Tommy Ahlers

Who is Tommy Ahlers?

Tommy Ahlers is a Danish serial entrepreneur best known for the social networking and mobile backup site ZYB, launched in 2005 with two other entrepreneurs from Copenhagen, Morten Lund and Ole Kristensen, and sold to Vodafone Europe BV for nearly $50m in May 2008. Before founding ZYB, where he has held the position of CEO since the company's inception, Ahlers spent six years in strategy and management, partly in the mobile industry.

He was previously with McKinsey & Company for more than four years, where he served as an engagement manager working with mobile operators to shape their strategies. In addition to ZYB, he also founded another start-up which provided a global SMS-service to mobile users. Ahlers holds a masters degree in law from the University of Copenhagen, graduating in 2000.

ZYB is headquartered in Greve, south of Copenhagen, Denmark and has offices in Cambridge and London, UK. The company has kept its Copenhagen base in the wake of Vodafone's acquisition and Ahlers continues as CEO, with Vodafone incorporating the firm into its Internet Services Division.

Ahlers is a regular on the technology startup conference circuit, speaking at the likes of Mobile 2.0 Europe, DLD, the European Directory Marketplace Conference and TheNextWeb, where he was an award winner in 2007.