V. Lakshmikumaran Image

V. Lakshmikumaran

Founder & Managing Partner

Academic Career: Mainly self-financed university studies in Berlin from 1956: applied mathematics, theoretical physics and abstract mathematics, with some art’s studies. Dissertation on the non-relativistic elementary particle theory (Schrdinger Theory), assistant at the Berlin Technical University, doctoral thesis on satellite mechanics (optimal orbit transfers). Postdoctoral dissertation in the field of operating systems in information technology. From 1971: Co-founder, as member of the respective board of the German Federal Government (being the academic IT representative for Berlin to the Federal Minister for Research and Technology) of the education programs in information sciences at the German Universities. Additionally from 1971: participation in the preparation, definition, foundation and administrative implementation of the Department of Information Technology at the Berlin Technical University. Since 1972: Professor of Operating Systems (later also of Communication Systems) in the Department of Information Technology at the TU Berlin, where he has been a full professor since 1974. After several 1971 to 1998: Chairman of a number of teaching and studies committees, research and development committees and examination boards for the various information sciences programs at the TU Berlin. 1976 to 1994: collaboration in a number of national, European and international associations regarding the development, promotion and standardisation of future IT technologies, in particular LAN, telecommunications, text and security technologies. 1998: application for sabbatical leave from teaching responsibilities at TU Berlin granted to allow a hands-on approach at TELES AG (see below). 2001: Emeritus status given at the attainment of retirement age. Business Career: 1983: Foundation of TELES as a limited liability company with shareholders’ equity of fifty thousand DM: approved secondary activity as sole shareholder and managing director. 1996: Transformation of TELES GmbH to a public limited company with annual revenues of approx. DM 22 million, sole shareholder and CEO. From 1996: a series of national and international awards for TELES. 1998: IPO of TELES AG with annual revenues of approx. DM 100 million. Since then majority shareholder and CEO. Original focus of TELES on the development and distribution of telecommunications technologies and systems. 1999: Reorientation of TELES commences as a result of a general decrease in the importance of telecommunications for growth companies. New focus on value-added Internet services (WebHosting, Wireless Broadband Internet, WebLearning). Fast groundbreaking success in WebHosting: The number of domains hosted by the group made TELES one of the market leaders worldwide in a very short space of time. Late 2004: Sale of the WebHosting business to freenet.de AG for over acircs not 130 million. Combined with the sale of the WebLearning sector in 2005, this leads to a shift in focus to the business sectors with the greatest growth potential for the forthcoming years: Wireless broadband Internet (skyDSL services) and switching systems for voice and data services. Since 2002/3: +Member of the Wirtschaftsrat der CDU1.