About

I am Michael (Nolting). This website/blog is mostly meant to group together my thoughts and ideas about leadership, building high-performing teams, big data, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and the digital transformation in the Automotive industry (the last probably the hardest one :-) ). Don't take some things too serious, e.g. I would never cheat my wife.

I’m an experienced data and machine learning engineer with a strong background in computer science, programming, machine learning, and statistics. My work spans the full spectrum from solving isolated data problems to building business-focused production systems that serve millions of users. And since 7 years, I'm a leader. I personally think that every leader in the tech industry should also be a good programmer. If not, you won't be able to hire the most-talented developers in the market.

I've produced top results in various areas. I developed, for example, food journaling app that offers interactive tools for modern dieting and additional subscription services. It now has over 150,000 subscribers in Germany and is based on sophisticated analytics for analyzing and optimizing the users' food intake. I recently finished a 5-year-study where I could prove that users leveraging my food analytics module double their weight loss. Further examples include: winning a start-up contest with the idea of using pan/tilt/zoom cameras for building offline analytics systems for retailers, setting up a car fleet for Volkswagen to sample real-world data for autonomous driving, and being one of Volkswagen's lead Enterprise Architects for the Chinese market for mobile online services. I implemented various live systems that substantially increase revenue through the smart use of data. With a proven capability to work independently and in teams, lead and mentor co-workers, and communicate with both technical and non-technical stakeholders, I consistently deliver value to a variety of clients and projects. See my LinkedIn profile for more details.

After almost five years of working at Volkswagen (as a researcher and IT), I’ve decided to join Sevenval as Head of Frontend Data Analytics in early 2015. Sevenval is a mid-sized company with start-up spirit. My team developed a product in the realm of predictive analytics. We sampled large amounts of website data and linked that to the impact on the client's business. So, we found valuable information that created new use cases, improved existing processes or technologies and even drove sales. Our methods were based on machine learning algorithms for predictive modeling, anomaly detection, and optimization.

I joined Volkswagen commercial vehicles in 2016. I am heading the development of our fleet management system ConnectFleet. Currently, it's an amazing time being in the Automotive industry with all ongoing disruptions. Since I am head of my team right from the start and recruited every single person, I am very proud to be part of it. PS: We're hiring. Here you find an interview with me on the Volkswagen commercial vehicle HR website. I’ve had the chance to see our product evolve and grow until now. I’m very excited to be a part of this growth and will update on developments as they happen – watch this space.

Now, in 2022, we've grown to a team of almost 100 people and have generated awesome results, such as, installing pre-submit infrastructures at Volkswagen commercial vehicles, building a data platform for autonomous driving, or democratizing our ride hailing data within the company.

My newest hobby project is that I am trying to disrupt the German health market by building an Uber-like ecosystem to fight prediabetes. On this platform clients can interact with online weight loss coaches and work on their personal challenges. Prediabetes (the pre-diagnosis of type 2 diabetes) is at epidemic levels all over the world and still increasing. By 2030, 470 million people will suffer from this disease.
Lifestyle interventions can significantly counteract the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. We developed a scalable approach for lifestyle coaching by translating the American Diabetes Prevention Program into a dynamic, self-empowering, online-program, to which we have support by personal health coaches.

I’m always happy to chat about leadership, artifical intelligence, digital transformation, DevOps, the Berlin startup scene, and various other tech matters. If you’d like to contact me, please touch base with me via LinkedIn or Twitter.