Our Leadership

The world spins through those who take the freedom to get things done. Who design new technologies to remove obstacles from their path.

Gregor Wolf

Chief Executive Officer

After graduating from the TU Berlin with a degree in computer science, Gregor Wolf initially remained with the university for several years as a researcher and was co-author of the software development method PEtS. He served the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, unions, and research institutes as a consultant on software development methods. In 1991, Wolf switched to the private sector, where he moved from Berlin-based Condat AG to positions such as Managing Director of the Web CMS start-up The BtoB Company. Prior to joining OPTIMAL SYSTEMS, he spent eight years as a Management Board member and CTO of Klopotek AG and as Managing Director of Klopotek UK. During this time, he also actively served on advisory boards and consortia.

Gregor Wolf has been with OPTIMAL SYSTEMS since 2013, where he initially reorganized product management. Since 2015, he has been responsible for all operational business areas as COO and assumed the role of CEO of OPTIMAL SYSTEMS in April 2022.

My favorite enaio® function:
The full-text search. I can’t stand having to click through folder after folder in Windows.
My favorite tool:
My ears and my mouth. I believe in the concept of servant leadership, which calls for listening and persuasion.

Jana Blankenhagen

Chief Human Resources Officer

Jana Blankenhagen is responsible for the Human Resources business unit. She is a trained tourism specialist who discovered her interest in human resources and digitalization directly after starting her career. Therefore, she studied business administration with a focus on human resources and joined OPTIMAL SYSTEMS right after her academic graduation in 2008. Since then, she has continuously built up the HR management with a focus on recruiting & HR marketing, HR development and culture as well as employee support and payroll accounting. Since 2021, Jana Blankenhagen has been a member of the management board.

My favorite feature of enaio® and yuuvis®:
The workflows that allow us to optimally manage our HR processes throughout the entire company and provide optimal support for our specialist departments and employees.
My favorite tool:
It is not so much a work tool, but rather a way of working: The flexible switch between office and mobile work allows me to have an optimal working environment at all times.

Björn Grabe

Chief Operating Officer

Björn Grabe took over the position of COO in April 2022 and is thus responsible for the operative business of OPTIMAL SYSTEMS. At the same time, he continues to manage the Professional Services business unit. This business unit provides the entire range of technical customer and partner support, from consulting and implementation to training, technical support, and the operation of customer systems.

After completing his studies in production informatics, Björn Grabe started working for OPTIMAL SYSTEMS as a consultant for DMS projects in 1995. In 1998, he took over the management of the consulting and support teams and developed them into today’s business unit Professional Services. The graduate engineer sees the business field of cloud services as the most important challenge and, together with his colleagues, continues to expand the corresponding offers of OS.

My favorite enaio® function:
The enaio® app for iOS. Combined with the document references sent via e-mail and Office apps, I can always find and process the information necessary for my job.
My favorite tool:
My iPad is coming to replace the computer at my workstation. Thanks to the large number of business apps, I can now do my job from anywhere in the world.

Daniel Lugner

Chief Sales Officer D/A/CH

Daniel Lugner has been Chief Sales Officer at OPTIMAL since 2022. After training as an industrial clerk at VOKO Büromöbel in Pohlheim (near Gießen) in 1992, he worked there in international sales, including key account management, until 1999. He then moved to IT and organizational development to drive digitization. From 2001 to 2004, he worked as an ECM consultant at Pentadoc before becoming an independent management consultant in the field of digitalization. From 2014 to 2019, he held senior roles at Top Image Systems, including head of professional services, deputy managing director and authorized signatory. In 2019, he established the Frankfurt office of OPTIMAL SYSTEMS and moved into management as CSO in 2022.

My favorite enaio® feature:
That with our systems, I have all the necessary information on transactions and customers available to me from any employee, from any location, at any time, across all business units.
My favorite tool:
My employees and colleagues – the part of the OPTIMAL SYSTEMS family that gives me new motivation every day to go to work in a good mood in order to make us even more successful.

Andreas Karger

Chief Finance Officer

Andreas Karger is responsible for centralized Group tasks in the area of finance and administration. His area of responsibility includes leading the back office, accounting, HR planning, and HR development. After completing training to become a retail salesman, he earned a degree in business administration. He held a number of roles at several companies in a comparable position before coming to OPTIMAL SYSTEMS in late 2007, where he now serves as a member of management.

My favorite enaio® function:
Office integration for Word and Excel; the features this entails make it much easier for me to use each of the programs in my day-to-day work.
My favorite tool:
My cash card from my favorite bank; it’s such a good feeling to be able to rely on timely payments for our customers at all times, which also lets us have a good handle on expenses at all times.

Dr. Nikola Milanovic

Chief Technology Officer

Chief Operating Officer for R&D

Dr.-Ing. Nikola Milanovic is CTO at OPTIMAL SYSTEMS and responsible for product development. Since 2022, he has also been responsible for R&D as COO. He oversees software development for the product lines enaio® and yuuvis®, as well as quality assurance, maintenance, and agile development processes. As COO, he is also responsible for the marketing department. Previously, Milanovic served as CEO of Model Labs GmbH as well as Senior Consultant and Team Leader at GAI NetConsult GmbH. Milanovic completed his studies in electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Belgrade in 2001, obtained his doctorate at the Institute of Computer Science at the Humboldt University of Berlin in 2005 and habilitated at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Technical University of Berlin in 2010, where he also worked as a research assistant.

My favorite enaio® function:
Expandability; the comprehensive REST API allows me to upgrade the basic product functionality to include smart Web plug-ins and in-house microservices, and thereby implement content-based software projects with state-of-the-art technologies, all at a fraction of the cost.
My favorite tool:
Coffee, since ‘algorithms + data structures + coffee = programs.’

Michael Zehrer

Chief Information Officer

As CIO of the OPTIMAL SYSTEMS group, Michael Zehrer is responsible for the IT & Operations division. His responsibilities include ensuring the smooth operation of the company-wide IT infrastructure as well as the provision of external cloud hosting for the SaaS applications based on yuuvis® Momentum. Michael Zehrer started his career at OPTIMAL SYSTEMS in 1997 as a working student and has since held various roles including IT Administrator, Head of Project Development, and Chief Technology Advisor. With the introduction of yuuvis® as a second product line, Zehrer assumed the role of Director Strategic Partner Management for the entire yuuvis® product family. In 2021, he was appointed CIO.

My favorite yuuvis® function:
The horizontal scalability within the yuuvis® Momentum platform based on container orchestration – because it allows us to offer theoretically infinitely scalable cloud solutions with this product.
My favorite work tool:
I perceive teamwork as a work tool – I prefer working in teams and appreciate bringing together the skills and talents of many colleagues to achieve great things together.