Portraits and Life Story

About yourself

I’m 47 years old, divorced and married again. One daughter from my first marriage, 20 years old now.

I love my wife (the second one) and my daughter 😉, cycling, music (Squared Circle and Midcrise Liars), skiing, freeclimbing (the version WITH the rope 😉), hiking and travelling. I read and watch Science Fiction and Fantasy and I love cooking. There is so much fun preparing a dinner for hours and if everybody can’t stop eating 😊. And last but not least also Tango Argentino with my wife.

And of course I love my job! Working for Microsoft is one of the biggest adventures I faced so far in my professional life. This is a place where I not only have to function but also am allowed to follow a purpose like our AI for Autism App. This is something that really drives me. I can do something more than just selling. This is supposed to help other people without the primary purpose of making money.

What are you most passionate about?

My passion belongs to my music, the climbing and the cycling.

With the band we are preparing for some gigs in November and December. We are playing our own music there and it is really exciting to prepare those gigs for to play them in public.

Music is a very important part in my life. It helps me to switch off the rest of the world and if it is only for some hours. This is super important for me to relax and come back to earth with my two feet.

Regarding the climbing I am training at the moment to get back to the point, where I was before I hurt my knee. Working out quite well, I could loose some more weight though, but I’m on my way.

Climbing is very Zen, as you can only concentrate on yourself and the next step or move. You can feel yourself and also your behaviour in sensitive situations. This is a team sport as you also have to rely on the guy holding your rope or, if you are the one holding it, keeping an eye on the life of your partner. This gives you another and whole new view on life itself.

Cycling will be more focus from now on again. I would like to participate again in a roundtrip like the Tortour-Sprint or the TransAlp. Together with my wife I will start training in September in Spain for a week and hopefully can keep going on training more intensively.

Cycling is very meditative but at the same time you are able to see so many different landscapes and you’re also challenged when for example riding up passes like Oberalp or Furka.

Sport is quite a very important factor in my life, believe it or not. But it helps me to get my head free and clear and to think things through.

Like already said, my job is another passion and I feel very honoured, to be also given the chance to participate in a team trying to do something good.

What projects are you working on right now?

Professionally: Besides the AI for Autism hack project, I’m working also on demos showing our IoT capabilities together with our cognitive services. This is a field where I am trying to grow. I have never programmed too much in my jobs as I was a point-and-click developer in the BI sector. Diving into this whole new world, it is exciting to see, what we can reach and do. Nice hobby in the evening and opening my view to a broader range.

One of the most difficult projects in my professional but also in my private life is definitely to learn to say no. I’m trying hard but sometimes still fail to sort this out and find the right answer at the right time.

Private: I have just started to train French again. I had French lessons for five years in school. But all that’s left is some words to order a meal and wine. That is one of my private goals for this and the next year.

Tell us about the most difficult phase/experience in your life.

One of the most difficult phases in my life was the phase of my divorce. Facing the fact, that I was only seeing my daughter every second week and some days in between, was killing me. This was a very intense time where I nearly lost my self confidence.

How did you overcome this difficult phase/experience?

At a certain point in time I decided to rely on the fact, that after rain there will be sun again and refused to believe something else. This was a conscious decision that taught me that we are after all also responsible for ourselves and are allowed to take action for ourselves.

What is your favourite failure which set you up for success later in life?

In my professional life I had a failure during a BI Development project, where I destroyed a database by accident. The DB Admin was not available what delayed the restore of the DB and my failure got obvious. I played this totally transparent and did not try to hide something. My behaviour and actions later was taken as a role model for extraordinary and/or disaster recovery situations. What I learned: Transparency, honesty and staying focused and cool in difficult situations…

What is your most prized possession?

I’m not sure… there is a small cowbell that my grandfather earned on a bike tour a long time ago. My wife found it and used it to “fan” for me, when I was riding up the Oberalp, the Furka and the Grimsel-Pass during  Tortour Challenge in 2015. All of a sudden my grandfather was back for me and he would have been proud I think… (also the finisher medal of that race in 2015 means a lot)

But there are also my two guitars, that I was able to buy from my self earned money. I wrote all my songs using them.