Almato Strengthens Supervisory Board with Dr. Martin Hofmann and Jan Hiesserich, Expanding Leadership Expertise for Sovereign AI Infrastructure

• Dr. Martin Hofmann, founder and CEO of Novagentica and former Group CIO of Volkswagen AG, and Jan Hiesserich, Group Chief Strategy, Marketing & Communications Officer at GFT Technologies, join the Supervisory Board of Almato

• Both appointments underscore Almato's ambition as a leading European provider of transparent, sovereign AI infrastructure for business and the public sector

• Hofmann brings operational experience from one of Europe's largest industrial IT transformation projects; Hiesserich brings experience from building technology companies for security-critical applications and from the transatlantic sovereignty debate

• "We are welcoming to our Supervisory Board two individuals who reinforce Almato's leadership claim: to deliver the AI infrastructure Europe needs right now – transparent, explainable, and permanently under the control of its users," says Christian Sauter, CEO of Almato AG

Almato AG, Europe's leading specialist in transparent AI infrastructure, has appointed Dr. Martin Hofmann and Jan Hiesserich to its Supervisory Board. With this decision, the Stuttgart-based company strengthens its strategic positioning at the intersection of industrial digitalisation, European technology policy, and the growing demand for transparent, sovereign AI.

Dr. Martin Hofmann is an expert in digital transformation and the founder and CEO of Novagentica, an AI software company focused on Enterprise Autonomy. From December 2011 to 2020, he served as Group CIO of Volkswagen AG, where he oversaw one of the largest and most complex IT transformations in European industry. Following roles as Senior Vice President at Salesforce and as Chief Technology and Information Officer at Volta Trucks where he was responsible for AI, mobile, and edge computing architectures for vehicle and enterprise systems, he now advises business leaders on transformation matters. He knows from first-hand experience what it means to embed AI and data infrastructure in organisations where decisions must be explainable, secure, and robust under regulatory scrutiny. He understands the strategic risks that can arise from dependence on single vendors.

Jan Hiesserich is Group Chief Strategy, Marketing and Communications Officer at the global technology company GFT Technologies. Previously, he led strategy at Aleph Alpha and at Palantir Technologies, following leadership roles at SAP and FGS Global. He has helped build technology companies whose systems had to perform in security-relevant and critical environments, under the highest requirements for data protection and information security. Having engaged with the debate around digital sovereignty from both an American and a European perspective, he now brings this experience to the oversight of a European provider.

The appointments come at a time when AI infrastructure has become a strategic issue in Germany and Europe – in business, public administration, and security alike. Central to this is an insight that runs through procurement decisions, political debates, and operational experience equally: digital sovereignty does not end with control over data or computing power. It must extend to the decision itself. And decision-making sovereignty must be explainable.

Explainability is the fundamental prerequisite for deploying AI reliably in sensitive domains. Almato's Bardioc platform is built around this principle. As a semantic data platform, Bardioc connects information from diverse sources and places data in a professional context, making relationships and context comprehensible for both humans and AI. Sovereignty thus arises not through technological isolation, but through the ability to control technologies, trace decisions, and reduce dependencies.

"With Martin Hofmann and Jan Hiesserich, we gain two individuals who understand what it means in practice to deploy AI responsibly in complex organisations," says Christian Sauter, CEO of Almato AG. "Almato delivers the AI infrastructure Europe needs right now: transparent, explainable, and permanently under the control of its users."

"Explainable AI is not an optional add-on. It is the fundamental prerequisite for AI to be deployable at all in regulated and safety-critical environments," says Dr. Martin Hofmann. "Almato has embedded this principle consistently in its architecture from the very beginning. I look forward to helping shape this course."

"Accountability for an AI system can only be assumed by those who understand how it arrives at its results. In a prototype, that is straightforward. In live operations, under load, and over years – it is not," says Jan Hiesserich. "That is where most fail. Almato does not."

About Almato

Almato AG, headquartered in Stuttgart, is the European specialist in AI-powered semantic data platforms. With Bardioc, its AI-powered Semantic Data Platform, Almato offers a sovereign and high-performance solution for the intelligent linking, analysis, and use of data. The platform is based on an open ontology, operates securely and transparently in accordance with European standards, and can be deployed in various operating models, including as Platform as a Service (PaaS). It enables organisations to use their data flexibly and at scale across different operating environments.  

Around 200 employees develop and maintain the platform, supporting organisations from the private sector, public sector, and defence in the sovereign and efficient use of their data – from integration and semantic modelling to AI-powered analysis and automation.  

Almato works with leading partners in implementation and consulting, particularly in the areas of data science, security, and solution development, to provide clients with comprehensive support in realising data-driven strategies.  

In addition to its headquarters in Stuttgart, Almato maintains offices in Heidelberg, Reutlingen, and Barcelona. In 2025, Bardioc was recognised by the specialist publication CIO Review as "AI-Powered Semantic Data Platform of the Year in Europe."  

Press Contact

Almato AG
Nicole Bommas
Head of Marketing 
press@almato.com