Executive Board

Birgitte Baardseth
Director
Birgitte Baardseth
Birgitte Baardseth is Authorized Signatory of ISITS AG International School of IT Security. Since 2002 she has shaped the structure and development of ISITS, from an original start-up in the new economy to a sustainable, international conference and training provider for the field of IT security and information security.
Ms. Baardseth is spokesperson for the T.I.S.P. board at TeleTrusT Bundesverband IT Security, and has been involved in Eurobits since its very beginnings, having taken the post of Chair in December 2016.

Christian Zelsen
Treasurer
Christian Zelsen

Timo Gendrullis
Associate Director

Friederike Schneider
Assessor
Friederike Schneider
Friederike Schneider has been working at the Horst Görtz Institute for IT Security since 2015, where she is responsible for research and transfer. As a former project manager of the network “nrw.uniTS”, she is particularly familiar with the IT security scene in NRW. One focus of her work is the promotion of ITS start-ups. Among other things, she helped to set up the IT security incubator Cube5. In addition to the area of transfer, Friederike Schneider has specialized in applying for third-party funding at the HGI. Prior to joining HGI, Friederike Schneider gained international experience in Australia, China, Namibia and Belgium and worked as a project manager in the field of security research at the German Red Cross General Secretariat in Berlin.

Marcel Taubert
Assessor
Marcel Taubert
Marcel Taubert is head of Divison Defence at secunet Security networks AG in Essen. He studied Business Informatics before earning an MBA and looks back on more than 13 years of active service in the navy, most recently as a Navy Lieutenant.
Over the years, his areas of responsibility included software development for the tactics and procedures trainer of the Navy, central trade fair and event marketing for the Bundeswehr, press and public relations as well as security policy (cybersecurity, piracy and other topics). At Rohde and Schwarz Cybersecurity he was an executive assistant to the CEO and most recently Director IoT and Strategy Executive Officer.
Since December 2016 he is member of the Executive Committee at the European Centre for IT Security in Bochum and regularly holds specialist lectures in the field of cybersecurity.

Dr. Heiko Koepke
Assessor
Dr. Heiko Koepke
Dr. Heiko Koepke studied Economics at the Ruhr University of Bochum from 2005 until 2010, specialising in Controlling, International Corporate Accounting and Economic Policy. In 2010 he became a scientific research fellow with a focus on Controlling at the Chair for Business Administration at the Ruhr University of Bochum. He completed his doctorate in autumn 2015. Herr Koepke has acquired practical experience at E.ON and KPMG (IT advisory).
In 2014 he began collaboration on the foundation of PHYSEC, and in 2015 took on the full-time post of Managing Director at PHYSEC.
“My motivation for working with Eurobits is to create a strong visibility for Bochum as a specialist location for IT security. From with outstanding research institutions, to a vibrant start-up culture in the IT security sector, and a number of major corporations, the Ruhr offers a unique ecosystem of IT security that has huge potential and a great deal more to offer. That’s something we start-ups can really profit from.”