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 Sedo
Co-Founder Tim Schumacher
in Santa Monica Thursday (Feb. 2)
 Tobias
Flaitz
New CEO at Sedo.com
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One
of the most significant events at DOMAINfest his
year was a changing of the guard at one of
the industry's premier companies, Sedo.
When they hosted a networking dinner party at
the Monsoon restaurant in Santa
Monica Tuesday night (Jan. 31), it was company
Co-Founder Tim Schumacher's final official
appearance as Sedo's CEO. Tim will remain on the
Sedo Supervisory Board but after ten years of
non-stop work he is ready to take a break
(including an upcoming family vacation in New
Zealand) and then look into broadening his
business interests beyond the domain space.
I
sat down with Tim for a long private interview
Thursday, just a couple of hours before he boarded
a plane for his return trip to Sedo's home base in
Cologne, Germany. We talked about his
entire history with the pioneering domain
monetization and sales company, dating back to
when he and college pals, Ulrich
Priesner, Ulrich Essmann and Marius
Wuerzner, launched the business while
Tim was still in school. That discussion will be
the basis for an upcoming home page feature
article looking back at the career of one of the
industry's key figures over the past decade.
New
Sedo CEO Tobias Flaitz was also in Santa
Monica and I had the pleasure of spending some
time with him Tuesday night, before he officially
became CEO, and again Wednesday night after he had
assumed his new role. I was immediately impressed
by both his openness and intelligence and
though he has some big shoes to fill with Tim
stepping down, I think Tobias is going to fit in
very well with Sedo, their clients and the
industry at large.
Tobias
holds a degree in engineering and an MBA
from the Universities of St. Gallen (Switzerland)
and UC-Berkeley (USA). He spent several
successful years as a consultant for Accenture
as well as Booz & Co. and since 2007
has held a management position in strategy and
business development with Hubert Burda Media
in Munich.
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While
the domain industry is new territory for Tobias,
he is a quick study and he was already
getting up to speed just hours into his new
position. As he guides one of the most
influential companies in the business, we will
all be hearing a lot more from him in the
future. Speaking
of Sedo, while DOMAINfest was underway, the
company released their 2011
Annual Domain Market Study including a 4Q-2011
Review (.pdf file). This report is
always loaded with insight into the
domain aftermarket, including which extensions
are selling best and what kinds of prices they
are bringing. If you haven't seen it yet, be
sure to check it out.
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