René Obermann

René Obermann (born 5 March 1963) is Partner and Managing Director at Warburg Pincus International LLC and was CEO of Deutsche Telekom from November 13, 2006 to December 31, 2013.^[1]

Early life

He was raised in Krefeld. After high school and completing military service, where he spent two years in the air force, he started his professional career at BMW in Munich and completed a business apprenticeship program in 1986. From 1986-88, he studied economics at Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität in Münster.

Career

Also in 1986, he founded his own company ABC Telekom (today: The Phone House Telecom GmbH), located in Muenster, Germany. In 1988 Andreas Gerder became his Partner until 1992.

He gave up studying after 2 years due to the successful development of ABC. In 1991, ABC Telekom merged with Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. and became Hutchison Mobilfunk GmbH. Obermann was Managing Partner from 1991 to 1996 and Chief Executive Officer from 1993 to 1998.

After having sold his remaining shares, Obermann started his career at Deutsche Telekom Group, first at T-Mobile Deutschland GmbH as a Member of the Executive Board. From March 2000 to March 2002 he was CEO of T-Mobile Deutschland. In June 2001, he additionally became CEO Europe at T-Mobile International AG. In November 2002, he became Board Member of Deutsche Telekom AG and was then appointed as CEO of the group’s mobile division, T-Mobile International AG. He took over the last two roles from Kai-Uwe Ricke who was appointed as CEO of Deutsche Telekom AG.

After Ricke had resigned in 2006, Obermann became the CEO of Deutsche Telekom AG.

Obermann left Deutsche Telekom in December 2013 and assumed the role of CEO of the Dutch cable and internet provider, Ziggo. His decision was already published in 2012 – he wanted to go back to a more operational role – back into the ‘machine room’ where he came from.^[2] In 2014 it became public that Ziggo would become takeover target of Liberty Global. Obermann announced that he would therefore leave the company upon completion of the merger, which took place at the end of 2014.

In February 2015, Obermann became Partner and Managing Director at Warburg Pincus International LLC.^[3]

Obermann is member of the supervisory boards of E.ON SE (since 2011), thyssenkrupp AG (since 2013),^[4] Spotify (since 2014) ^[5] and CompuGroup Medical SE (since 2015).^[6]

In April 2016, Obermann became a member of the advisory board of the German Internet Economy Foundation, which supports the German and European digital economy.^[7]

Personal life

He married the German TV moderator, Maybrit Illner on 14 August 2010.

Rewards

2004: Zukunftspreis (award for technology and innovation) by CDU North Rhine-Westphalia

2011: Golden Victoria for Integration

2012: Ben-Gurion Leadership Award, Israel

2012: Professor of economics at Heinrich-Heine-University in Duesseldorf, Germany

2013: Officer of the French Légion d'honneur

References