After studies resulting in a Ph.D of German and an MA of English Studies, Klaus Andreas Span focused on the IT business, and was awarded a BS in Computing Science by the Institut für Datenverarbeitung Stuttgart. Klaus started his professional career in 1990 with IBM in its German Research and Development Laboratory working in Information Development and User Interface Design. Soon Klaus switched to Marketing and has since held various senior management appointments in Germany, EMEA and on World Wide level, mainly in Market Management, Integrated Marketing Communications and Business Development. However, his main area of expertise has proven to be IT Business Development. As WW International Events Executive he was responsible for the strategic setup and the execution of IBM’s international events portfolio. Presently he heads IBM’s HANA on Power Business Unit and Cognitive Sales for IBM’s Power (Unix) platform in Europe.

Major projects of his career include the building of a WW Image and Reputation Campaign for IBM’s Networking Division in conjunction with a revolutionary Business Partner Program – “NeTEam”. A major rebranding campaign “Blue Magic” of IBM’s Hardware Portfolio in combination with a WW Promotion Roadshow. Building of an Agency based Model (together with GPJ) for the delivery of all of IBM’s customer-oriented International Events and a significant restructuring of the entire portfolio. Supporting a major revamp of IBM’s Unix product range from an announcement point of view – positioning, pricing and sales strategy for EMEA. Klaus is also a WW acknowledged speaker and counselor on topics concerning the event & meeting industry and the digital business transformation.