Press

Name: Markus Barnikel

Position: CEO

Nationality: German

Favorite Ride: Sydney-Pacific Coastline

Favorite Transport: Scott Mountainbike and Subway

Markus Barnikel joined the company as CEO in 2011, in order to expand into new countries and make carpooling a convenient transportation option for all.

In the past ten years, Barnikel has held various leadership positions at Yahoo! worldwide – including most recently: Chief Sales Officer in Australia, Global Director of Sales in the United States as well as Regional Head of Business Development in Singapore.

Barnikel holds a master degree in International Business from the European Business School in London.

Name: Michael Reinicke

Position: Co-founder and managing director

Nationality: German

Favorite Ride: Munich-Barcelona

Favorite Transport: Cube LTD Pro Bicycle

Michael Reinicke studied managerial economics at the University of Würzburg where, as a spare time project, he established mitfahrgelegenheit.de (the original platform for Germany) together with Weber and Siedler in 2001. 

He completed a Ph.D in Cloud Computing at the University of Bayreuth in 2006 and served as a lecturer of Computer Science in Freiburg and Nuremberg. Shortly after, Reinicke began to work fulltime on mitfahrgelegenheit.de. In 2010, mitfahrgelegenheit.de transformed into an international network and carpooling.com was born. 

Today, Reinicke is Chief Operations Officer, with responsibity for HR, Finance, Legal and Business Development.

Name: Stefan Weber

Position: Co-founder and managing director

Nationality: German

Favorite Ride: Munich-Garmisch

Favorite Transport: Bike on week days, BOB* on week-ends

Stefan Weber studied business at the University of Würzburg and was also a key member in the establishment of mitfahrgelegenheit.de in 2001. After completing his studies, Weber worked in Product Management at ABC Book Service in Miami (Amazon) and Yahoo! where he was responsible for Financial and Information products at both German and European level. He joined mitfahrgelegenheit.de fulltime at the end of 2007.

Today, Weber is Chief Product Officer, with responsibity for Product Development. 

* Bayerische Oberland Bahn is the regional train in the Bavarian Alps

Name: Matthias Siedler

Position: Co-founder and managing director

Nationality: German

Favorite Ride: Munich-Liguria

Favorite Transport: Adventurous carpooling with the family

Matthias Siedler studied business at the University of Würzburg where he helped create the mitfahrgelegenheit.de platform. After completing his studies, Siedler worked for Audi in Online Marketing where he was responsible for the  international rollout of a new content management system. He joined Akamai Technologies in 2007 as a Technical Project Manager with clients such as Nokia, BMW and Daimler. 
Siedler joined mitfahrgelegenheit.de fulltime in 2009. 

Today, Siedler is Chief Technical Officer, with responsibility for the Technical Infrastructure.