About
I've spent over 25 years deciding what gets built.
I'm Oliver Ries. My work has always come back to one question: which bets should a technology company back, and how should it organize to win them?
Most recently I led portfolio strategy and operations for SUSE's product portfolio, working alongside the general managers who run each business unit. Before that I ran product management and business operations for SUSE's Rancher business through strong growth, a quality turnaround and a pricing overhaul.
I started as an engineer at SuSE in Nürnberg. Since then I've built engineering teams, incubated new products, integrated acquisitions and retired product lines at SUSE, Novell and Canonical, through a public listing and a private-equity take-private. Along the way I moved to Beijing to build and lead an engineering site from scratch.
I work from Southeast Idaho with clients across US and European time zones, and travel when the work needs it.
Career
| Years | Company | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2019–2026 | SUSE | Portfolio strategy and operations; VP Product and Business Operations, Rancher; part of three M&A deals and multiple due-diligence reviews |
| 2011–2018 | Canonical | Product strategy and product marketing; product and engineering leadership for Ubuntu devices and IoT |
| 2000–2011 | SuSE and Novell | Engineering and worldwide QA; led the quality integration of Novell and SUSE; moved to Beijing to build and lead the engineering site; led workshops |
| Education | TH Nürnberg; Harvard Business School Online | MSc Software Engineering; Disruptive Strategy |
Let's talk.
Tell me what's changed and where the plan feels stuck. The first conversation is free, takes about 45 minutes, and ends with a clear view of how I can help.