is a European entrepreneur and technology executive. He is the Executive Chairman of NYOUM and former Chief Digital Officer of VEON (NASDAQ: VEON) as well as Chief Product and Innovation Officer of Deutsche Telekom (XETRA: DTE).[1] He also serves as Member of the Board at Amnesty International.

Early life and education

Christopher Schlaeffer was born on August 23, 1969 and raised by his mother together with 2 brothers and one sister in Maishofen, Austria. He graduated from Vienna University of Economics and Business in 1993, with a thesis on ecological tax reform.

Professional career

Schlaeffer started his career with Accenture, the international consulting, technology and outsourcing company.

In 1998 he joined Deutsche Telekom, one of the world's leading integrated telecommunications companies. In 2000, at age 31, he became Chief Strategy Officer to play a key role in Deutsche Telekom's transformation. In 2002 his responsibilities were extended to also include Research and Development, Technology (CTO) and IT (CIO) for the group.

In 2006, Christopher Schlaeffer became Deutsche Telekom's Chief Product & Innovation Officer and thus in charge of the global product portfolio. In this role he was a member of the group's Executive Operating Board and responsible for strategic partnerships with for example Apple, Samsung and Google. In 2007, Christopher and Tim Cook signed Apple´s first partnership on iPhone outside the US. On September 23, 2008 together with Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Andy Rubin, Peter Chou and Cole Brodman he unveiled the world's first mobile phone based on Android, T-Mobile G1.[2][3][4]

In 2010, Schlaeffer left Deutsche Telekom to become an entrepreneur and founded yetu. After 4 years of development at IFA Consumer Electronics Show 2014 in Berlin yetu launched the world´s first open connected home platform for web applications usable across devices and operating systems.[5] In 2015 Schlaeffer had to wind down[6] yetu due to a failed funding round, but utilized the open source technology to found NYOUM,[7] a multi-service delivery platform for the connected home.

In 2016 VEON, one of the largest mobile network operators in the world with more than 200 million customers, appointed Christopher Schläffer as Chief Commercial and Digital Officer and member of its Group Executive Committee to help transform the traditional telco into a tech company out of London.[8][9] In this role, he was instrumental to returning the business to revenue growth, rebranding the company into VEON and the development of a free internet platform integrating communication, messaging and applications into a new eco-system for a contextual internet.

By the end of 2018, Christopher Schlaeffer chose to leave VEON and return to being an entrepreneur as Founder and Executive Chairman of NYOUM, which he repositioned as an internet communication company. At the start of 2020 Schlaeffer was co-opted as a Member of the Board at Amnesty International.[10][11][12][13]

Personal life

Christopher Schlaeffer is married and father of 2 daughters. He is an advocate of an “eco-social” market economy, equality and an open information society. He is Patron of iamtheCODE.org, a charity poised to enable 1 million girls from marginalised communities to become coders and was a founding member of the International Beethoven Piano Competition.[14]

Honors, Awards, Positions

In 2007, Christopher Schlaeffer was recognized as a “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum. As founder of yetu, Christopher received the German Energy Efficiency Prize as well as the award „Landmark in the Land of Ideas“ dedicated to the digital revolution by the German Federal President in 2015.[15] Christopher was named one of the "100 Most Innovative Chief Digital Officers globally" as well as one of the “Top50 Innovators To Watch”.[16][17][18]

Works
  • Applied Technology and Innovation Management, Arnold H., Erner M., Möckel P., Schläffer C, Springer, Berlin (2010), ISBN 978-3-540-88826-0
  • Münchner Kreis: “Prospects and Opportunities of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and Media”, 2009
  • Umsetzung von offener Innovation durch industrielle Cluster und Public Private Partnerships, Bub U., Schläffer C., published in Beschleunigte Innovation mit regionalen und industrienahen Forschungsclustern IRB Verlag (2008), ISBN 978-3-8167-7459-4
  • Convergent Media & Networks, Keynote Speech at the 12th German-Japanese Symposium, 2007
gollark: Still pretty liney though.
gollark: Here we go! I forgot that this isn't a per-capita graph.
gollark: It's the summer sale. I bought a bunch of games earlier and queued them for download and forgot.
gollark: I don't actually have the data.
gollark: Oh, Steam is downloading a game in the background, right.

References
  1. "Christopher Schläffer". linkedin.com. Retrieved 2016-06-02.
  2. T-Mobile G1 Google Android Phone Launch Event NYC with Sergey Brin and Larry Page on YouTube
  3. Martin-Jung, Helmut (2018-09-23). "Ein Betriebssystem verändert die Welt". sueddeutsche.de (in German). ISSN 0174-4917. Retrieved 2018-10-10.
  4. "Android turns 10: Google's fierce iPhone rival had a stumbling start". CNET. 2018-09-24. Retrieved 2018-10-10.
  5. "Deutsche Telekom erster Partner von yetu". cleanthinking.de. Retrieved 2014-09-16.
  6. "Berlin Commercial Register: Yetu AG". Retrieved 2015-12-11.
  7. "Companies House: NYOUM". Retrieved 2015-12-13.
  8. "VimpelCom: Press releases". Retrieved 2016-01-14.
  9. "DLD Conference". Retrieved 2016-01-17.
  10. DLDconference (2017-05-19), Moving Beyond Apps – The Next Stage In Mobile And Messaging (Schläffer, Kirkpatrick) I DLD New York, retrieved 2017-07-25
  11. "DLD Conference Video". DLD Conference. Archived from the original on 2018-01-31. Retrieved 2018-03-13.
  12. Ltd., VEON. "VEON Reports Good Q2 2018 Results with FY 2018 Targets Confirmed". www.prnewswire.com. Retrieved 2018-10-10.
  13. "International Board". amnesty.org.
  14. "Our Team". iamthecode.org.
  15. "Land der Ideen". Archived from the original on 2015-12-08. Retrieved 2015-12-06.
  16. "Our Supporters". Serpentine Galleries. Retrieved 2018-03-13.
  17. "The 100 digital leaders transforming their global brands". Retrieved 2018-03-13.
  18. "50 innovators to watch". www.globaltelecomsbusiness.com. Archived from the original on 2017-06-07. Retrieved 2018-03-13.
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