KAI-UWE RICKE (FORMER CEO DEUTSCHE TELEKOM)

After a two years traineeship with Dresdner Bank AG, Duesseldorf, Kai-Uwe Ricke studied economics at European Business School in Wiesbaden and Paris and at American Graduate School of International Management in Phoenix, US. He then joined Bertelsmann AG, Guetersloh shortly thereafter becoming the Marketing Director of their Scandinavian daughter company .

In 1990 Kai-Uwe Ricke became co-founder and CEO of Talkline Gmbh, Elmshorn, a start-up for service provisioning in mobile communication in the german telecomunication market.

After 7 years and 2 subsequent ownership changes the company was successfully sold to Tele Danmark AS.

Kai-Uwe Ricke joined Deutsche Telekom AG in !998 first as CEO of the German mobile subsidary T-Mobile Deutschland Gmbh. Shortly thereafter he became CEO of T-Mobile International AG, where he oversaw the integration of a variety of international mobile businesses including Voicestream in the US. After 3 years Mr.Ricke was appointed Member of the Board of Deutsche Telekom AG as the COO for DT s mobile and internet business.

In 2002 he then became CEO of Deutsche Telekom AG managing the debt reduction and restructuring program which Deutsche Telekom then turned back to profitability.

After his resignation as CEO of Deutsche Telekom AG in late 2006 Kai–Uwe Ricke now is active in different positions for various private equity companies. He has founded together with other partners German Private Equity Partners AG, Zug . The investment fund - “ Der Deutsche Mittelstandsfonds” - will exclusively focus on the german Mittelstand, e.g. german middle market companies who traditionally are the backbone of the german economy.