Munich, 15.11.2021: Digital service provider Ray Sono, No. 11 in the BVDW’s 2021 “Digital Transformation and Strategy” ranking, has expanded its Executive Board by adding 45-year-old Ilona Kühn and 38-year-old Sebastian Krüger. Their appointment significantly acknowledges the opportunities available to Ray Sono due to its 30 percent growth in the past fiscal year, its more strategic digital themes, and the opportunities for human resources and culture presented by the hybrid work environment.
Ray Sono appoints Ilona Kühn and Sebastian Krüger to the Executive Board
Their appointment significantly acknowledges the opportunities available to Ray Sono due to its 30 percent growth in the past fiscal year.
Ilona Kühn, who oversees content at Ray Sono, now brings the central topic of People & Culture to the Executive Board level. Kühn has been at Ray Sono for over 20 years and has built, driven, and pioneered the company’s business focus on digital content and customer experience. Most recently, she has served on the Ray Sono Management Board. “Our most important asset is our 260+ Rays. One of our strategic guiding principles is ‘Culture is our backbone’. This is nothing new for us. But the acceptance of the hybrid world opens completely new possibilities for us. Currently, we are massively expanding our ‘Best Place Model’, which aims to provide the ideal environment for employees in their respective life and work situations, whether in the office or remotely. Work and production processes are also changing, offering completely new business potential and opportunities. The same applies to our recruiting, which has been location-independent since this fiscal year. Crucial for us are new Rays with high competence; great passion for Ray Sono is our ‘+1’,” she explains.
Sebastian Krüger will place even more entrepreneurial focus on digital transformation and the development of digital services and products for new and existing customers at the Executive Board level. For example, the Voith Innovation Lab, founded in 2017, has concentrated its activities at Ray Sono in Berlin in order to expand topics such as IoT, digital innovation and service development and to implement the corresponding digital solutions within the Voith portfolio. Ray Sono also plays a leading role for strategic considerations in the industrial group’s digital area by supporting Voith’s management to identify its most commercially viable digital initiatives and projects. Ray Sono can then help efficiently steer ideas in the right direction and close gaps in Voith’s portfolio. Companies in the healthcare sector also rely on Ray Sono as their partner for digital transformation. Krüger’s business unit, for example, is currently providing strategic, conceptual, and technical support to SanusX.
“While there were reservations in various industries before the pandemic, Covid-19 has greatly changed the way many companies look at digitisation. Recognising the economic benefits as complementary to the traditional business model has led to a veritable surge in digitisation – and an increased demand for professional consulting and support. For example, we were able to convince Viessmann of our expertise. Together with the family-owned company, we brought one of the biggest digital events to the web – for the launch of the new viessmann.live platform we developed. This involved 18,000 minutes of live streaming, 350 speakers, and 6 days of events. Such an approach brought the client and its customers together in the digital space and laid the perfect foundation for new, mutually successful business dealings. It’s incredible leverage,” Krüger said, referring to the past few months. Since 2017, the business strategist has been responsible for the Product & Service Design business unit in addition to the consulting unit and the Ray Sono technical teams. He also designs digital business models in mixed teams across locations. Krüger has been part of the Ray Sono management team since 2020. Before joining Ray Sono, the digital expert was, among other things, Vice President futureLAB & TV 3.0 at ProSiebenSat.1.
We are very pleased and proud to have Ilona and Sebastian join us at the top management level. With their expertise and deep understanding of the various disciplines and their challenges, they are a great asset and round off our Executive Board in a meaningful way. In addition, both live and embody Ray Sono’s THINK.DO.LOVE. mindset to perfection – they couldn’t be better.
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