User:Tuchler/sandbox

Markus Braun (born in 1969 in Vienna, Austria) is an Austrian tech investor and digital entrepreneur. He has been CEO and CTO at Wirecard AG since 2002.

Education
Braun graduated from the Technical University of Vienna with a degree in commercial computer science, and then went on to obtain a Ph.D. in social and economic sciences from the University of Vienna in 2000.

Career
Braun started his career as consultant at Contrast Management Consulting GmbH, a position he held until November 1998. Between 1998 and 2001, he then worked with KPMG Consulting AG.

Wirecard
In 2002, Braun joined the management board of Wirecard AG and became CEO and CTO of the company. Wirecard is one of the world’s largest digital platforms in the area of financial commerce and is headquartered in Germany. It is one of Germany’s Top 30 most valuable companies on the German stock market (TecDAX) and has been ranked in the “Top 100 Most Innovative Growth Companies in the World” by Forbes Magazine.

In 2017, Braun was reappointed as a CEO of Wirecard. He responded to his reappointment by stating: "We will drive the digitization of payment processes using internet technology on a global level, and we will make Wirecard a global leader in this sector." Braun owns more than 7% of Wirecard shares.

Positions
Braun has more than 15 years of experience in the digital payment industry and is a regular speaker at industry related events as well as different national and international media.

According to Braun, in the next decade, the entire retail payment infrastructure will be replaced by technology merging all payment streams into a single, fully-digital system. Braun stated, that digitalization, if done right, would generate an increase in sales for the brick and mortar business similar to the expanding online commerce. He considers cash to become an exception and says, that technology can never be justified by itself and can only be successful when it delivers visible value-added for customers and merchants.