Supervisory Board

Lukasz Gadowski, Chairman of the Board and Founder

Lukasz had the idea for Spreadshirt in 2001 while attending University of Mannheim, where he worked for junior enterprises Campus Consult and integra e.V.. As a student, he saw an opportunity to deliver printed t-shirts to those who wanted them in smaller quantities - a market of millions of individuals and small groups that was being ignored by standard textile printers. He decided on a business model that offered a shirt selling platform to these individuals and small groups, who would then, in turn, do their own marketing. From this idea, Spreadshirt was born, and thrives today.

At first, Lukasz ran Spreadshirt as a sideline to his studies. Since he considers studies more than an opportunity to attend classes, but a great opportunity to get to know people, he relocated to Leipzig Graduate School of Management. During that time, he also spent a semester at Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, USA).

During his time at university, Lukasz also worked for Mundwerk, Procter & Gamble and Infineon – experiences that prepared him well for the challenges as Spreadshirt's CEO and in growing Spreadshirt into a successful, profitable global corporation. Based on this success, Spreadshirt has now been recognized in the HP Business Vision Award program, Red Herring Europe's 100 Most Innovative Companies, and Business Week's Europe Top 500 Growth Companies.

On the August 1st, 2007, Lukasz handed over his role as CEO to Jana Eggers, thus shifting his own role within Spreadshirt from an operational to a more strategic one. In February 2008 Lukasz took over the chairmanship of the Supervisory Board. Besides this, he is continuing to develop his activities as a business angel; investor and advisor to start-up firms, to the point where he can support young companies with his networks and experience. In 2005, he was awarded the "Middle-Germany’s Entrepreneur of the Year" accolade. A year later, he received the Online-Star-Special-Prize "founder of the Year" award.

Lukasz is a co-founder of studiVZ as well as founding parter of Team Europe Ventures (imedo, amiando, mister spex, brands4friends, absolventa, käuferportal, among others). He writes on his blog lukaszgadowski.com and is a writer/editor at gruenderszene.de.

Personal profiles can be found on xing.com and facebook.com.

Harry Nelis

Harry Nelis has been involved with technology start-ups and large technology companies within Europe and the USA for the last 15 years. He works on the investment team from Accel Partners, and is the experienced venture-capital donator for the sprd.net AG. Nelis was at Perry Capital and part of Goldman Sachs Technology Invesment Banking in London before going to Accel.

Nelis lived for almost 10 years in Silicon Valley and established the company E-motion, with its HQ in Palo Alto, where the solution for digital asset management was developed. While in Palo Alto he also worked for 3 years as an engineer for Hewlett-Packard.

Nelis has a master and PhD in electrical engineering from the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. Following that he completed a post-graduate degree at the Harvard Business School where he received his MBA with honors.

Max Bleyleben

Max, originally from Munich, has been working for the private equity company Kennet Partners since 2000. Kennet is a growth equity investor which helps companies expand their presence in the global mainstream and become global market leaders. Before joining Kennet, Max held a management position for the investment bank Broadview International.

Max is thrilled to support Spreadshirt’s strategic growth with his expertise and experience. Spreadshirt’s focus on self-expression and creativity as well as the democratizing potential of The Long Tail are especially important for Max.

Max has an MBA from the INSEAD University in France and a BA from Bard College in New York. He lives and works in London and regularly writes in his blog Technofile about developments in the areas of investment, corporate governance and technology companies.

Michael Petersen

Michael Peterson has been on Spreadshirt's supervisory board since 2010. Before that he was a member of the executive board from 2004 to 2008 and responsible for the departments Sales, Finance and Operations. He used to be instrumental in establishing Spreadshirt's international extension as well as in standardising essential financial and operational procedures.

After leaving operational business, Michael founded the company Labelfarm in 2008. It sells designer furniture in Europe on smow.de with great success.

Michael studied in Germany, Peru and the USA, and he graduated from Leipzig's trade university 'Handelshochschule'. Before joining Spreadshirt, he worked for Dresdner Bank, Credit Suisse First Boston and McKinsey.

Kolja Hebenstreit

Kolja Hebenstreit was one of Spreadshirt's first shop partners (Shop ID 43) and leader of a Spreadshirt business unit. Now he has joined the supervisory board. He is founder and partner of Team Europe Ventures which specialise in founding new internet start-up companies (such as brands4friends, Käuferportal, Amiando, mymuesli and studiVZ). He works as a consultant to help new portfolio companies develop strategies for business and staff solutions as well as range expansion.

Kolja lives and works in Berlin and keeps a blog on entrepreneurship and online marketing for start-up companies.

Simon Guild

Simon Guild contributes his long-standing experience and knowledge of European marketing strategies and expansion to Spreadshirt's supervisory board. He was chairman and CEO for MTV Networks Europe for 14 years. For several years, Simon has been collaborating with emerging European media and technology companies and helped them towards reaching their goal of reaching market leadership globally.

Moreover he is chief advisor for DN Capital, a venture capital group and mentor for Seedcamp, a scheme specialising in forging a community of emerging European companies.

Simon was conferred an MBA by the University of Insead as well as an an MA (Modern Languages) by the University of Cambridge.

David Carratt

David is a British ex-pat who has been a partner with the private equity company 'Kennet Partners' since 1989. Kennet supports aspiring companies in their strive to enter global mass markets, ensuring that they get into a leading position in their sector. Before joining Kennet, David held a managerial positions at FRS Global (sold to Wolters Kluwer) and BuyVIP (sold to Amazon).

David has been on our board of executives since 2011, and Spreadshirt is glad to benefit from both his competence and experience in our growing e-commerce platform. By realising his own creativity, his main focus is on fostering our steadily growing demand of personalised products.

David looks back on 20 years of experience in international marketing, including working in France and the USA.