René ObermannManaging Director of Warburg Pincus Deutschland GmbH, Co-Head of Europe

René Obermann, based in Berlin, is Co-Head of the firm’s European activities and Head of Warburg Pincus Deutschland GmbH. As member of the supervisory board of IONOS Group SE, the leading European web-productivity provider, he accompanies one of the major investments of the Warburg Pincus funds. In April 2020, René was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors at Airbus SE. He previously served as non-executive Director of Inmarsat and on various company boards including E.On, Spotify and Telenor. Prior to joining Warburg Pincus as a partner in 2015, he was CEO of Ziggo BV, a portfolio firm of Warburg Pincus in the Netherlands (2014) and beforehand he was CEO of Deutsche Telekom AG from 2006-2013. He joined the Group as Managing Director of T-Mobile Germany in 1998 and was promoted to run its mobile division “T-Mobile International” between 2002 and 2006. Between 2007 and 2013 he also served as Vice President of Bitkom, Germany’s IT industry association. René began his career whilst at the University of Münster in 1986 when he founded a distribution company for telecommunication services and equipment, which was acquired by Hutchison Whampoa in 1991. He remained as Managing Partner and served as CEO between 1993 and 1998. Under his leadership the company became one of the first virtual mobile network operators (MVNO) in Germany.

In 2012, he was awarded the Ben-Gurion medal from the Beer Sheva University for outstanding leadership and in 2013 he was appointed Officer of the French Légion d’honneur.