Friday, September 26, 2008

The Mover

Wolf combines IT and business at Interactive Data

By Jay Rizoli, Special to Mass High Tech

Back before technology became an integral part of business, Stephan Wolf was thinking ahead.

As a student at Frankfurt University in his native Germany, the new chief technology officer at Bedford-based Interactive Data Corp. majored in business economics and computer science and set his sights on bringing the two together.

“I hoped for a job and a career focused on project work, and it looked like business and computer science was the way to do that,” he said. “I thought it would be a good thing to learn about both worlds and try to marry them.”

Wolf’s first job was at the University of Witten/Herdecke — one of the first private universities in Germany to spring up after private schools were first allowed in the early 1980s — on a research project that ultimately benefited such giants as Deutsche Telekom AG and Deutsche Lufthansa AG.

“I learned so much from the various companies and the combination of technical factors and commercial factors,” he said. “Today (what we helped develop are) called revenue management systems.”

Wolf audited universities across Europe and maintained a close relationship with the schools before eventually co-founding IS Innovative Software GmbH — “your typical ‘two guys in a garage’ type of operation,” he says — in 1989 and serving as its managing director. And while he didn’t know it at the time, Innovative Software would ultimately lead to Interactive Data.

Innovative Software grew beyond the garage, merged with OnVista Technologies GmbH in 2003 and became IS.Teledata, with Wolf as CEO. In 2005, IS.Teledata became a division of Interactive Data Corp., later renamed Interactive Data Managed Solutions with Wolf as managing director and chairman of the executive board.

Wolf took on product, sales and business development strategies and worked on global expansion until the CTO position was created at Interactive Data and he was asked to fill it.

“Interactive Data is an exciting company, consistently growing and developing greater customer relationships,” said Wolf, who says he’s still intrigued by the opportunity to leave a footprint and create something to be proud of. “Everything we deliver to our clients is tailored specifically to that client. It is very compelling but also a challenge internally.”

Even outside Interactive Data, Wolf bridges the world of computer science and business. For the past six years, he has served on the board of the eFinance Lab, a joint research project of universities, technology companies, financial service providers and consulting companies that promotes deployment of network information and communications systems. Wolf is also a member of the Accreditation Agency for Study Programs in Engineering and Informatics.

Jay Rizoli is a freelance writer in Franklin.