Our Team
Maria Sipka
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Before starting Linqia, Maria spent 2 years at XING initially as their COO responsible for the company's international strategy and then as the Director of Community Development building and monetizing their groups and premium group offerings. She launched one of XING's flagship groups Global Business Women, attracting more than 15,000 women from around the world which is now famous for it's Positive Monday Booster.
From the age of 18, Maria founded and led a specialized communication/marketing agency for 10 years in Sydney, Australia focused on customer acquisition and retention strategies. More recently, she has worked with Fortune 100 companies (Nestle, Merck Serono, JTI) and organizations (YPO, Business Fights Poverty) consulting on online community and social media strategies.
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Rainer Schwarz
Interim Chief Financial Officer
Rainer joined Linqia shortly after the idea was born as our interim Chief Financial Officer. He is the founder of multiple companies including Conmeta Consulting which offers financial consulting services to companies in the IT industry. He also co-founded e-tecture, an Internet technology company and Venture Management & Investment investing in high-tech and online start-up firms.
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Piero Poli
VP Business Development and Strategy
Piero has spent the last 10 years following his passion for digital around the globe and working with some of the world's largest brands in helping them navigate the digital landscape. He has envisioned and implemented digital communication strategies and go-to-market approaches for some of Australia's leading companies (GM/Holden, Telstra and Diners Club), and helped some of Europe's largest brands (Ladbrokes, Pringles, Pampers, Hugo Boss) to be brave online and effect positive return on their marketing activities through his senior roles at leading digital agencies in London. Part commercialization, part inspiration and part implementation, Piero's focus is always on partnering for shared value.
Edwina Dendler
Research Specialist / Community Management
Edwina recently graduated from the University of Mannheim writing her thesis on online communities. She's our research guru who uncovers target groups from the most popular social networks to the most obscure niche communities. You'll also find her blogging and participating actively in The Moderator Community uploading valuable resources such as community management jobs, events and reports.
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Marco Lazzeri
Research & Development
Marco Lazzeri is the lead developer at Linqia and responsible for the systems infrastructure. Marco joined Linqia at the time the company was founded in 2007. With over 10 years of experience developing web solutions, Marco has worked on projects from large enterprises to start-ups.
Marco is currently designing the architecture of Linqia's core Marketplace platform, focusing on reliability, performance and scalability for all critical components.
Prior to Linqia, Marco worked for 4 years as an adviser at Wind Telecomunicazioni, Italy's third largest telecommunication company. At Wind, Marco designed and supervised the development of their analysis and reporting systems, ranging from the company's KPIs to the performance analysis of their systems infrastructure.
Amongst other projects, Marco realized the first management system and social network for the Italian Society of Medical Radiology, connecting thousands of doctors and providing technological infrastructure to their annual national conference. As an entrepreneur he also successfully developed and commercialized an online/offline booking and management system for hotels.
Board
Maria Sipka Founder and CEO at Starfish Community Group S.L.
Rainer Schwarz Founder of Conmeta Consulting, Interim CFO at Starfish Community Group S.L.
Arnaud Grobet Founder and CEO of LABEL
Patrick Thiebaud Partner and COO of LABEL
Abir Oreibi Former Director, Marketing & Business Development EMEA at Alibaba.com
Advisory Board
Esther Dyson Investor at Starfish Community Group S.L.
Aaron Emigh Former EVP Core Technologies Six Apart
Boris Pfeifferà General Manager of internet advertising & fees Monster Europe
Nicole Simon European New Media Pioneer & Specialist
Dr. Julia Prats Professor and head of department for Entrepreneurship at IESE Business School
Albert Armengol Investor at Starfish Community Group S.L.