---
title: "Who is Carl-Uwe Würfel? About the COO & Chief AI Officer"
description: "Carl-Uwe Würfel has been COO of SUMAX, a digital marketing firm in Dortmund, Germany, since 2018 and its Chief AI Officer since 2023. Role, leadership, topics."
url: https://carl-wuerfel.de/en/about
author: Carl-Uwe Würfel
---

1. [Home](https://carl-wuerfel.de/en)
  2. About

# Carl-Uwe  
Würfel

COO & Chief AI Officer, member of the management team at SUMAX

Since 2023 I have been moving SUMAX, a German digital marketing firm, onto AI as a whole: how work is done, roles, services and rules, together with the team. As COO I am accountable for operations, people and results.

Company: SUMAX, Reknova GmbH

Based in: Dortmund area, Germany

Languages: German (native), English

## Career.

  1. since 06/2018

### Chief Operating Officer, SUMAX

Reknova GmbH, Dortmund, Germany

Overall operational leadership as a member of the management team: planning, cost, utilization, processes and quality. Full people responsibility from hiring to development, pricing and proposal strategy together with the head of sales. Also responsible for marketing.

Source: Employer, kress (German media industry directory)

  2. since 2023

### Chief AI Officer, SUMAX

Reknova GmbH, Dortmund, Germany

Leads the company-wide AI transformation: priorities, new roles and workflows, training, and the rules for quality, cost and compliance.

Source: [Employer, LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/carl-uwe-wuerfel/)

[Full resume](https://carl-wuerfel.de/en/resume)

## Results, people and technology in one role.

I lead the AI transformation like any other operational change: clear owners, and the willingness to end things.

  * **Results**

As COO I am accountable for operations: planning, cost, processes and quality, plus pricing and proposal strategy together with the head of sales.

  * **People**

I hired every person on today’s team myself. As a certified vocational trainer I built our own trainee program.

  * **Technology**

I am accountable for the architecture and rolled it out with the team, which is why I know what to ask of teams and vendors.

SUMAX is owned by Murat Ulusoy, who leads the company as CEO. We have worked closely together for many years.

## Bringing markets, languages and teams together.

SUMAX serves clients in Europe and the US. For operations this means organizing work across languages, jurisdictions and time zones so that quality and accountability do not stop at the border. My own measurement of visibility in AI answers showed how strongly the language market decides which sources get cited.

## Now.

  * [**KI-Sichtbarkeit messen: Warum deine deutsche Frage englische Quellen bekommt** Guest article, AFS-Magazin, October 15, 2026](https://www.afs-akademie.org/magazin/ki-sichtbarkeit-messen/)
  * [**The AI transformation at SUMAX, with a hands-on run** Case](https://carl-wuerfel.de/en/transformation)
  * [**What a Chief AI Officer owns in the middle market** Topic page](https://carl-wuerfel.de/en/chief-ai-officer)

## Topics.

  * [AI transformation in middle-market companies](https://carl-wuerfel.de/en/ai-mid-market)
  * [The Chief AI Officer role](https://carl-wuerfel.de/en/chief-ai-officer)
  * [One AI platform across a group of companies](https://carl-wuerfel.de/en/ai-mid-market#group-of-companies)
  * [AI as a leadership task for owners and CEOs](https://carl-wuerfel.de/en/transformation)
  * Operations and organizational design
  * [AI governance: EU AI Act, approvals, cost](https://carl-wuerfel.de/en/ai-governance)
  * [Leading teams through change](https://carl-wuerfel.de/en/notes/leading-a-team-through-ai-transformation)
  * [Measuring visibility in AI answers](https://carl-wuerfel.de/en/geo)

[Get in touch](https://carl-wuerfel.de/en/contact)[Resume](https://carl-wuerfel.de/en/resume)[Bios and sources](https://carl-wuerfel.de/en/press)[LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/carl-uwe-wuerfel/)