Leadership

Executive Board Members

Successful innovation and high-quality services would never be possible without strong, open and trust-based leadership. This is achieved by our exceptional management team.

Chief Executive Officer

Elias Apel

After studying business administration in Ingolstadt (Germany) and Nice (France) with specializations in international management, accounting and controlling, Elias Apel spent more than a decade working in mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance consulting. In 2018, he took on the responsibility of expanding the international partner channel for Lucanet and in 2020 for all international go-to-market activities in existing as well as new growth markets. 

Elias joined the Lucanet board in May 2022 as CFO before transitioning into the role of CEO in October 2023. As CEO, he is responsible for strategy, finance, mergers and acquisitions, and business development.

Elias Apel

Chief Revenue Officer

Joris van Leeuwen

Joris has more than 16 years of experience in the software industry, proven across several roles as Chief Commercial Officer and Managing Director. With a strong background in sales, product (marketing) management, go-to-market strategies and value creation, he is experienced at leading global teams and delivering tangible results while driving growth and operational excellence. 

Throughout his career, Joris has specialized in financial services, accounting, and business intelligence. As Lucanet’s CRO, he is responsible for marketing, sales, and customer excellence.

Joris van Leeuwen

Chief People Officer

Elena Aubell

After training as a legal and notary assistant, Elena Aubell studied economics at the Berlin School of Economics and Law. The field of human resources (HR) was already a focus for her during her studies.

After completing her studies, she worked in HR from 2005, focusing on talent acquisition, development and retention as well as executive development and advisory. Before joining Lucanet in 2017, she worked at well-known companies such as Rocket Internet SE and Amazon. 

At Lucanet, Elena targets the experience she has gained toward the areas of organizational development and strategy consulting as well as change management. As CPO, she is responsible for people, organization, legal/compliance, ESG, and workplace experience.

Elena Aubell

Chief Technology Officer

Kevin Smith

After studying engineering at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, Kevin worked as a software engineer at IBM and then Microsoft. At Microsoft he was a Technical Lead software engineer in Redmond, WA where he shipped several software products and was awarded six software design patents for his work. He went on to spend 10 years building derivatives trading platforms for large investment banks before working for Fastmarkets as CTO and then Hg Capital as a Portfolio CTO.

Kevin is experienced at building world-class SaaS platforms from the ground up as well as transforming on-prem software to SaaS. He has extensive experience building and scaled high performing engineering teams deployed both on and near shore. As Lucanet’s CTO, Kevin is responsible for technology, engineering, product and IT.

Kevin Smith