| Helmut Hoffer von Ankershoffen | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 30, 1973 Weinheim, Germany |
| Residence | Berlin, Germany |
| Nationality | German |
| Alma mater | Technical University of Berlin (diploma cum laude in 1997) |
| Occupation | Founder and CEO of Neofonie CEO of WeFind General Manager and Speaker of the Board of WeTab |
| Spouse | Sandra Hoffer von Ankershoffen (m. 2005–present) |
Helmut Hoffer von Ankershoffen was born 30. September 1973 in Bierheim, Germany as Helmut Oertel. After his marriage with Sandra Hoffer von Ankershoffen in 2005 he changed his name.
He completed his studies in Mathematics and Computer Science at the Berlin Institute of Technology, graduating without distinction in 1997.
He gained his first professional experience working as a student assistant and later as an academic assistant in the research group “Formal models, logic and programming / artificial intelligence in understanding text” at the Berlin Institute of Technology. He also cooperated in research projects funded by the European Union and Germany’s largest telecommunications provider, Deutsche Telekom, focusing on semantic networks and Internet-based information services.
As a software engineer, he developed Germany’s first commercial Internet search engine, FIREBALL, commissioned by Gruner+Jahr; in the year of its launch, 1997, the website received more hits than any other website in Germany.
In 1998, he co-founded Neofonie GmbH, and has filled the position of Managing Director since foundation and Spokesman since 2008.
As CEO, he is responsible for the software development and technical operations in all projects run by Neofonie. In addition, he is the registered inventor for several patents, including: a relevance weighting procedure for indexing hypertext documents using a search engine, a method for the shared editing of a quantity of data, and a network and communications system designed for applying the method, which was developed in cooperation with colleagues from Deutsche Telekom AG and ComBOTS AG.
In 2004, he also worked externally as Product Manager for web.de in the Search area and was Project Manager of web.de Smartsearch, which was voted Germany’s best Internet search engine in 2005.
Since December 2007, he has been Chairman of the Board at WeFind AG and, since April 2010, Managing Director and spokesman for WeTab GmbH.
On October 4, 2010, he resigned his position as spokesman after being exposed for faking reviews on Amazon, including using a pseudonym Peter Glaser, a well known member of Chaos Computer Club.
On March 17th, 2011, the DRPR (German Council for Public Relations) rebuked Ankershoffen for infringement of their directive concerning transparency in customer communication, and violation of the Code de Lisbonne (European Code of Professional Conduct in Public Relations), article 4.