Thomas Rückert has taken over the position as Chief Information Officer of the Lufthansa Group on January 1, 2021. 

Thomas Rückert joined Lufthansa Technik as a trainee in 1995. Over the past 25 years, the 50-year-old industrial engineer (TU Darmstadt) has held various positions at Lufthansa Technik in Germany, Ireland, and the Philippines.  Most recently, as Vice President Maintenance Services, he headed Lufthansa Technik’s worldwide overhaul network together with two other managers, reporting directly to the company’s Executive Board. As spokesman for the Product Division, his responsibilities included all shared services, product development and digitalization.

Thomas Rückert reports directly to Dr Detlef Kayser, executive board member of Deutsche Lufthansa AG and responsible for commercial and technical fleet management, information, innovation management and procurement.

In addition to implementing the Lufthansa Group’s IT strategy, Rückert is also responsible for IT security, IT infrastructure and coordinating the Lufthansa Group’s digitalization projects. Through an innovative, fast, and flexible information management, Rückert enables the design of “Customer Centric Airlines”.

Lufthansa Group

The Lufthansa Group is an aviation company with operations worldwide. It plays a leading role in its European home market. With 109,509 employees, the Lufthansa Group generated revenue of EUR 32.770m in the financial year 2022.

The Passenger Airlines segment includes, on the one hand, the network airlines Lufthansa German Airlines, SWISS, Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines. As part of the multihub strategy, they offer their passengers a broad range of flights from their global hubs in Frankfurt, Munich and Zurich as well as their national hubs in Vienna and Brussels. Lufthansa German Airlines also includes the regional airlines Lufthansa CityLine, Air Dolomiti and Eurowings Discover, the Lufthansa Group’s holiday airline.

Besides the network airlines, Eurowings also belongs to the Passenger Airlines segment. This airline provides a comprehensive range of point-to-point connections for European short-haul destinations, in particular from German-speaking countries.

Besides its Passenger Airlines business segment, the Lufthansa Group also comprises aviation services. This includes the Logistics, MRO and Catering segments in particular.

The Lufthansa Group also includes the Additional Businesses and Group Functions. These comprise Lufthansa AirPlus, Lufthansa Aviation Training and Lufthansa Systems especially.

Experienced Head Of Information Technology with a demonstrated history of working in direct-to-consumer eCommerce companies. Track record of delivered multinational key-projects and successful business transformations. Skilled in IT Strategy, Digital Transformation, Cyber-Security, Leadership, Product Development, and Business Strategy. Strong information technology professional with a Master of Business Administration – MBA focused in International Business from University of East London.

Passionate aviator enjoying biking and running to relax.

Harald Greiner has been Vice President of IT, Technology & Sourcing at Holtzbrinck Publishing Group since 2015. Prior to that, he was responsible for the redesigned global shared service organization GTS as Deputy CIO Group Technology Services.

After studying business administration in Stuttgart, he worked for 7 years as a consultant in the publishing sector. During his two-year tenure as a member of the executive board for the portal service provider UP2GATE, a Siemens company, he gained extensive experience in the Internet environment.

In 2003 he moved to Siemens Business Services in Munich, where he was responsible for business development in the media sector in Germany. From 2006, he was Director Business Development Media for the international media activities of Siemens IT Solutions and Services and Atos.

Holtzbrinck Publishing Group, a decentralised family holding, is committed to providing first-class service to authors, researchers, academics, educators, librarians and readers across the globe. We are inspired by the privilege of enabling authors and readers in their endeavours to create great works and networks. With quality media and global reach, we strive to deliver both oversight and insight in a fast changing environment.

Bold in our ambitions and respectful in our approach, we combine powerful legacy with cutting edge technologies. The Holtzbrinck Family has had the privilege of uniting world-leading publishing houses across the globe. Within the Group, Nature (1869), Macmillan (1843), Springer (1842), and S. Fischer (1886) stand side by side with millennial start-ups like Overleaf, Dimensions, Achieve or Research Square as well as venture funds, which backed numerous start-ups such as Zalando or Flixbus.

Defined by a culture of expertise, collaboration and openness, we cherish and respect our heritage whilst constantly challenging ourselves to disrupt or enhance the best that our Group has to offer to deliver something even better.

It is the long-term view where we believe the benefit for all can be found.

Netfonds is a financial services group based in Hamburg, Germany. It provides a range of services related to asset management and financial advisory, including investment brokerage, insurance services, and pension services. Netfonds was founded in 1999 and has several subsidiary companies. The group aims to provide personalized solutions to its clients, based on independent advice, transparency, and high-quality service.

Netfonds IT provides services and solutions to the group’s companies which include IT consulting, software development, data intelligence, and cloud services. 

Júlio Martins is an entrepreneur, co-founder of the design studio Everythink, working on the co-creation of new services and products with corporates, start-ups and research centres. He is an invited mentor and speaker about design and entrepreneurship in several academic and professional institutions. He is co-founder of other brands, like AVA (musical instruments), putting creativity, design, engineering and manufacturing together to bring ideas to reality. Júlio is a mechanical engineer with specializations in Product Design and Development and Project Management.

Rui Rodrigues was the CIO of BIAL for over two decades, where he led the information systems and digital area, playing a key role in transforming the company from a local life sciences firm into a global player. With extensive experience in all areas of the pharmaceutical business, he focused on driving innovation, customer-centricity, and building a digital-first organization.

He is a member of CIO groups and, until recently, a member of the Advisory Board of CIONET. He has participated in European project groups in the area of life sciences and digital health.

Rui has a degree in Computer Engineering and an Executive MBA from Porto Business School. He is also an International Certified Professional Coach and a Certified Scrum Master.

Currently, he is the founder and managing director of Symplifyr, a technological start-up focused on end-to-end effective intelligent process automation and organization of digital groups. He is also program director at Porto Business School.