![[ Picture of Georg Greve ]](greve.jpg)
Georg C. F. Greve
Curriculum Vitae
(State: November 2010)Georg C. F. Greve was born 1973 on Helgoland, Germany. His career as a self-taught software developer began around 1987 through participation in various bulletin board systems (BBS). His first professional publication was an assembler program released in 1992. During the following years he worked as software developer for the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, and for 'iD-Pro', a Free Software startup in Germany. Mr Greve also contributed code to the GNU Project.
His academic career started in 1992, when Georg Greve began studying physics at the University of Hamburg. His academic degrees include a bachelor's degree with a specialisation in physical oceanography and a master's degree with a specialisation in biophysics. He also completed a diploma thesis in physics on scanning probe microscopy (SXM), an interdisciplinary work in the area of nanotechnology undertaken at the Computer Science department of the University of Hamburg.
A speaker for the GNU Project since 1998, Georg Greve began writing a monthly column on the GNU Project and Free Software in general in 1999 under the title "Brave GNU World." The column was printed in English, German, French, Korean, Japanese and Portuguese and analysed the economic, political and social impact of Free Software and gave insights into various Free Software projects.
In 2000, Georg Greve motivated a group of like-minded individuals to establish the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE), a non-profit organisation and centre of competence for the promotion, protection and political representation of Free Software in Europe.
As founder and president of the FSFE from 2001 to 2009, Mr Greve has:
- Chaired FSFE's General Assembly and served as the organisation's primary representative towards other organisations, governments and intergovernmental organisations, including the United Nations and the European Commission;
- Participated in the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in various capacities, including as representative of the German Civil Society coordination circle in the German Governmental delegation, as co-coordinator of the Patents, Copyrights and Trademarks working group of Civil Society, including political analysis, strategic considerations and tactical implementation of political positions on Free Software, Open Standards and Freedom of Knowledge issues for Civil Society;
- Overseen FSFE's joint work with the Samba Team on the antitrust investigation against Microsoft by the European Commission and later intervention in the European Court of First Instance (CFI);
- Coordinated FSFE's public policy group, including analysis, strategic planning and tactical implementation regarding multiple subjects in various fora, including the United Nations World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and Internet Governance Forum (IGF);
- Developed concepts for various activities of the organisation, e.g. the Freedom Task Force (FTF), and overseen the implementation of these concepts;
- Represented the organisation on the boards of and participated in EU projects, often being responsible for strategic issues and legal maintainability;
- Provided training to project managers at the World Bank about the strategic economic, political, social and developmental implications of Free Software, including business models and best practice examples;
- Authored and published many documents for the organisation, including co-authorship of the Fiduciary Licence Agreement (FLA);
- Facilitated consensus building in various working groups inside and outside the organisation, including mixed groups of volunteers and staff;
- Coordinated work of staff and volunteers in the organisation;
Between August 2007 and April 2008, Mr Greve was contracted by Google as Technical Programs Manager / Open Standards Specialist for the ISO DIS 29500 standardisation process. Georg Greve represented Google vis-a-vis various national standardisation bodies, and served as member of the German (DIN) and Swiss (SNV) standardisation bodies. He was involved in technical and strategic analysis, helped train local representatives for the company, and coordinated Google's activities for the DIS 29500 Ballot Resolution Meeting (BRM).
In 2008, 2009 and 2010 Mr Greve served as reviewer for the European Commission on the QualiPSo project IST-FP6-034763, providing strategic analysis and counseling regarding project objectives, and evaluation of project success, to project management and the Commission.
Between September 2009 to January 2010, Georg Greve oversaw the launch of the Open Database Alliance (ODBA) as a Free Software industry body to promote the development and proliferation of Free Software database technology. He continues to serve on the board of the ODBA since February 2010.
Georg Greve is an experienced writer with hundreds of publications in English and German, and a seasoned speaker with experience gathered during many speeches, keynotes and seminars addressing a wide variety of audiences around the world.
On 18 December 2009 Georg Greve was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon by the Federal Republic of Germany for his achievements in Free Software and Open Standards. The ceremony was held May 2010 in the German embassy in Berne.
His current primary occupation is as CEO & President of the Board at Kolab Systems AG, home of the Free Software Kolab Groupware Solution.
Mr Greve is married, with two children and lives in Küsnacht near Zürich in Switzerland.