Chris Dornhoff ← Back
Curriculum Vitae

Twenty-five
years of
building

since 2022

KROMBACHER BRAUEREI

Krombach . Germany
CTO
great ideas often start with having a beer

TASK Setup internal Development Teams to build all kinds of customer-facing applications like a receipt-based loyalty system, CDP, PIM, IDM, E-Commerce (B2B and B2C), etc. with the vision to develop a perfect experience for our consumers and industry partners.

CURRENT STATE The teams are growing, a lot of great talents joined our mission to bring refreshment to the world. 650.000+ customers are registered to the plattform using our services, engagements apps, shops or newsletters.

2019 - 2021

METRO GROUP
Metro Markets GmbH

Düsseldorf . Germany
CTO

TASK Metro Markets is a spin-off of Metro AG, one of the largest wholesalers worldwide, with the mission to build a Marketplace focusing on the HoReCa (Hotels, Restaurants, Caterers) Market. As CTO I‘m responsible for Software Development and Operations. After 8 months of development we launched an MVP Version of the Plattform containing Frontends for Buyers, Sellers as well as a self-developed WMS and ERP-System.

RESULTS left the company after 2 years of intensiv work with a plattform rolled out in Germany and Spain. 200+ engineers working in offices in Düsseldorf, Palma and Kiev structured in 4 main tribes and several squads.

  • Software Development and Infrastructure
  • Agile Development (SCRUM and Lean Kanban) (CI/CD)
  • currently around 180 Engineers organized in 5 tribes and several squads
  • IT Operations (24/7)
  • ML-based pricing engine
  • Security and System Architecture
  • General Data Protection Regulation
2015 - 2019

REWE GROUP
Gartenliebe, toom Baumarkt GmbH

Cologne . Germany
CTO | CTO CROSS CHANNEL

TASK toom Baumarkt [REWE Group] with a turnover of 2.8 billion euros per year had no e-commerce or even cross channel experience in 2015. As part of the cross channel strategy the subsidiary Gartenliebe was founded to gain experience. STATUS QUO After running Gartenliebe for two years it was merged to the new founded cross channel department at toom Baumarkt where one of the most advanced hybrid microservice plattforms was developed in order to combine flexibility and time to market. RESULT roll out of the cross channel platform to 320 markets [C&R, C&C], setup of an own fulfilment center [C&D] and Enhanced cross channel functionality on- and offline.

  • setup Gartenliebe as POC for toom online strategy
  • conception and building of the cross channel platform incl. Shop, Order Management, Product Information Management, Customer Care, Drop Shipment and Fulfilment Center
  • Agile Development (SCRUM and Lean Kanban) (CI/CD)
  • up to 5 Development Teams · DevOps and IT Operations (24/7)
  • Security and System Architecture
  • General Data Protection Regulation
2013 - 2015

VHB E-Commerce GmbH
Verlagsgruppe Handelsblatt

Cologne . Germany
CEO | Chief Executive Officer

TASK Developing and implementing a strategy to expand current online businesses by external cooperations with analog experts from different sectors, f.e. koffer.de and teeliebe.de. One of the first achievements was setting up and hiring a core team and setting up a partnership for development with another publishing group as well as establishing partner management and administration. Furthermore a co-operation is closed with Samsung as a strategic partner and a distribution network.

RESULT Break even within 2014, koffer.de was acquired by GTS Travel and is today one of the most successful suitcase retailer in Germany. VHB E-Commerce was merged to VHB Ventures focused on FinTech start ups.

  • Enhanced E-Commerce Strategy for a publishing group
  • Setup of several webshops (public and closed user group) e.g. koffer.de, teeliebe.de
  • Strategic Partnership with Samsung Germany and D-Link: Managing the Employee Purchase Programm for both companies (Closed User Group)
  • Content Partnership with Samsung for the TABpro Series
  • Reach to more than 1.5 million employees
2006 - 2012

Media Ventures GmbH
Ströer Unternehmensgruppe

Cologne . Germany
CTO & Managing Director of neu.de | mabber.com | klickfreundlich.de | Penthouse

TASK As CTO of media ventures one of the first achievements was to setup a professional technical infrastructure for all subsidiaries and the holding itself. Enabling to build up scalable and successful internet services like neu.de, weg.de, mp3.de or pkw.de as well as innovative new services like mabber.com or shoppero.de.

RESULT Successful exits of neu.de and penthouse magazine, conversion rate optimization of neu.de by more than 350% making it one of the most successful and well-known dating platforms in Germany acquired by Meetic, Société Anonyme (plc) the European market leader.

  • Technical responsible for all subsidiaries and ventures
  • Quality assurance · Technical due diligence of new ventures
  • Online and Performance Marketing
  • Product Management
  • Technical human resources
  • Data security | Data centre security | Development security
  • Customer care and Customer Relationship Management
2002 - 2006

net mobile AG

Düsseldorf . Germany and Shanghai . China
Head of Business Unit Games | Technical Director

TASK With the rise of Java enabled mobile Phones in 2002 an new business for mobile gaming unit was established within the net mobile AG, focusing on especially classic brands converted from classic homecomputer systems like Commodore C64 to mobile phones. This business unit was acting as a profit center within the company.

RESULT Business Unit Games was the most successful unit of net mobile AG offering services to iFone, Glu, Jamdat/EA, KPN, Docomo, G-Mode and many more, managing more than 200 iMode Channels worldwide. Direct Cooperation with Taito for all mobile Contents outside Japan.

  • Project and roll out planning, localizing and porting of mobile games for operators across Europe, Asia and Australia
  • Setting up and managing two development teams located in Germany and China
  • Design and monitoring of development schemes and coding rules
  • Quality assurance for games and apps on more than 300 different handsets and operating systems
  • Handset management
  • Development of an industry standard platform for i-mode channels used to connect with more than 20 mobile carriers
  • Roll out planning of first mobile applications for customers and companies of the net AG group like Addias mobile
2000 - 2002

Infomediar GmbH
net AG Group - net SE

Cologne . Germany
Head of Software Development

TASK Infomediar was setup as an internal service and research company within the net AG group offering development services to new sister companies and research on new technologies for example mobile technologies like WAP or SMS-Services.

RESULT Company and team were acquired by net mobile AG as preproduction and special-services team to meet the customer requirements besides the standard products.

  • Managing a team of up to 15 developers
  • Roll out planning of first mobile applications for customers and companies of the net AG group like the Addias mobile forecasting system prototype to enable the Adidas Management to get forecast information using their WAP-enabled phones
  • Several preproduction and SMS services for net mobile AG, e.g. first SMS-Voting App for the tv-show “Big Brother” designed to handle more than 1000 SMS per second.
1998 - 2000

net solutions GmbH
net AG Group | net SE

Freudenberg . Germany
Team Lead Internet | Internet Consultant . pre | post sales
1995 - 1998

C.I.P. EDV-Beratungsgesellschaft mbH

Siegen . Germany
Team Lead Webhosting | Software Developers

Additional skills and professional development

Languages
  • German (native)
  • English (fluent)
  • French (basic knowledge)
Computing Languages

Basic / Visual Basic, Cobol, C / C++, Java, XML, HTML, JavaScript, SQL, PHP, Perl, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Python, goLang, Erlang

Operation Systems

Windows, SCO Unix, SunOS/Solaris, NeXT Step, Mac OS-X, Linux

Software

MS Office, Open Office, Adobe Photoshop, Macromedia Flash, Apache, MySQL, Oracle, Eclipse, various Security / Penetration Testing and other Software Hardware: Dell, SUN, IBM, Apple, HP, APC, Cisco

Trainings

Online Marketing (SEO, SEM, Display, RTB), Team Leadership, Project- and Agile Management, Sales, Human Resources, Rhetoric and Dialectic

Education

business administration | University of Siegen
computer science | University of Siegen

Memberships
  • Chaos Computer Club e.V. (CCC)
  • Deutsche Lebens-Rettungs-Gesellschaft (DLRG)
  • Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD)
Personal Interests
  • being a father
  • Vintage cars / motor sports (youngtimer)
  • Watches (wrist and wall mounted)
  • Travelling
  • Multimedia (SCNR)
  • Home Automation
  • Water sports
  • Podcasting

Let's have a beer.

chris@dornhoff.de