How can finance be simplified? This was the question that the two founders Oliver Schmitz and Rolf-Jürgen Moll asked themselves over 20 years ago. With the goal of simplifying tasks for finance managers, the two founded LucaNet in 1999. Today – with more than 500 employees and 14 locations worldwide – the internationally active software company is still very successfully pursuing this goal.

At his own request, founder Oliver Schmitz is now retiring after more than two decades and will hand over to Elias Apel on May 1, 2022. As a new member of the board, he wants to contribute to LucaNet’s ability to meet the demands of the market in the future.

New executive board team as of May

With Elena Aubell (COO) and Alexander Domene (CTO) joining, there was already some change in the management team last year. After Rolf-Jürgen Moll retired in January 2021, his co-founder Oliver Schmitz now follows. On May 1, 2022, he made way for his successor Elias Apel, who will, as the new CFO, complete the executive board surrounding the future CEO Dominik Duchon. However, Schmitz will continue to be available in an advisory role.

Since joining the company in 2018, Elias Apel has made a decisive contribution to the successful internationalization as well as the strategic repositioning and further development of the partner ecosystem and thus also of LucaNet. As CFO, he will continue to lead the International Operations and Channel business units in addition to Finance.

"I am looking forward to the new role and to further developing LucaNet with my fellow board members," explains the Freiburg native. “Our customers constantly have to adapt to changes in the market or new regulatory requirements. Therefore, our goal is and remains to always be a reliable partner for our current and future customers in central financial matters and to offer software that allows our users to quickly and flexibly respond to the changes of the market. Although we are already excellently positioned on the market, we are nevertheless driven by our commitment to continuously develop ourselves as a company and our product accordingly," Elias Apel adds.

Focus on further growth

According to Apel, LucaNet is going to focus more on expanding the international business, entering new markets, as well as partner sales. “In these fields, we see clear potential that we can and want to exploit," adds Elias Apel.

With the generation shift in the executive management, LucaNet is therefore continuing the process that was already started in 2018. The handover to Elias Apel had been planned for some time and was well prepared thanks to the many years of cooperation between Schmitz and Apel. "Elias Apel is the right person in the right place at the right time," says Oliver Schmitz about his successor. "Not only does he know our company and the business very well, Elias Apel is also very knowledgeable in Finance. With him as a board member, we are redistributing the emphasis of our business areas. The fine line between internationalization, partner business, and the German-speaking market is thus even more balanced."