Aachen, Germany

Dr.-Ing. Stefan Bohrer

Global Product Manager · IoT & Smart City Platforms

I turn complex B2B technology into software platforms that scale: from connected streetlights in more than 3,500 cities to the APIs and partner programs around them.

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About

From computer vision research to global IoT platforms

I am a product manager with more than 20 years of experience launching and sustaining B2B software solutions on a global scale. At Signify (formerly Philips Lighting) I am responsible for the Interact smart-city portfolio: the IoT device management platform behind more than 4.3 million connected devices, the Interact City APIs, the TALQ integrations and the certification program for more than 100 partners.

My path to product management ran through engineering. I earned my doctorate in computer vision for autonomous vehicles, founded a machine-vision company, and spent a decade bringing speech-recognition and text-to-speech products to telecom operators, banks and railways across Europe and the US. This background lets me work closely with distributed R&D teams, translate customer insight into epics and features, and own a product from first idea to end of life.

  1. 1989–1995 Computer Vision Research & founding C-VIS
  2. 1996–2005 Speech Technology Philips Speech, Nuance
  3. 2006–2009 Smart Home & 3D DIMI, Philips WOWvx
  4. 2009–today IoT & Smart City CityTouch, Signify Interact

Professional experience

Building connected-lighting software at Philips and Signify since 2009

  1. 10/2021 – Today Eindhoven

    Global Product Manager, Public

    Signify GmbH

    • Interact Ready partner program certification (>100 certified partners)
    • Interact City API portfolio management (>150 projects globally)
    • Interact TALQ smart city solutions (>500k connected streetlights)
    • Signify Interact and Trellix CMS (central management system)
    • Interact IoT device management platform (>4.3 million IoT devices)
    • Responsible for the Interact Developer Portal (API), section Public
    • CityTouch software lifecycle management
    • Change control boards for all software solutions (PR/CR)
    • Global public tender focus team in streetlighting
  2. 08/2018 – 09/2021 Aachen

    Global Product Manager, Application Software

    Signify GmbH

    • Interact City streetlighting management platform connecting >3,500 cities
    • Interact City API portfolio management (7 City API categories)
    • CityTouch software lifecycle management
    • Lifecycle management of the Interact Developer Portal for API integration partners
    • Change control boards for all software solutions (PR/CR)
  3. 07/2012 – 07/2018 Aachen

    Product Manager Workflow Solutions

    Philips CityTouch GmbH

    • Global PM for the CityTouch streetlighting management software platform (>2 million connected streetlights in 2018)
    • Development and go-to-market for streetlighting workflow management
    • End-to-end streetlighting workflow management system deployed with major clients in Europe (France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands)
    • CityTouch platform lifecycle management
    • Supporting the key partner network in Philips market organisations
  4. 04/2009 – 06/2012 Aachen

    Director Business Development

    Philips Technologie GmbH

    • Ideation and value proposition house for an IoT streetlighting service across Europe (incl. customer validation)
    • Established a Software as a Service (SaaS) business model for streetlighting management on AWS cloud infrastructure
    • CityTouch IoT streetlighting system with global reach based on 2G and 4G cellular connectivity (>100k connected streetlights in 2012)
    • International account manager for public lighting clients (>50 international customers)
Earlier career, 1989–2009 3D video, smart home, speech technology, computer vision
  1. 01/2007 – 03/2009 Eindhoven

    Product Manager Content Engineering

    Philips 3D Solutions

    • Managed Philips 3D content creation tools and the WOWvx web portal
    • Established the WOWvx 3D video interface standard as part of the Blu-ray format
    • Software service solution creating autostereoscopic 3D content
    • 2D-to-3D video conversion software suite Philips BlueBox, in cooperation with leading 3D content partners in Hollywood
    • Built the WOWvx community platform for 3D solution partners
    • Global 3D technology partner management in the digital signage space
  2. 01/2006 – 12/2006 Aachen

    Business Planner

    Philips Home Dialogue Systems

    • Business plan and strategy for the DIMI Smart Companion, which speaks and understands voice commands and recognises faces and gestures
    • Alliance manager for DIMI smart home companion solution partners
    • Drove proofs of concept for DIMI smart home applications in elderly care (US pilot in Cincinnati with an elderly care organisation)
    • Go-to-market strategy with business partner WowWee in Hong Kong
  3. 02/2003 – 12/2005 Gent

    Product Marketing Manager Text-to-Speech

    Nuance Communications, Inc.

    • Global product marketing for the RealSpeak text-to-speech portfolio (TTS for telephony applications in banking and insurance)
    • Headed the Nuance Custom Voice program: custom TTS voices for insurers and banks
    • Nuance/ScanSoft “OneCompany” award (April 2004) for best company employee of the quarter
  4. 09/2000 – 01/2003 Aachen

    Product Manager Telephony Speech Solutions

    Philips Speech Processing

    • Managed the Philips SpeechPearl telephony speech engine portfolio for telephony-based speech recognition with mobile operators
    • Technical account management in telecommunications (Sprint, AT&T, France Telecom, SFR, Vodafone)
    • Sales support and pre-sales activities
  5. 08/1999 – 08/2000 Cambridge, MA

    Site Manager Cambridge Office

    Philips Speech Processing

    • Member of the Philips Speech Processing Americas management team
    • 15 direct reports at the Cambridge site
    • Software migration of the PureSpeech ASR engine into Philips SpeechPearl
    • Key account management for leading speech platform providers (Deutsche Bahn, Swiss Railway, SFR, France Telecom)
    • Lifecycle management of the SpeechMania and SpeechPearl natural speech recognition platforms
  6. 01/1996 – 07/1999 Aachen

    Senior Project Manager

    Philips Speech Processing

    • Deployed natural dialogue applications at major accounts
    • Responsible for France and Benelux (France Telecom, SFR, Belgacom)
    • Voice portal projects across Europe with telecom operators (Omnitel 2000 Vodafone, France Telecom, Deutsche Bahn, Swiss Railway, Belgacom)
  7. 10/1992 – 12/1995 Bochum

    Founder & Managing Director

    C-VIS Computer Vision und Automation GmbH

    • Hired and managed a staff of 7 engineers
    • Managed industry projects in visual quality inspection
    • >10 quality inspection projects with German companies in paper production
    • Contract research with major car manufacturers (OEM Mercedes-Benz)
  8. 08/1989 – 12/1995 Bochum

    Research Staff Member

    Ruhr-University Bochum

    • Visual obstacle detection research for automotive applications with German OEMs Mercedes-Benz and BMW
    • Integrated a stereoscopic-camera obstacle detection solution into the Mercedes-Benz S-Class company research vehicle

Competencies

End-to-end ownership of B2B software products

Product & Business

  • 20+ years of experience in B2B solutions
  • Proven track record in launching and sustaining software business solutions
  • Full end-to-end B2B solution approach, from ideation to solution
  • Technology and product lifecycle management
  • Portfolio management of a B2B IoT streetlighting system (>4 million IoT devices)
  • Product marketing and global market introduction of solutions
  • Public lighting solutions, including public tenders
  • Software roadmapping and prioritisation process
  • Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions

Platforms & Integration

  • IoT platform evolution for connected streetlights in public lighting
  • Managed API integration projects with city platforms
  • Managed complex software integration projects (e.g. TALQ CMS)
  • Technical account management of major accounts such as Fluvius and SPW
  • Training and workflow certification of more than 100 external partners
  • Speech and vision solutions

Methods & Technical Skills

  • Value proposition canvas for software platform solutions
  • Turning customer insights into business epics and features
  • Integral requirements management process
  • RESTful API architecture
  • SAFe agile development framework
  • Data analytics projects on public asset data and sensor data
  • SaaS and software architecture

Leadership & International

  • 20+ years working with multi-site, international, cross-functional teams
  • Proven collaboration with remotely distributed R&D teams
  • Internal (research, R&D, market business) and external customers
  • Managed 15 direct reports in product and site management
  • 20+ years of global solution and product ownership
  • Expatriate assignment in the USA
  • Contributing member of the TALQ Smart City standard consortium

Education & training

Doctorate in engineering, built on computer vision research

  1. 12/1993

    Dissertation (Dr.-Ing.)

    Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum

    PhD thesis on visual obstacle detection by evaluation of optical flow in inverse-perspective scenes for an autonomous mobile robot (Prof. W. von Seelen)

  2. 09/1991 – 12/1991

    Research visit

    INRIA, Sophia Antipolis

    Visiting scientist at the Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (Prof. O. D. Faugeras)

    Published a research paper on computer-vision-based obstacle detection

  3. 03/1988 – 03/1989

    Full-time research staff member

    Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz

    Doctoral student at the Institute for Biophysics; thesis on neural architecture principles for visual obstacle detection

  4. 10/1981 – 03/1988

    Dipl.-Ing., Electrical Engineering

    Technical University Darmstadt, Darmstadt

    Studies of electrical and control engineering

    Diploma (master) thesis on modelling and investigating control strategies in penicillin fermentation processes

Publications

Research on visual obstacle detection

  1. 1995

    W. von Seelen, S. Bohrer, J. Kopecz, W. M. Theimer. A neural architecture for visual information processing. International Journal of Computer Vision, Springer.

  2. 1993

    S. Bohrer. Visual Obstacle Avoidance Using Optic Flow and the Inverse Perspective Mapping. Dissertation, Ruhr-Universität Bochum (in German).

  3. 1991

    S. Bohrer, A. Lütgendorf, M. Mempel. Using Inverse Perspective Mapping as a Basis for Two Concurrent Obstacle Avoidance Schemes. ICANN-91, Helsinki, Elsevier North-Holland.

  4. 1990

    S. Bohrer, H. H. Bülthoff, H. A. Mallot. Adaptation of a Parallel Correlation-based Optical Flow Scheme. INNC-90, Paris, IEEE.

Languages, tools & working style

Four languages, one way of working

Languages

German
Native
English
Fluent
French
Fluent
Dutch
Basic

Tools

  • Jira
  • Confluence
  • Figma
  • Grafana
  • MS Office

Working style

  • Customer FirstCustomer centricity and service orientation
  • Greater TogetherPassionate team player
  • Passionate for ResultsProactive, result-oriented way of working
  • Game ChangerInnovative, out-of-the-box thinking
  • Stakeholder management
  • Intercultural, international competence and awareness
  • Collaboration in multi-functional remote teams

Beyond work

Traveling · Nature photography · Astronomy

Local community support and Youth handball.

Contact

Let’s talk about your next platform.

I am open to senior product management roles in IoT, smart city and B2B SaaS.

Download CV (PDF) LinkedIn
Email
stefan.bohrer@gmail.com
Mobile
+49 157 89040116
Address
Cockerillpark 4052080 AachenGermany
Date of birth
24 October 1961