The brains behind Rheintec

Linus Espach is the founder and managing director of Rheintec Solutions AG. After studying IT security in Albstadt, he worked as a security engineer for a company specialized in IT security as well as for a leading insurance company in Switzerland. Linus Espach is a firewall expert and is passionate about all topics related to RFID, VPN and mail security.
Prior to his training as an IT security engineer, Linus Espach went to sea as a nautical officer. A high degree of responsibility and precision characterize his way of working.

Daniel Reupsch is our CISO, financial expert, quality manager and runs the back office. After his military service, he worked in quality assurance before joining us. Daniel Reupsch ensures a smooth running of our operational business, does the financial and payroll accounting, provides our technical equipment and protects our company budget with military discipline. Thus he is the stable foundation of our company and our valuable anchor of reason. In his free time, Daniel Reupsch enjoys motorcycling and apnea diving.

Thomas Abegglen has a profound knowledge in the field of quality assurance and has worked in various positions within the pharmaceutical and medical device industry, among others as deputy responsible person, senior quality assurance engineer and lead auditor for the qualification of suppliers according to ISO9001, ISO15378, ISO13485 as well as the applicable EU GMP Part 1 and Part 2 guidelines. Thomas Abegglen also has a flair for finance, deals intensively with strategic decisions and represents Rheintec AG as CFO as well as deputy in the area of consulting in the topics quality and governmental risk & compliance.

Nico Rubeli is our Head of Engineering. Due to his former work as an electrical engineer, it is not surprising that he has a high affinity for the high-performance hardware used by Rheintec Solutions AG. Although he is now convinced of the effectiveness of high-level interfaces and the associated languages, his heart remains true to his roots and rejoices at the sight of assembly and the XORing of bits.

Philip Stober is our Head of Architecture at Rheintec Solutions AG. Before working in the IT security sector, Philip Stober was a gardener. Particularly technically challenging projects are his preference. His affinity for Linux is impressive: no key on his GUI-less laptop is not assigned a hotkey. Mr. Stober also studied IT security at the Hochschule Albstadt and is active in the areas of firewall, RFID, proxy, DNS, VPN and mail security.

Alexander Damer is passionate about technology, practical computer science and alpine landscapes. He follows the latest trends in hardware, Linux and network security.
This enthusiasm was the driving force behind his apprenticeship as an IT specialist and is still the driving force behind his subsequent studies in IT security, for which he is currently writing his final thesis – without looking at his keyboard, of course. At our company, Alexander Damer is the main pillar in mail security and cloud proxy. By the way, he uses Arch.

Claudio Cristofaro is our most experienced mastermind. He started his career in the late 90s with a degree in computer science at the technical school in Muttenz. Now he has been working in the IT industry for over 20 years and is an absolute professional as network security engineer, architect and project manager.

When Claudio Cristofaro is not designing security solutions, he likes to spend time with his family and friends.

Ozan is one of our experienced senior engineers. After graduating in computer engineering, he has worked in several companies as a post-sales and pre-sales consultant in cybersecurity, has been deployed in various IT security projects in different customer environments and is CISSP certified. Ozan is our scout for technology trends of the future.
In his private life, he enjoys visiting ancient sites and is an excellent cook.

Robert Kuhlmann is Head of Operations at Rheintec Solutions AG. After studying IT Security in Bochum, he worked at a large IT Security Service Provider in Germany for several years. Since July 2020, he has been an enrichment to our team. His special strength lies in the area of endpoint security, although topics such as firewall, proxy, VPN, monitoring, etc. also accompany his daily work.

Specialist in firewalling and automation. Projects:Identity Awareness, Firewall Cleanup, SAP Sourcing, on prem to cloud migration and others.

When Ferdinand Schreiber is not making the world safer together with us, he relaxes by swimming, cycling and jogging or immerses himself in the crystal clear sound of his high-end hi-fi system: the analog basses, carried by the state of the art tube amplifier, charge his battery and swing it to the maximum efficiency level of 110% also the next day.

Torsten Beer is a native of Aachen and unleashes his IT security superpowers with us. After his apprenticeship as an industrial mechanic and his mechanical engineering studies, he switched to the side of good – studying IT Security in Albstadt. After graduation, he worked in the SOC of a company in Neustadt and then switched to us. Torsten is responsible for the integration of McAfee, ZScaler and proxies.

Jan’s IT career started already in his early youth, when he found his passion for Webdesign. That was exactly how he paved his way to the next step in his career – studies to become an IT specialist. After collecting working experiences by working in computer centre and rescue directing centre, he finally joined our engineering team in July 2022 as an IT security engineer. In his spare time he enjoys taking cool pictures and recording interesting videos with his camera. Other than that Jan is also active as a first responder in civil protection. Oh, and he’s from Saarland and proud of it.

Nick – a volunteer fireman, Video Creator and desired IT security engineer. His passion for IT security started already during his school times and exponentially grew when he first collected his IT experiences by working for internet-service providing company as well as for rescue directing centre. Since July 2022 we are happy to have him in our operations team as an IT security engineer. Other than spending time with Hot-Spares and Spanning-Trees, Nick enjoys exploring alpine nature by hiking, skiing, kayaking and climbing. Oh, and he’s from Saarland and proud of it.

Kevin was born with a PC mouse in his hand and consequently built his first PC completely on his own at the age of 15. Now he completes our team in the context of a retraining on the specific area of IT security. His passion is FPV drone racing and at headquarters he likes to challenge us in table tennis.

Adrian Billen still our working student and soon, after finishing his studies, our fully-fledged Junior IT Security Engineer. He had his first contact with a computer when he was under ten years old, literally by building it from scratch. He now exercises this passion for technology – even more: this vocation – by building up his expertise in Zscaler, Seppmail and Cisco ESA. After hours, Adrian cooks star recipes with ordered cooking boxes, reads fantasy or recalls the Harry Potter series.

Dominik is still in his bachelor’s degree program in IT Security and is working full throttle for us as a student trainee in the Operations Team. He is our budding Checkpoint Technology expert. When he turns off our company laptop, he turns on his home computer that he built himself and immerses himself in gaming, watching classic movies, or goes outside and starts the lawn mower.

Leonardo Labanca, originally from Tübingen, joined our operations team as a Junior IT security engineer after finishing his studies of computer sciences in Konstanz, Germany. When he is not making the IT-world safer, he enjoys driving his bike, cooking some delicious food and hiking in the beautiful alpine nature.

Ismail Chahal is currently in his master’s degree program in computer sciences at the University of Basel. He joined Rheintec Solutions AG as a Junior IT security engineer in 2022. Ismail’s tasks include defining security rules and ensuring the security and integrity of the network by identifying and addressing any potential vulnerabilities. In his spare time he enjoys horseback riding and practices his unbeatable skills in table tennis.

Joris brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise in the field of cybersecurity. With a Ph.D. in cryptography from Toulouse, France, he has worked for top-tier industrial giants like Airbus and Siemens as a product security engineer. His passion for cybersecurity goes beyond just a job, it’s his way of life! Equipped with a sharp eye for detail, Joris can skillfully handle everything from bits XORing to security risk analysis, micro-kernels to web firewalls. With him on board, your company’s digital security is in safe hands.

Paul started his IT career at a young age with web and game development, which was crucial to his training as an IT specialist in critical infrastructure at a German pharmaceutical company. Since January 2023, he has been supporting our operations team as a Junior IT security engineer in the areas of cloud security and firewalling.
In his spare time, he volunteers with the fire department and disaster relief efforts or teaches swimming lessons. Oh, and he’s from Saarland and proud of it.

Alexander Alkofer works in Rheintec as a member of a Backoffice Team led by Daniel Reupsch. Major part of his job is focused on Human Resources, Sales and Administration. Thanks to his entrepreneurial experiences he was able to collect essential know-how and thus to make a considerable contribution to our team. Before joining Rheintec, Alexander – primary officer in charge of a navigational watch on a sea – ran a martial art school with his brother. In his spare time he is enthusiastic about martial arts and yoga but other than that he devotes his life to be a father to his two year old daughter.

Patricia Palsa joined Rheintec Solutions in 2022 and works in Business Support Team as Marketing Manager. Her goal is to align marketing and communication internally and externally with the mission and vision of Rheintec Solutions AG and to strengthen its Brand Image. Before joining Rheintec, Patricia gained her first start-up and marketing experiences in several companies and non-profit organisations during her studies at the University of Basel. In her free time she enjoys hiking, pilates and photography.