There will be a change of leadership at the top of German transportation software developer PTV Group from the end of the month with the departure of its longstanding CEO, Vincent Kobesen.
After 30 years with the Karlsruhe-based PTV group, Kobesen will leave the company by amicable and mutual agreement on July 31. Since his appointment as CEO in 2011, the company has experienced continuous growth, and the group currently employs a workforce of 900 staff members, generating sales of over EUR100m (US$112.5m). Under his leadership, PTV has achieved world market leadership in the field of software for transport logistics and traffic planning. In 2017, Kobesen and the other stakeholders decided to sell PTV to Porsche Automobil Holding SE (Porsche SE), Stuttgart, in order to take the company to the next level, and since then, the company has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Porsche SE.
PTV’s supervisory board has appointed Peter Overmann (above) as chief technology officer (CTO), effective as of August 1. Until such time that a permanent CEO is appointed, he will assume these duties and serve as interim CEO. Overmann has over 20 years of international leadership experience in the technology sector. After studying physics at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and Heidelberg University, he invented his own programming language, then joined Wolfram Research to lead the development of Mathematica, a standard application for deeply algorithmic computation. At Deutsche Telekom’s digital business unit, Overmann created the ‘Tolino’ eReader product family. Most recently, he was head of the navigation charts unit at TomTom.
“Vincent Kobesen has actively accompanied and supported the generational transition at PTV. We would like to thank him for his successful work during the past years and his willingness to actively accompany the change of ownership. We wish him all the best for his future,” commented Philipp von Hagen, chairman of PTV’s board. “With Peter Overmann we have been able to recruit an experienced and visionary technology manager. The PTV Group has considerable potential and I am confident that, together, we will make significant progress in terms of groundbreaking solutions for both our customers and partners.”
Kobesen, said, “With our great 40th anniversary celebration, we have successfully completed an era and now the time has come for a leadership change at the top of the company. Taking this step, however, was not easy for me. It was a real pleasure to accompany this great company with such a committed workforce for such a long time.”
