Bechtle appoints Chief Technology Officer

Dirk Müller-Niessner to fill brand new position of CTO from 01 January 2023
Bechtle consolidating platform strategy responsibility

Neckarsulm, 21 December 2022 – For the first time in the company’s history, Bechtle will appoint a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) from 01 January 2023, with the position being filled from within its own ranks by Dirk Müller-Niessner, who will take on responsibility for all Bechtle Group platform activities. These include the Bechtle Service Factory’s Managed Services offering, the development of bechtle.com, the Bechtle Clouds platform as well as operation of the Bechtle data centres located in Frankfurt am Main, Rüsselsheim and Mutterstadt. Bechtle’s complete platform strategy will, therefore, fall under the remit of the new CTO, ensuring even greater efficiency and profitability at the largest German IT system house. Dirk Müller-Niessner will report to the Executive Board.

“We are delighted to have secured an experienced colleague from within our own ranks to take on this challenging role,” says Michael Guschlbauer, COO, IT System House & Managed Services, Bechtle AG. For Bechtle and our position as a future-first IT partner, installing a CTO is a logical step to take, and one that will help us optimally leverage the opportunities of the digital transformation, not only for the benefit of our customers, but also for our own organisation.”

Dirk Müller-Niessner has been Managing Director of Bechtle Hosting & Operations GmbH since the start of 2021 and previously supported the IT company as an external consultant. The 52-year-old has extensive experience, especially in managing change projects and has overseen the opening of the Bechtle Service Factory, in which Managed Cloud Services in particular are bundled. Bechtle plans to significantly expand its services portfolio to position itself as a leader in outsourcing, operational and Managed Cloud services. The future CTO will also take on technical responsibility for the Bechtle Clouds platform.

Dirk Müller-Niessner will furthermore be tasked with driving forward development of the bechtle.com platform in order to bolster e-commerce business. This year, Bechtle has gained some initial experience with micro-businesses, which had not previously been target customers, with the aim of providing them with opportunities to expand their autonomous business through the online platform.

The final area of remit concerns the running of the Bechtle data centres in Frankfurt am Main, Rüsselsheim and Mutterstadt. Bechtle has been operating its data centre on the largest European data centre campus in Frankfurt since 2016 and, with the additional infrastructure in Mutterstadt, has been able to significantly expand its Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) capacities this year, with business expected to continue on an upward trajectory into the future.

Press Release

Download (docx)

Michael Guschlbauer

Download (jpg)

Dirk Müller-Niessner

Download (jpg)

Press release

Martin Kaloudis joins Bechtle as Executive Vice President

Martin Kaloudis is to assume the position of Executive Vice President for Bechtle’s Cluster West, joining the company from BWI GmbH.

Olaf Schäfer

Martin Quintes

Samuel Castaño

Samuel Castano has been with Bechtle for 13 years as Head of Sales within PP 2000 Business Integration AG, responsible for the Managed Print Services division.

Christopher Diederich

Christopher Diederich is a trained computer scientist and worked as a software developer and later for a management consultancy in the banking and energy sector before joining Bechtle. Since 2014, he has headed the DMS Competence Centre at Bechtle.

Michael Kind

In my role as team leader and senior sales consultant for VMware Software Solutions, I am responsible for Bechtle's operative VMware business from the Lead Competence Center & Cloud Transformation. I have been working in IT since my studies and work at the Westphalian Wilhelm University of Münster, where I was responsible for the HPC and HTC systems as well as the virtual infrastructure. Based on this technical background I have built up my presales role. Since 2013, I have been supporting Bechtle's sales units on all strategic, sales and commercial topics relating to VMware.

Rene Strackerjan

Rene Strackerjan has held his position as an Account Manager in the field for Bechtle Solingen since 2014. His tasks include the acquisition of new customers and the strategic development and expansion of a partnership for IT solutions for SMEs.

Frank Peter

Bechtle GmbH IT-Systemhaus Stuttgart

With its noticeable footprint in the region and backed by the power of a cross-regional organisation, Bechtle in Stuttgart has been a future-oriented IT partner for both the public-sector and commercial businesses since 1990.

Ralf Beck

Ralf Beck began his Bechtle career as a product manager for Samsung monitors in April 2000. Since 2007, he has been Head of Bechtle Software Product Management which at first included Microsoft.

Ebru Dogan

Customer story

Heller is ready for the future: With Windows as a Service and support by Bechtle

Together with Bechtle, Heller-IT developed a concept for cloud transformation. On the way to the Microsoft cloud, previous concepts were expanded and Bechtle offers a complete range of managed services with "Windows as a Service".

Jochen Müller

Jochen Müller ist a digital native. Not entirely uncritical. At Bechtle since 2002. Developed content systems and frontends. My first computer had a 4 kB memory. Degree: Computer science and media designer.