- Alexander Rabe and Harald A. Summa will jointly manage Europe’s largest association of the Internet industry from January 2018 onwards.
- Strengthening the content-related activities of the association and the cooperation with member companies.
Since January 1 2017, eco – Association of the Internet Industry has a new management structure
Alexander Rabe, former Head of the Capital Office, joins CEO Harald A. Summa as Managing Director.
The association is responding to the steadily increasing number of member companies, and to its expanding international activities and collaborations.
“eco has experienced a strong growth in recent years and has developed into one of the largest and most influential associations of the Internet and digital industry in Germany and Europe,” says Oliver Süme, Chairman of the Board at eco. “We are represented at three locations, namely in Cologne, Berlin, and Brussels, and we are increasingly active and engaged in different collaborations and activities, including at an international level,” Süme states. He goes on to note the significant challenge involved in coherently managing the diverse action areas and topics within the association, whilst at the same time pressing ahead with eco’s core competencies, developing and shaping digital markets, and maintaining the close relationship with eco members.
“I am certain that we are perfectly prepared for this challenge with the new management duo Harald A. Summa and Alexander Rabe,” says Süme.
Accordingly, Alexander will focus more on the improvement of content-related association work in the areas of Policy and Law, Member Services, Marketing and Events, and the newly created Digital Business Models division. In addition, Alexander Rabe’s position will also include the leadership of the two cross-sectional departments Association Communication and International.
Harald A. Summa as Chief Executive Officer will continue to be responsible for Finances, Legal Affairs and Human Resources, as well as for the management of the Business Units grouped together under the umbrella of the eco Group.
Harald A. Summa founded the Internet association eco in 1995 and has been its CEO ever since. Since 1996, Summa has also managed the DE-CIX Internet Exchange (IX), which he co-founded, in Frankfurt. Since 2003, Summa is CEO of the DE-CIX INTERNATIONAL GmbH and the DE-CIX Management GmbH, and additionally he is President of DE-CIX North America Inc. and Chairman of DE-CIX Group AG, as well as of DE-CIX Istanbul Network Connections LLC. Summa is co-initiator of the European association Euro-ISPA and Euro-IX. In 2007, Summa was reappointed as a core member of the Advisory Board of the Young Digital Economy Initiative, powered by Germany’s Ministry of Economics and Technology, as well as for the Advisory Board of the Digital Economy North Rhine-Westphalia in 2014.
In 2016, Alexander Rabe (42) took over the management of eco’s Capital Office, including the division of Policy, Law and Regulations at eco – Association of the Internet Industry. Prior to that, Rabe was CEO of the Gesellschaft für Informatik (GI) and CEO of German Informatik Akademie GmbH in Bonn.
Former career stations included the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering IESE and Deutsche Telekom AG Laboratories in Berlin.
From January 2018 onwards, Henning Lesch (46) will take over the division Policy, Law and Regulations as part of the internal changes at eco, and will report to Alexander Rabe in his new function.
