THINKING POSITIVE AND STAYING FOCUSED
I have been working on media and IT projects for more than 20 years. At the beginning of my career, I worked as a freelancer for various multimedia agencies. Then in 1997 I started my own business with my media agency Starconcept. Here we implement projects for a wide variety of customers, not all of which were directly related to the Internet. Projects carried out included websites, printed documents, books, annual reports and multimedia presentations.
In 2004 I founded the Emporis real estate database and built the company into a market leader in its niche area. At that time, I was particularly responsible for product management and the programming of websites and databases. Later KfW Bankengruppe and VC investor Neuhaus Partners invested multiple millions of euros. As managing director, I was responsible for numerous technical and contractual issues. In my role as IT manager and innovation officer, I coordinated the creation of web solutions. Today, Emporis belongs to a group that is listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange. I had since sold my shares in Emporis.
In 2011 I started working for a company in the Burda Digital group as an IT expert and a link between management and marketing. I was responsible for the programming of numerous e-commerce shops, including shops from REWE and Lidl. During this time I built up extensive knowledge in the areas of front-end programming, conversion optimization and analytics.
When a digital expert was finally sought at Policen Direkt, I switched to insurance in 2016. There I built up a digital insurance manager with colleagues, implemented several website launches and relaunches, and coordinated various IT projects concerning insurance contracts and life insurances. Among other things, this includes setting up extensive AWS infrastructure since 2018. Since 2019 I have also been involved in the development of know-how in the areas of Angular, .NET Core and Entity Framework. Organizing, designing and communicating are also my personal strengths here.
I have been working at BLOCKSIZE from 2022 to the end of 2024, where I coordinate the development of IT projects, especially those related to blockchains. This includes setting up and operating blockchain nodes, providing real-time market data, and coordinating employees from several teams (development team, infrastructure team, product team, sales team). A focus of my current role there as Chief Information Officer is creating and implementing the product vision.
At the end of 2024, I had the idea of launching YARD to make it easier for anyone to find relevant events.
IMPLEMENTED IT PROJECTS
For the projects listed here, I was usually involved in both project management and implementation.
Financial Market Data
Conception, coordination, and successful rollout of a product that provides real-time market data on digital assets via WebSocket and RPC endpoints. Design of product marketing and communication with decision-makers from stock exchanges, banks, and other financial market participants. Onboarding of well-known customers and cooperation partners.
Operation of Blockchain Nodes
Takeover of the operation and internal documentation of an Oracle price data network which provides market data to smart contracts. Hands-on management of the servers, building up the node operation team, and improving performance. Later migration of the IT infrastructure from Azure to another cloud provider and setting up a failover infrastructure.
Booking Systems
Conception and programming of shopping carts, order funnels and connection of payment systems such as PayPal, WorldPay and Amazon Pay.
Manage Linux Operating Systems
Setup and support of Debian/Ubuntu servers since 2007 until today. Extensive knowledge in the operation of servers of all kinds.
Digital Insurance Manager
Front-end programming in Angular and project management for a digital insurance manager where thousands of customers can upload and manage their insurance policies. Also offers from external partners can ordered using the insurance manager.
Life Insurance Portals
Conception and programming of systems for the administration and presentation of study results such as sources of income, profit sharing, solvency ratios, and status reports in the area of life insurance. Direct contact with the chief actuary.
Monitoring and Testing
Implementation of monitoring and evaluation of logs. Automated testing of applications in the frontend and backend. Setting up notifications in the event of an error.
Data Center Infrastructure
Setup of servers, switches, firewalls and backup systems in various data centers in Germany as well as in the USA – including setup, cabling, provisioning and commissioning.
Mobile e-Commerce Shops
Conception and programming of dedicated mobile online shops for the sale of goods to end customers and optimization of UI/UX.
Multimedia Presentations
Conception of multimedia presentations using PowerPoint and Adobe Flash.
Notification Service
Conception and programming of a date-based reminder service that informs hundreds of thousands of customers about holidays and recurring events by email.
Web Community
Conception and programming of a community system. The system included hundreds of page templates and a 12GB database as well as several terabytes of image data. Setup of 40 servers to balance traffic, set up load balancing and optimize performance on databases.
Company Websites
Conception and programming of at least 10 websites (corporate websites, blogs, online shops, etc.). Since 2016 use of
WordPress as a content management system and since then implementation of at least 10 other websites. Performance optimization of the provision through caching mechanisms. Extension of
WordPress with self-programmed plugins and templates.
Third Party Awards:
Money Laundering Act Portal
Conception and programming of a portal with which provides documents in regards to the Money Laundering Act (GWG) of a financial services group to hundreds of companies. Secure access is granted by user access via the Internet.
Rating System for Warehouses
Conception and programming of a system for the location assessment of warehouses. Update of the evaluation results based on changing formulas and presentation of the results in the form of statistics.
Near Realtime Search
Implementation of Elasticsearch as Near Realtime Search for a real estate database. Millions of data records were recorded and made accessible to users within milliseconds.
AWS and Azure Clouds
Use of numerous
AWS Cloud and Azure Cloud services. Setup of at least 20 productive and test servers using autoscaling, load balancing, DNS failover and content distribution.
Many web projects are not clearly designed and thought through to the end.
— Michael Wutzke
REALIZED WEBSITES
I helped to shape the following websites (and many additional ones) in the fields of conception, graphic design, usability, development, conversion optimization, and/or through active project management.
SKYLINE ATLAS is a leading real estate portal in Frankfurt with more than 1 million readers per year. Visit website now
Policen Direkt is the market leader in Germany in the secondary market for life insurance. Visit the website
“The best website with the highest order comforts showed Valentins.” (Test of N24 tv station)
Valentins was a leading flower delivery service in Germany with millions of customers. It was sold to Blume 2000 in the meanwhile.
Thanks to my experiences, I can explain complicated issues in an easy way.
— Michael Wutzke
OTHER PROJECTS AND ACTIVITIES
Through my work at various multimedia agencies and my founding experience with a startup, I have a very wide range of experiences. I accompanied the following projects outside of my IT roles:
Pitches and Business Plans
As part of starting my business Emporis, writing a business plan and financial plans was also part of my job. As a result, KfW Bankengruppe and Neuhaus Partners invested many millions of euros into the company. As part of capital raising, I held pitches with investors and partners. Years later, the KPIs and well-prepared sales documents led to a successful exit.
Due Diligences and Contract Management
Years of experiences in drafting and structuring contracts. Carrying out due diligences on the buyer or seller side.
Data Protection
A high degree of understanding around the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other legal framework conditions that include the protection of personal data. Documentation and implementation of protective measures in this regard. Participation in the preparation of legal documents.
Human Resources and Coaching
Over 10 years of experiences in leadership, onboarding and offboarding. Leadership experience from teams up to 50 employees. IT management experience and instructor license from the Frankfurt Chamber of Commerce (IHK Frankurt) in the field of application development and system administration.
Printed Presentations and Business Reports
Design, conception and/or cooperation in the creation of printed presentations, including annual reports for Deutsche Bank.
Exhibitions and Events
Organization of exhibitions as part of project presentations, for example in the German Architectural Museum (
Deutsches Architektur Museum). Conception and implementation of the
Emporis Skyscraper Award (see
Wikipedia) in numerous cities worldwide, including the presentation of trophies to well-known project participants who were involved in the construction of tall buildings.
Journalism and Working with the Press
Publication of numerous articles in niche media in real estate, finance and insurance areas. Author of a book on real estate projects in Germany. Conception and launch of
SKYLINE ATLAS where I have been writing about Frankfurt’s urban development since 2016.
Several interviews with me in the national press, such as FAZ, ZDF, Manager Magazin, BILD Zeitung, Handelsblatt, and others. Guest author for several blogs and specialist media.
Implementation of press work for the projects I manage. Communication with the press and use of social media. Development of social media channels on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Youtube with thousands of followers.
The likelihood of failure is greatest when you have no specific plan.
Michael Wutzke
Digital Solutions Expert
FIELDS OF RESEARCH
My personal activities in the area of data management and distributed ledgers are not primarily relevant for my daily work.
I have been working intensively on crypto currencies since 2015 and have also invested in Bitcoin, Ethereum and Altcoins. In the past also had own miners and a Bitcoin full node in operation.
I am currently working on the design of a system for the automated acquisition, evaluation and management of structured information using AI/ML technologies.
Tags:
Azure, Chainlink, digital assets, market data, node operations, Policen Direkt, SKYLINE ATLAS, Valentins, web expert Frankfurt, website design Frankfurt, websites
