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Mathias Brink

Mathias Brink (Matze) doesn’t have to think twice when asked about what he’s enjoyed most in his nine years at Exasol: ‘I’ve been free to shape my own unique career path, and I’m really proud of that.’

Mathias has always been curious about technology, and he knew at the age of six that he’d follow in his father’s footsteps and study computer science.

He completed his foundation course in computer science and mathematics at the University Münster and then specialized in high-performance computing (HPC). His diploma thesis was on medical image reconstruction.

Arriving at Exasol

In 2010, Mathias was fresh out of university and looking for a job as C/C++ programmer for high-performance platforms. His first interview at Exasol went very well – and soon after, he started as a software developer.

‘I felt really comfortable in the data management team straightaway. I quickly handled practical tasks such as threading, sockets, parallel processing and data access.’

Exasol expanded their consulting and training team two years later. This area was of particular interest to Mathias. During his studies he loved sharing knowledge and communicating with a purpose. ‘The idea took shape to develop Exasol’s training program while out bouldering with colleagues’, says Mathias.

“The regular and frank exchange with managers about what you’d like to do and where you see yourself is very important”

Mathias Brink, customer success manager


A new training role

He talked to Aaron Auld, Exasol’s CEO. They agreed that Mathias should get involved as a solution engineer in the customer services training sessions but remain part of the development team – a great combination for someone with his varied interests.

Mathias’ passion is programming but he has a natural rapport with customers. ‘I love meeting the people who work with our solutions and putting myself in their shoes. Every training session is different and varied. And my developer background helps to deliver high-level knowledge to all participants’, explains Mathias.

Demand for training sessions increased in 2016 and Mathias switched to an exclusive training role. He delivered impressive results helping over 900 users gain an Exasol-certified standard in over 100 training sessions in the DACH countries – as well as the UK, USA, Canada, the Netherlands, Iceland, India, Costa Rica and Saudi Arabia.

The new customer success manager

The training team expanded with new colleagues joining, due to the strong growth of the business. Then Mathias Golombek, Exasol’s CTO and a passionate coach himself, suggested the role of ‘customer success manager’ to Mathias.

Mathias currently looks after Exasol’s customers’ technical queries. Presenting Exasol’s roadmap and finding out what customers need, relaying this feedback to the product management while making suggestion are just a few of his tasks. In short: ‘Creating a relationship with the customer to make sure they’re happy and remain so.’

Mathias still wants to achieve more professional goals at Exasol. ‘The friendly atmosphere here at Exasol is unique. Customer, partner or colleague – everyone has high professional standards that they project externally too. I appreciate and rely on the honest feedback from my colleagues’, says Mathias.

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