The Board of Directors of GFT Technologies S.E. announced the appointment of Marco Santos, the new head of the Flat Businesses division. Santos, at 48 years old, will take the position of Co-CEO with Marika Lulay from July 1, 2024, until December 31, 2024. Lulay, aged 61, will leave the Ext Executive Board when her contract runs out on December 31, 2024. Further, Jochen Ruetz, the present CFO at the site of GFT Technologies S.E., will assume the position of Deputy CEO as of January 1, 2025.
Santos is a prominent employee at GFT, holding the position of Country Manager of GFT Brazil since 2011 and the Global head of GFT’s operations in Latin America over recent years. At the 2020 year-end, he added GFT USA to his portfolio and became a member of the GFT Group Executive Board. Under his guidance, the company has already demonstrated impressive growth, mainly in GFT Brazilians. In 2023, A.R. emigrated to the U.S. and joined GFT Americas, where he held the position of CEO and was in charge of operations throughout North and Latin America.
Chairman of the Administrative Board of GFT Technologies, Ulrich Dietz, said:
Evidently, during the course of his tenure at GFT in North and Latin America, his particular talents of leading and forming skilled teams, penetrating into unexplored territories, and adhering to the latest technological trends, namely artificial intelligence, are clearly manifested. The appointment of Mariano Dohmann as CEO constitutes a new chapter for GFT Technologies, with two major goals, which include attracting and future development of talent within the company’s 12,000 workforce spread across 20 key countries.
Santos, in particular, manifests gratitude to the Administrative Board for their decision to place their confidence in him. He then looks ahead to leading GFT towards an era of abundant advancements and progress. GFT’s history over the past year, as described above, proves the potential for the business to thrive, demonstrating the leadership’s futuristic vision.
Apart from the fact that Jochen Ruetz, GFT’s CFO, has a position as Deputy CEO, a Capital Markets expert, and a second-line executive at the work of GFT for some years, his leadership will enable us to move consistently forward. Ulrich Dietz compliments Ruetz’s business expertise and business vision, seeing his role in the company’s achievement of success, stability, and verification over 20 years.
Industry Experience of Marco Santos
Marco Santos‘ decision to join the Group for Transformations (GFT) was made in 2011. They started there as the Country Manager for GFT Brazil. He then moved on to handle their operation in Latin America till today. In 2020, he was given the expanded portfolio of U.S. business GFT USA and made part of the GFT Group Executive Committee. In 2023, he was appointed CEO of GFT Americas, with responsibility for overseeing operations from Mountain to Plains.
Next to Artificial Intelligence servant leadership, cloud modernization, general management, professional services, and customer experience, he has a credible resume in financial services and manufacturing as proven by his successful leadership in different industries.
Having worked for over two decades in the technology sector, Marco has been using clients’ digital dreams to become real goals since he joined GFT a long time ago. He especially brought to GFT Brazil the position of the head, in which he had started operations in the market and had them expanded greatly.
Before he came to GFT, Marco proved to be a successful executive having worked at many well-known organizations such as TCS (TATA Consultancy Services), Oracle, and Organic Inc, and LATAM Capgemini.