Roman Scharf

Biography

Austrian Roman Scharf graduated from Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, receiving an excellency award from the European Commission for his thesis on "Environmental Management and Eco-Auditing". This marked the completion of an international academic career touching down in Austria, Russia, the UK and Denmark.

After one year of working for the European Commission GD XXIII in Brussels, Roman eventually started his career as a management consultant. Soon after, he became a managing partner in Vienna-based consulting firm ECOS Consulting, where he developed expertise in executing large, complex projects on a pan-European basis.

In 1999 Roman was named senior consultant for Central and Eastern Europe. His position and competence opened opportunities for future responsibilities in strategic consulting around Europe, namely advisory positions for a variety of enterprises, mostly in the IT industry.

In 2001 Roman became an original angel investor in Ecotech Software GmbH, a provider of software solutions for architects and engineers, whose management team he later joined. He was responsible for Business Development and Marketing for the Ecotech Group, as well as Executive Manager of Ecotech Software Germany - the group's main branch. In 2004 Ecotech was acquired by Rockwool international.

Jajah

In late 2004, Roman teamed up with Daniel Mattes to form Jajah. At the company, Roman focuses on strategic product development, marketing and public relations. Roman successfully invited Yair Goldfinger to join the board and Guy Kawasaki to become an advisor at Jajah. In 2007, Scharf announced that Jajah had secured $15m investment from Intel. JAJAH has been acquired by O2/Telefónica in December 2009 for US $207 million in an all-cash transaction.

Talenthouse

Roman joined Talenthouse as a founding angel investor in April 2008. He was instrumental in getting the company funded and worked on brand strategy and corporate development in the role of an Advisor to the Board of Directors. In March 2009 Roman took over as the company’s CEO. Talenthouse is the most influential online community of artists and creators, bringing aspiring talent and industry icons together to cultivate conversations and campaigns across the web. Artists always keep ownership of their own work using Talenthouse as a platform to make connections that drive their careers forward. Brands and advertisers use our Sponsored Engagement Engine (SEE) to work with artists while leveraging their original content and influence across and beyond the social web. Talenthouse provides the link between social web influencers, content creators and brands to deliver peer-to-peer engagement through collaboration and community participation.