About Us
Taler Systems SA has been developing GNU Taler since 2016. Taler pursues the goal of digitalizing cash and
replicating the advantages of cash, but enhancing them with functionalities like built-in technical security,
payment safety, data minimization and privacy by design. Furthermore, Taler enables new online business
models, especially those based on micropayments. Taler makes payments safe and easy, fully in accordance
with regulatory requirements, AML, KYC, and CFT regulations.
Taler Systems SA was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in Luxembourg.
Founders
Christian Grothoff and Leon Schumacher
Founding Proposals
One-click private digital cash payments and tokenization
Business Location
7, Rue de Mondorf, L-5421 Erpeldange, Luxembourg
Legal Form
Société Anonyme
Future Prospects
Revolutionize payments with privacy
Core Business
Financial services
and related
Culture
Taler Systems SA is dedicated to Free Software and is one of the high priority projects at the core of the Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) community. Thus, the company gains the interest of ambitious programmers in the field and gathers several GNU maintainers as team members. As a consequence, the company combines high-ranking competencies, programming skills, academic expertise and proven business knowledge to debut with a disruptive state-of-the-art solution that revolutionizes the payments industry.
Meet The Team
Taler Systems SA has seven core team members:
Leon Schumacher
Chairman Of The Board
Leon is a leader in the international CIO community who possesses a deep knowledge of the needs and functioning of Fortune 100 companies. Prior to co-founding Taler, Leon served as group CIO at two global companies, Mittal Steel and Novartis. Leon earned his master’s in electrical engineering from ETH Zürich and his master’s in management from HEC Paris. He also has a post-MBA certificate from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Christian Grothoff
CEO
Christian is professor for computer science at the University of Applied Sciences in Bern (Fachhochschule Bern) focusing on network security and privacy. He is an Ashoka fellow, serves on the GNU advisory board and maintains four GNU software packages. He earned his PhD in computer science from UCLA, an M.S. in computer science from Purdue University, and a Diploma in Mathematics from the University of Wuppertal.
Berna Alp
Head of Finance
Berna has dedicated her time as a volunteer to various organizations advocating for an open and free Internet with inherent privacy, as well as open and free software. She is a board member of the ISOC Switzerland Chapter and former chairperson for the Thunderbird Project. Professionally, Berna is an economist with over 25 years of experience in IT projects. Her career includes working as an SAP FI/CO/JVA consultant at Andersen Consulting in New York, roles in a trading company, and involvement in projects for the World Bank.
Rahel Surbeck
Head of Human Resources
Rahel gathers long-term knowledge in the fields of staff coaching, training and HR development. Our employees and team members are also benefiting from her organisational talent at Taler's frequent work retreats where she cares for us and our guests from all over the world. Rahel excels with brilliant psychological capabilities and manages our HR resources from eight nations, has responsibility for gender equality, conflict management, diversity, and internationalisation of our growing team, urging to employ more female members than is proportionate to the IT industry nowadays.
Florian Dold
CTO
Florian is a passionate programmer and researcher. Prior to co-founding Taler, he worked on GNUnet, a decentralized and privacy-preserving peer-to-peer framework. Florian earned his Master of Science from the Technical University of Munich. He obtained his PhD at Inria / Rennes 1 in this subject.
Marie Walrafen
Head of Marketing
Marie has been involved in video production, served as a parliamentary attaché and coordinated several successful international campaigns for Internet freedom and privacy. Together with her intense knowledge of networking, Marie serves as our Head of Marketing to propagate Taler's media and sales strategies to rapidly scale and make us known to businesses and publishers on an international level.
Michael Widmer
Legal & Regulatory Affairs
Michael is an entrepreneur and he brings to Taler his extensive banking and financial market experience. In his 20 years of experience in the international financial sector, he worked as a commercial lawyer, as managing director of the Eurex stock exchange and as Co-CEO of the Gutenberg Group. He received a Ph.D. in Law from the University of Zurich and an executive MBA from University of Rochester. Michael is also admitted to the Bar Association in Zurich.
Affiliates
Join Our Team
Taler Systems SA is always looking for skilled programmers.
Taler's code is based on Free Software and ranks as a high priority project of the Free Software Foundation (fsf.org). You will be co-working with us for a fascinating project in a compelling environment and collaborate with hackers thriving forward the freedom of the internet.
Open Call
NLnet open call with funding opportunities for GNU Taler integrators
Join us on our journey towards informational self-determination in payments!
As part of NGI TALER, NLnet Foundation is running an open call and will award grants to third parties working on GNU Taler enhancements globally. The application process is simple and the first submission deadline is April 1st 2024.
NGI TALER is funded as a pilot under the Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative within the European Commission's Horizon Europe research funding program. This project is based on the free software GNU Taler which has been developed by the GNU community and Taler Systems S.A., and which has received wide praise from financial experts including experts from several central banks - including the Swiss National Bank (SNB). The goal is to make GNU Taler available as payment system via two European banks - GLS Bank (Germany) and MagNet Bank (Hungary). NGI TALER's ambition is to reach the European market during the project period and have the payment mechanism accepted and widely adopted by the end of the project.
NGI TALER is coordinated by the Coding Theory and Cryptology group at Eindhoven University of Technology and has 10 more partners:
Bern University of Applied Sciences (BFH),- small for-profit (Code Blau GmbH, Taler Systems S.A., VisualVest),
- non-profit structures (petites singularités, E-Seniors Association),
- cooperative banks (GLS Bank, MagNet Bank),
- a philanthropic organization (Stichting NLnet) and
- a grassroots movement (Homo Digitalis).
For more information see the project's webpage at ngi.taler.net.
Contact Us Today
You can get into touch with Taler Systems SA via mail or email and on the phone:
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7, Rue de Mondorf, L-5421 Erpeldange
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