Digital Sovereignty: Further Management Changes at ZenDiS

The management of the Center for Digital Sovereignty (ZenDiS) is being reorganized again: Managing Director Alexander Pockrandt is leaving the public company and will be replaced by Leonhard Kugler, who will be responsible for the commercial area in addition to development. Kugler is to lead ZenDiS together with the current Managing Director Pamela Krosta-Hartl, whose focus is on market presence and customer business. Among other things, ZenDiS develops the open-source office and collaboration software openDesk and operates openCode, a code repository for the federal administration.

Leonhard Kugler has held a management position at ZenDiS since March 2024 and brings around 15 years of management experience from digital agencies and NGOs. According to information, he built openCode with his team and has led the development department for all ZenDiS offerings since mid-2025. The goal of the new appointment is also "stronger activation of the open-source ecosystem." Whether this represents an implicit criticism of Pockrandt's work is not apparent from the announcement.

Markus Richter, State Secretary in the Federal Ministry for Digital and State Modernization (BMDS) and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of ZenDiS, commented on the personnel decision: "With Leonhard Kugler, a recognized technology expert is taking responsibility in the management of the Center for Digital Sovereignty (ZenDiS). [...] This brings additional technical depth and implementation power in a crucial phase. My thanks go to Alexander Pockrandt for his great commitment and important foundational work."

Management changes always in April?

Pockrandt took up the position of Managing Director in January 2025. Last April, his then co-Managing Director Jutta Horstmann was surprisingly dismissed and replaced by Pamela Krosta-Hartl. At the time, Horstmann had only been in office for six months and was apparently caught off guard by her dismissal. The then responsible Federal Ministry of the Interior had justified the step with a necessary "increase in efficiency and speed in administrative digitization."

Horstmann had previously worked for various companies as CTO, COO, and CEO and was considered a good fit for the position in industry circles. However, she had recently sharply criticized the lack of funding for ZenDiS. Some observers assumed that she fell victim to the then restructuring of responsibilities that arose from the establishment of the BMDS under the grand coalition.

(axk)