With our extensive experience of everything from innovation to mass production in the autonomous mobility sector, we embrace continuous change in high-tech industry and assist our clients with hands-on business consulting.
Team schwarzenberg.tech
Who we are
Ralf Ihrig
Co-Founder & Managing Director schwarzenberg.tech GmbH
- 20+ years of management and consulting experience in automotive and manufacturing industries.
- Managing numerous transformation and restructuring projects, building up and developing new organisations in diverse international environments.
- Leadership experience in multiple corporate executive positions in sales, development and production with up to 250 employees worldwide.
- Outstanding experience in Business Development, Restructuring, Lean Management and Project Management.
- Master’s in Mechanical Engineering & Business Administration (Darmstadt University of Technology).
Wilfried Mehr
Co-Founder & Managing Director schwarzenberg.tech GmbH
- 20+ years in management and executive positions in R&D, Business Development and Sales in the high-tech automotive domain of autonomous mobility.
- Experienced in all phases of growing and constantly innovating businesses, from the start-up phase to established business areas with more than 6000 employees.
- Heading international teams of up to 1000 engineers, developing automotive products with advanced driver assistance features that have been integrated into hundreds of car-line launches and rolled out on the road in millions of units.
- Building up and leading an R&D team for high resolution LIDAR (laser) technology in California, USA.
- Master’s in Electronic and Mechatronic Systems (Technische Hochschule Nuremberg, Germany) and Master of Business Administration (University of Liechtenstein, Liechtenstein).
Martin Randler
Co-Founder & Managing Director schwarzenberg.tech GmbH
- 20+ experience years in various executive positions at the forefront of autonomous mobility, leading technology developments in system design, sensors, environment perception and driving functions at market-leading automotive Tier 1s.
- Driving product strategies – from roadmap to SOP – for technology dominated products, including merger and acquisition activities.
- Managing multiple post-merger organizational integrations and global scale-ups, working with both small groups and large teams involving hundreds of engineers.
- Establishing and managing partnership networks to enable autonomous mobility.
- PhD in Electrical Engineering (University of Stuttgart, Germany; Georgia Institute of Technology, USA).
Matthias Teichmann
Co-Founder & Managing Director schwarzenberg.tech GmbH
- 20+ years global leadership experience in the highly innovative autonomous mobility sector.
- Leading several large-scale international projects (400+ team members) with successful “first to market” launches for global customers – from innovation to serial production.
- Founder of Teichmann 361° Solutions GmbH, a “Hands-on” Project Management Coaching & Consulting Company.
- Shaping and developing highly performing global engineering teams to drive technological evolution for multiple automotive Tier 1s and OEMs.
- Master’s in Industrial Engineering (Mechanical Engineering & Business Administration) at Kempten University of Applied Sciences, Germany.
Richard Woller
Co-Founder & Managing Director schwarzenberg.tech GmbH
- Entrepreneur with 20+ years of experience founding and managing small to medium-sized companies in the autonomous mobility sector.
- Co-founder of CMORE Automotive GmbH and EC.Mobility (India).
- Leading successful series production launches of autonomous mobility sensors for various OEMs.
- Developing test and validation centers for autonomous mobility in Europe, U.S. and Asia.
- Master’s in Electrical Engineering at Darmstadt University of Technology, Germany.
Martin Boesch
Co-Founder & Managing Director schwarzenberg.tech Japan KK
- 20+ years of experience in various technology related executive positions particularly in the area of autonomous mobility.
- Developed business with Japanese carmakers from 0 to beyond 1 billion EUR sales, while leading organizational development in Japan from a single digit team to beyond 800 people
- 15+ years of intercultural leadership out of Japan with responsibility for global teams
- Bridge builder between asian and western cultures
- Technical background in the areas of physics, material science, nanotechnology and optical technologies (PhD from ETH Zurich, Switzerland)
Sascha Semmler
Partner & Managing Director schwarzenberg.tech ventures
- 20+ years of international leadership experience in the automotive, tire, and water infrastructure industries, including five years in the US.
- Held senior roles and was part of the management of multiple business units; also served as Executive Assistant to the CEO.
- Led global teams and operations with revenues up to €500 million, with a focus on innovation, transformation, and sustainable growth.
- Broad expertise across engineering, product management, business development, manufacturing, and supply chain – always driven by a passion for innovation and future-oriented solutions.
- PhD in Electrical Engineering (Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany).
Christian Schumacher
Co-Founder & Managing Director schwarzenberg.tech USA Inc.
- AI-driven, internationally experienced senior executive with nearly 30 years of comprehensive automotive expertise and managerial responsibility – from entry level to the executive board – including 16 years in the US.
- Inspiring leader and mentor, known for transforming organization into high-performing teams—even under demanding conditions, in challenging locations, and in markets with both high and optimal cost structures.
- Established track record of excellent launches (along with OEM quality awards) as well as record sales (>1 billion € sales revenue and order intake) and strategic investments.
- Strong background in Automotive System and SW development including SDV, SOA, ASPICE and CI/CD.
- Publicly recognized expert in Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Autonomous Driving (AD) Hardware and Software as well as Vehicle Dynamics.
Prajwal Chandrappa
Senior Technology Consultant
- 12+ years of expertise spanning IT, automotive software, and hardware design.
- Proven leadership in software solution management, guiding global engineering teams across multiple domains.
- Extensive background in software architecture, functional safety, and cybersecurity for advanced automotive systems.
- Deep hands-on experience in embedded software engineering (firmware, OS, middleware, AUTOSAR components) for ADAS, autonomous driving, infotainment, and sensor technologies in cars and trucks.
- Comprehensive knowledge of vehicle E/E integration and testing.
Maike Reeb
Head of Administration
- More than 10 years of experience in sales, project and team management in the automotive industry, with a focus on ADAS/AD and data-driven services.
- Senior positions including Head of Back Office.
- Management of interdisciplinary teams, control of bid teams, and responsibility for bidding processes, forecasts, and M&A integrations.
- Broad expertise in sales processes, ERP/CRM, project controlling, and business development.
- Bachelor of Arts in International Business Administration (Vorarlberg University of Applied Sciences).