Describe your educational background. Where did you study, what degrees did you receive?

I started my professional career in studying Radio and Television engineer.
In 1992 I started at Bertelsmann. I acquired profound technical knowledge in different divisions in “Learning by Doing”. In addition I took several courses in computer languages.

Describe your career history. What have been your professional experiences prior to your current position?

In 1992 I started at the Bertelsmann Company Telemedia. Here I worked for the service department for Laser Disc systems. After moving into the compression and authoring department of Telemedia, I took care of the products CD-I and Video-CD. In 1998 I moved to Sonopress, where the DVD-Video production just started. I worked for the Premastering department and did the programming (authoring) for the first DVD-Video titles.

What are your current roles and responsibilities?

Since 2007 I am heading the Compression and Authoring department, which is part of the Premastering division. We are now dealing with the new Video-Disc format Blu-ray disc. Together with my colleagues I established the whole HD-(High Density) workflow and implemented all equipment into Premastering. Today we are offering our Blu-ray disc customers all services for creating titles in High-Definition resolution, including HD-Video-Encoding, HD-Audio-Encoding and BD-J- Programming.

What attracted you to your company and position? What is your favorite thing about your job?

In the past years I have seen and supported the rapid development with the physical Audio- and Video- Media. Starting with the Laser Disc, continuing with CD-I and Video-CD, developing the first DVD-Video titles, creating the first HD DVD titles (just borne, but already obsolete format), and now developing Blu-ray titles. I always had been involved in the development and implementation of these new products.
I am glad to be involved and part of this development process. Each day there are new challenges, I like that.

What has been your most memorable moment (so far) in your job?

In 2002 I did the programming for the first DVD-Video title release of “Lord of the Rings (Herr der Ringe)”, the European version. Here I was one of the few first persons in Europe, who could watch the “Special Extended Version” of this excellent movie. It is still my favorite DVD-Video.

My favorite spot in the world:

Could be everywhere where mountains are.

If you could meet anyone from history, living or dead, who would it be?

Well, this is not easy. Maybe I would like to have a small talk with Mr. Köhler, our Bundespräsident.  From my point of view he is a very intelligent man and I would like to find out what we (The Germans) have to change that we are successful.

What qualities do you feel are necessary to be a successful employee at your company?

I think, we must be very flexible, reliable and sensible in offering always the right solutions to our customers.

My favorite book, movie and artist are…

Book: “In Eisigen Höhen” from Jon Krakauer
Movie: Lord of the Rings, Star Trek
Artists: Artists are difficult because I like a wide range of music. But some of my favourites are the Cure, Faceless, Dire Straits