We are collectAI

Comprising 20 years of professional experience, Ulf is a true sales professional. During his career, he has held various leading positions in sales for service and project industries as well as investment goods. Naturally, not only his talent for acquiring and handling clients are an important asset for collectAI, but also his in-depth knowledge on strategy development and process optimization.

Steven joined our sales team in 2018. Prior to joining he gathered more than 10 years in sales for backend processes, most recently as Key Account Manager at Creditreform. Having worked in the receivable management and debt collection prepared him perfectly for acquiring and consulting our clients. He appreciates the flat hirarchies and the multicultural team at collectAI, which fosters innovation and creates a great atmosphere. Steven holds a diploma in business administration from university Bonn-Rhein-Sieg. Apart from his profession, he loves to spend his freetime outside as he enjoys various sports, travelling to Asia and the US as well as exploring the nature.

Since January 2018, Greg works as our NodeJS Engineer. Back in Poland, where he is originally from, Greg became passionate in game development. Therefore, he pursued his education at Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology and got his diploma there. As a starting point of his career, Greg first worked on his own projects as a freelancer, followed by two years at iTrends and another two at Playsoft.fr, both in Gdansk. After moving to Hamburg , he spent 5 years at Goodgame Studios.

Working as a Senior Software Engineer, Hady strives every day for improving our technology. Prior to joining collectAI, he worked as the Head of Core Products Engineering at a large Fintech company in Hamburg, leading and expanding various teams and departments comprising up to 80+ engineers. In his career, he gathered more than 10 years of experience in engineering as well as entrepreneurship, having built up four companies from scratch. As he loves getting his hands on new technology, Hady has also just started to become an aspiring video game designer. When he's not dealing with technology, he enjoys bowling and treats himself with BBQs and sliced bread.

As a Technical Project Manager, Benjamin works closely with our clients to ensure a smooth integration of our solution. His specialties lie in process optimization, requirements management and the realisation of IT projects. Prior to his role at collectAI, Benjamin pursued a career as a mechanical engineer, gathering 8 years of working experience in the renewable energy sector. Apart from being tech-savvy, he is also fluent in German, English and Spanish and plays guitar in a band.

As Head of Strategic Sales, Max Bense orchestrates the acquisition of new clients with a focus on the DACH market and is responsible for the sales team at collectAI. Previously, he was Director Business Development and Sales at BLG Logistics AG & Co. KG in Bremen. He gained basic experience in cross-border e-commerce during his nine-year tenure at Hermes Fulfillment GmbH in charge of sales and account management. Among other things, he was in charge of the Austrian lingerie and hosiery manufacturer Wolford during its entry into the US and Chinese online retail markets. In addition, Max was responsible for setting up the Hermes organization in the US. Born and raised in Hamburg, he completed his diploma studies at the European University of Applied Sciences Rhein/Erft with focus on logistics management.

Raphael has been an official member of the team since February. Two years ago, he helped building collectAI when at Otto Group Digital Solutions (OGDS), the Otto Group company incubator. He graduated with a degree in business administration from the University of Augsburg with a focus on strategy, organization and business ethics. After two years as a strategy consultant in Munich, Raphael discovered his passion for the start-up world. He joined the Otto Group and gained relevant experience in controlling and M&A and strategy development at Yapital and OGDS Holding for three and a half years. Raphael is originally from Freiburg, but has now fallen in love with Hamburg. In his leisure time he is a dedicated golfer.

Ivan has over one decade of experience in software engineering. Previously he worked at Kreditech where he helped building the next generation of installment loan products. Originally from Ukraine, Ivan has a Master Degree in Computer Science. He plays the piano and has a passion for reading and traveling – mostly backpacking.

As a Project Manager at collectAI, Floriane brings in a four-year professional experience in project and change management. After graduating from French School of Engineering at ISEP Paris, she pursued a higher education in Master of Science in Information Technology at Cranfield University, UK. Holding a German Project Manager Certificate, she worked in various international companies in Germany. Born and raised in Paris, Floriane is passionate about cooking, sport and international culture events as well as learning languages. She speaks four languages already and now is also learning Catalan.

Giorgos was our Freelance Web Developer for one and a half years and now moved over to Hamburg to fully join the team. Prior to that Giorgos gained experience in web development in Greece and Albania for over five years. Having studied Computer Science and Networking in Athen Girogos loves everything about web development, open source, video games, software and hardware engineering. During his leisure time, he enjoys beer, good food and reading. He was born in Albania and raised in Greece and therefore speaks Greek, Albanian and English.

Artem supports our data-driven decision making processes bringing in two years of experience in Data Science at the fintech Kreditech and a year as a web developer. Prior to moving to Germany, he studied at the VU University Amsterdam. He there worked on explanatory and predictive modelling for environmental research. Artem is passionate about building predictive models, as well as drawing insights from the data. In his free time he enjoys reading, trying out new exciting machine learning algorithms and playing computer games.

Tilo joined the collecAI team to boost the Engineering department early 2016. Since August he works for collectAI remotely from Berlin. Prior to joining he was a Freelance Developer and also held a Senior Engineering role in a logistics startup in Hamburg. Before that, he focused on Node.js development at versus.com. Tilo grew up close to the Baltic Sea and graduated in Mechanical Engineering from the Technical University of Munich. He has a passion for Go(lang) and Kubernetes.

Florian brings in more than a decade of experience from both, software development as well as leadership positions focusing on product. At collectAI, he is responsible for communication and payment solutions facing the end-customer. Before pushing our product and services he was Product Owner at Emetriq where he was in charge for the tracking solutions and 3rd party integrations of the data pool. He also worked in Product Management in the area of online marketing as Head of SEA. Prior to that, he was a Software Developer in startup companies for seven years, focusing on logistics and marketing. An interesting fact: Florian holds a degree in Technomathematics.

Luis brings in more than 10 years of experience in the conceptualization and development of software for different platforms. Born and raised in Mexico City he graduated as Macaronic Engineer. Luis describes himself as a technology lover with ambitions to reach new horizons. He is proactive and always looking for new challenges to overcome for the professional and personal growth. Besides work, he enjoys video games, movies, music and books.

Kat joined collectAI in January 2017. Having worked in debt collection since 2009 at a big debt collection agency in Hamburg, Real Solution Inkasso, she is specialized in the area. Extra occupational she is currently studying front-end web development via a distance learning program. Born in Kazakhstan, Kat also speaks Russian fluently. Besides from working hard, she loves travelling and gaming.

Part of the team since 2016, José is one of the early members of the tech team at collectAI. Having worked as an engineer for half a decade, he was a PHP developer for the Venezuelan state-owned oil company "PDVSA", and gained experience as a Java Developer at the insurer Consis International. He also helped pushing the startup incubator Mahisoft's progress as a Java and Python developer in real estate and real-time bidding projects. Coming from Venezuela originally, José holds an engineering degree from Universidad de Oriente in his hometown.

Felix is born to be a developer, having programmed software for more than 20 years now. Prior to joining, Felix was a Senior Frontend Engineer at Mesosphere inventing and developing big datacenter user interfaces. A highlight in his career was the development of a P2P IP TV infrastructure across Europe. Also, he was in charge for the technical conception and development of the European Parliament Visitors Center in Brussels. His educational background is in IT, having started as an IT assistant and continued as a qualified IT specialist in systems integration. The passionate full-stack JavaScript Engineer originally comes from the state Schleswig-Holstein next to Hamburg.

Elda joined collectAI in May 2016 initially as Head of Business Development, later moving on into her current role with focus on account and project management. After starting her career as a Software Engineer, she worked in an engineering and technology company initially as a consultant and later as a Business Unit Manager where she led engineering projects for various industries. Born and raised in Albania, she has also lived in Turkey and Scotland prior to pursuing her career in Germany. Elda holds a Bachelor in Computer Engineering and a Master in Global Innovation Management. Being passionate about innovation, she enjoys travelling the world, eating, playing tennis and reading. Also, Elda is a real polyglot speaking five languages.

David moved to Germany to work for our founding company LiquidLabs in summer 2015 and joined our team a year later. Before that, he was a Mobile Developer at Pademobile and a web developer at Vibebrand for a few years. Born and raised in Puebla, Mexico, he graduated as System Engineer from the Polytechnic University of Aguascalientes, Mexico. In his leisure time he loves video gaming, watching movies and invests some time in arts.

Dieter joined the team in summer 2017. In the last years he helped to build up the financial department of a startup. He studied Economics and Political Sciences at the university of Hamburg and Erlangen. He is very enthusiastic about the future of fintech and excited about the growth possibilities at collectAI. He loves digits and digitalization and chess and boxing. In addition to German, Dieter speaks Russian and Portuguese.

Being a key driver of the development team since 2016, Carsten has a strong track record as a full-stack web developer of over 15 years in tech driven companies. Prior to joining, he was a Senior Application Manager at a digital agency in Hamburg for almost nine years. Before, he worked as Software Engineer at Opodo in London. He also held different developer positions in medium to large companies in Germany. Graduated in Computer Science from the University in Hamburg, despite his international career path, Carsten is one of the few original "Hamburgers" in the team.

Annalisa moved to Germany to join LiquidLabs and later collectAI as a Web Developer. Originally coming form Venezuela, Annalisa graduated with a Masters degree in Data Warehouse and Business Intelligence from Greenwich University, London. She fell in love with Hamburg and the German culture. Also, she loves dancing in her free time and getting to know new places, cities and countries.

Anna heads collectAI’s marketing and communications since 2017. Having built from scratch and lead the communications of fintech company Kreditech previously for three years before that, she brings in plenty of international industry know-how and a network of influencers. With over ten years of working experience in start-up PR, branding and investor relations, she covers a broad set of skills from the areas of B2B2C and B2B. Having lead the PR unit of a small Hamburg agency as one major part of her career she grew her consulting expertise and leadership competencies. Anna received her Master’s degree in Media Practice with focus on Public Relations from the University of Sydney and has lived in the US prior that.

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Andreas joined collectAI in 2016 and brings in a great deal of know-how in the software and web development environment. Prior to joining, he worked at Codecentric and T-Systems, consulting and developing for renowned clients such as Airbus and Telekom. Andreas graduated with the Master of Science in Corporate Environmental Information Technology in Berlin. He has a passion for Javascript, Web-development, Cloud, Simplicity, Getting things done and Event Driven Systems.

Sebastian Hoop, Managing Director of collectAI, has the goal to establish the company as the leading technology provider for smart payment and digital account receivables management. He brings longtime experience in building start-ups in different phases of growth as a leader. Prior to joining collectAI in 2016, he was Chief Technology Officer of Telekom subsidiary Emetriq in Hamburg. He was also in charge of the agency “newtention”, which was taken over by SinnerSchrader in 2008. As interim manager and consultant, Sebastian Hoop has specialized in digitization and digital transformation right from the beginning of his career.

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Patricia brings in more than 13 years of professional working experience in the field of dunning management and debt collection and has extensive know-how in insolvency law. Prior to joining, Patricia was Division Manager Debt collection at a specialized commercial bank under the Société Générale Group. As part of her working experience she also held senior positions at Arvato Infoscore Forderungsmanagement and Deutsche Bausparkasse Badenia. Patricia started off her career at the legal court and public prosecution office. She holds a Bachelor of Laws and a Master of Laws (LL.M.) from the University of Leicester (UK).

Maria joined collectAI after working in two German fintech startups as Product Owner and Head of Product. Previously she was responsible for building and launching installment loan platform at the fintech Kreditech and brought the product to market successfully. Her main focus now is on “making operations great”. Together with the development team she improves the internal core product. Maria's background study is Intellectual Systems of Making Decisions in Computer Science.

Maike is our Feelgood-, HR- and Office-Manager - so all in one :). She started off her career at Unilever in 2009 and expanded here knowledge by studying Business Administration focused on Human Resources Management at the University of Lüneburg. Coming from Hamburg originally she loves running, good food and festivals in her leisure time.

Julia was born and raised in Kiev, Ukraine. In her role as a UX designer, she continuously improves the interaction of the user with our services in the best possible way. She brings over eight years of expertise in projects, ranging from small startups to large scale redesign projects. Julia has a Bachelor in Computer Science. Besides work she loves to read, most likely accompanied by a good cup of tea.

Oleksiy is our Senior Integration Manager. With his eight years of working experience from international companies in different industries he focused on data management, integration and processing. Oleksiy orginally stems from Ukraine and has graduated with a Magister degree in Physics. In addition to his passion for scripting he speaks multiple languages: English, Russian, Ukrainian and German.