Rolf-Dieter Fiebrich

Founder & Principal

Rolf Fiebrich is a leader in the innovation and development of complex, high value systems, advanced software, and breakthrough technologies. Throughout his career he has built and led world class engineering organizations, consistently attracting exceptional talent and delivering transformative products on rapid development cycles. At Sand Hill Technology, he applies this experience by advising companies developing disruptive technologies as well as the venture capital firms that invest in them.

Rolf previously served as Vice President of Engineering at Voyan, where he directed the pioneering development of high performance communication technologies enabling broadband data transmission over legacy telecom loop plants.

Before Voyan, he was Director of Software Development at Simulation Sciences, accelerating the creation of real time control software for petroleum plant operations. He strengthened the organization by recruiting key engineering talent and eliminating non essential projects to focus resources on high impact innovation.

Earlier, as Director of Advanced Systems Development at Thinking Machines Corporation, Rolf oversaw the development of the CM 5, the world’s most powerful computer at the time and a landmark in massively parallel computing. His leadership spanned architecture design, microchip development, programming models for parallel systems, computer aided design, and early scientific and technical applications.

Prior to TMC, Rolf was a Research Staff Member at IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center, contributing to a new generation of computer aided design tools and engineering workstations that fundamentally reshaped microchip and system design.

Before joining IBM, he served as Wissenschaftlicher Assistent at the Chair of Computer Science of Prof. Seegmüller at the Ludwig Maximilians Universität (LMU) Munich, while simultaneously working at the Leibniz Rechenzentrum (LRZ) of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. At LMU he developed novel automatic programming concepts; at LRZ he led the technical procurement and deployment of a major computer network connecting universities across Munich and Bavaria.

Rolf began his career at Messerschmitt Bölkow Blohm (MBB), where—while still a student—he introduced innovative improvements to computer controlled aircraft test systems for platforms including the MRCA/Tornado and Airbus. His work earned him an invitation to present at AGARD/NATO multi city lecture series.

Rolf holds a Bachelor of Science, Master of Science, and Ph.D. in Computer Science, all from the Technical University of Munich