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Management

Executive Management

Senior Management

 

 

Executive management

Udo Eberlein – Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

Udo Eberlein, CEO and member of the company’s board of directors, has transformed the Nero brand by building on its reputation as a high-grade CD and DVD burning software company, to become one of the industry’s premier digital multimedia solution providers. His proven track record at Nero, combined with his unique global perspective will be instrumental in ushering in the next phase of the company’s growth.

Prior to being appointed CEO, Eberlein served as both president for Nero Inc. and chief operating officer of Nero AG. During his tenure, he has solidified critical OEM agreements and technology partnerships with global brands. He also played a key role in the company’s consistent year-over-year growth and in the establishment of its Liquid Media vision for content creation anytime, anywhere and on any device.

Previously, Eberlein was an executive at ABX Logistics, a leader in global logistics, overseeing product development, sales, and marketing. His international experience spans Europe, Asia and the United States.

Eberlein holds a master’s degree in logistics and business administration from The Academy of Business in Stuttgart, Germany.

 

Charly Lippoth — Chief Technology and Strategy Officer (CTO/CSO)

Charly Lippoth, chief technology and strategy officer, oversees corporate business development and long-range planning. He drives research and development of the Nero technology platform. A member of the Nero team since 1999, Lippoth serves on the company’s board of directors and was previously president of Nero KK.

In his role as CTO/CSO, Lippoth is responsible for the ongoing creation and evolution of Nero’s cutting edge technology. He also oversees strategic and business alliances with industry partners, as well as merger and acquisition activities, and contributes to the promotion of Nero’s ongoing role in the industry.

Lippoth received a degree in English language and literature from the University of Mannheim.

 

Senior Management

Jürgen Kurz – Senior Vice President, Business Line PC and Consumer Electronics

Jürgen Kurz, senior vice president of the PC and the Consumer Electronics Business Line, is responsible for worldwide product management and development of Nero’s award-winning digital media suite.

Prior to joining Nero in January 2008, Kurz spent over 11 years at Quark Inc., where he served as senior vice president of Worldwide Products. During his tenure, he oversaw product management, research and development and quality assurance for all of Quark’s market leading desktop and enterprise publishing products, including a staff of 400 in the U.S., Germany and India. He also spent five years in the German publishing industry pioneering print, Web and multimedia products for multiple German publishing companies.

Kurz holds a media design degree from the MediaDesign Hochschule, Munich, and a degree in marketing communications from the IHK, Munich (staatl. gepr. Werbekaufman).

 

 

Kris Barton – Senior Vice President, Business Line Online

Kris Barton, senior vice president of the Business Line Online, oversees worldwide online initiatives for Nero’s online community, Web services and general Web development.

Prior to joining Nero in 2006, Barton held senior posts at several industry-leading software and Web companies; including Microsoft, where he managed teams for the worldwide development of the Microsoft's Windows Live, MSN Portals and Microsoft Office products. He also has years of technology industry experience with several companies including Novell and numerous Web start-ups.

Barton holds degrees from Brigham Young University in business administration and marketing communications.

 

 

Juergen Dumont – Senior Vice President, Finance

Juergen Dumont, senior vice president of Finance and Controlling for Nero AG, leads the accounting and controlling teams and its foreign subsidiaries in providing quality financial reports to stakeholders and executive management.

Prior to joining Nero in January 2008, Dumont served as senior manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers, providing audit and business advisory services to multinational and medium-sized corporations from various industries. He excelled at leading the German Desk Practice at PwC Tokyo from 2001 to 2006, gaining in-depth experience with companies and organizations operating in an international environment.

Dumont holds a master’s degree in business administration from Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg and is qualified as a certified tax consultant and certified public accountant in Germany. 

 

 

John Tafoya – Senior Vice President, Business Development

John Tafoya, senior vice president of Business Development, is responsible for Nero’s global alliances and driving new business initiatives. Since joining Nero in April 2002, he has established key partnerships positioning the company for growth while establishing new revenue sources. As one of Nero’s early executives, Tafoya led efforts to expand the company’s strategic relationships and implement new business initiatives.

Tafoya has more than 25 years of high-technology consumer software and hardware experience, holding key positions at both start-ups and established global corporations. As vice president of Sales and Marketing at CeQuadrat, he ran the U.S. operations. He was instrumental in establishing CeQuadrat as a leading supplier of CD/DVD recording applications. Under his direction, CeQuadrat was acquired by Adaptec’s Software Product Group (spun off as Roxio). He then joined Adaptec as the director of Business Development. Early in his career, Tafoya also held key positions at leading hardware providers, Philips Electronics and NEC Electronics. 

 

 

Hiroi Nishimatsu – General Manager, Asia Pacific

Hiroi Nishimatsu, general manager for the Asia Pacific region, oversees sales and marketing activities for Nero in all APAC countries.

Before joining Nero in 2007, Nishimatsu served as the chief operating officer at Cyber Laser, Inc. and prior to that, he was the vice president and head of the Technology, Solutions and Operations Group at Lucent Technologies.

Nishimatsu received a MBA from Stanford University and a bachelor of engineering in mineral science and technology from Kyoto University in Kyoto, Japan. 

 

 

Patrick Peeters – General Manager, EMEA

Patrick Peeters, general manager for EMEA, oversees all sales and marketing activities for the European, Middle-Eastern and African markets.

Prior to joining Nero in 2004, Peeters served as EMEA sales and marketing manager with Japan-based Plextor, where he oversaw all EMEA-region sales and marketing activities. He has more than 20 years of IT hardware and software industry experience with several IT distribution companies including Manudax, Alpha Microsystems and Getronics.

Peeters holds a master’s degree in electronic engineering and received his MBA from Solvay Business School in Brussels.

 

 

Richard Carriere – Senior Vice President, Americas

Richard Carriere, senior vice president of the Americas, oversees sales, marketing, operations, finance and business development teams in the United States, Canada and Latin America.

Before joining Nero in 2007, Carriere was general manager at Corel Corporation, a publicly-traded application software company based in Ottawa, Canada. During his tenure, he drove significant impact by repositioning the company’s productivity software business line, highly contributing to Corel’s profitability and turnaround.

Previously Carriere also served as a consultant at McKinsey & Company, where he was a member of the media and telecommunications practices and was a leader of the firm’s broadband initiative. Additionally, Carriere has worked for Ernst & Young in Montreal, Canada.

Carriere earned an MBA from The Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College. He also studied at the London Business School and graduated from the Université de Montréal with a bachelor of commerce degree.

 

 

Chris Chen – General Manager, China

Chris Chen, general manager for China, leads the China development center.

Prior to joining Nero in 2007, Chen was director of video product at ArcSoft and has more than 10 years of coding experience in embedded system, main frame bank system and Microsoft Windows application. He also has five years of experience as a manager within the multimedia software industry, specifically focusing on video editing products, TV-related technologies, codecs and BD and HD DVD related technologies.

Chen holds a master’s degree in laser physics with the China Institute of Metrology.