Roughly 1,220 kilometres on a road bike, from Hamburg to Paris: in his spare time, our software engineer Mark Kirchner pedals for a good cause with Team Rynkeby. And at work, too, he puts in the effort to deliver results that are genuinely helpful and useful to others.
About two years ago, Mark Kirchner moved from Dresden to Hamburg for his new job as a software engineer at quirion. „A new city, a new sport – that’s my motto,“ says the 31-year-old. „Cycling as part of a team was an idea I’d had for a while. So I started looking around for options straight away.“
That was how he first heard about Team Rynkeby. Cycling plays a big part there, but athletic performance is secondary. The goal is to raise money to help seriously ill children. Year after year, teams set off from various starting points and ride to Paris. In 2023, 64 regional teams from 9 countries took part, with around 2,400 cyclists and 550 helpers. Since the pan-European charity ride began in 2002, more than €85 million has been raised in donations. This year the tour runs from 29 June to 6 July 2024.
Using your own athletic effort to do something not just for yourself but for others as well: Kirchner is thrilled by that combination – as is everyone on his Hamburg team, which has just been rebuilt from scratch. It’s not about competing to be the first across the finish line. But of course there are still challenges to overcome, both in the run-up and out on the tour. Everyone has their tasks. Alongside the cycling, Kirchner looks after the social media presence. Others work to win support from sponsors or handle the organisation. „We’re not a registered charitable association, so we can’t issue donation receipts,“ Kirchner explains. „That makes finding sponsors a bit harder.“
He has particular respect, he stresses, for those on the team who take part behind the scenes as helpers. But his own personal commitment shouldn’t be underestimated either. To make sure as large a share of the sponsorship money as possible goes to the good cause, riders have to pay for the special team bike, the jersey, accommodation during the ride and the journey home out of their own pockets.
His path to quirion
Not looking solely at your own advantage in what you do: that matters to Kirchner. At work, too. That his job today involves programming software for a financial services provider was not something he expected at the start of his career, though.
Kirchner initially completed an apprenticeship as an electronics technician at the Rosen Group. The range of his tasks stretched from soldering work under the microscope to laying cables on construction sites.
„At some point, when I was 19, I felt I hadn’t really arrived professionally yet.“ He studied electrical engineering, followed by a Master of Science in computer science. Step by step, he worked his way from „hardware“ to software. „I learned to program above all at my first employer, T-Systems MMS.“ This IT service provider sees itself as a partner guiding large and mid-sized companies through their digital transformation.
At T-Systems, Kirchner worked across many different industries – sometimes in industrial manufacturing, sometimes in healthcare, and finally for a financial services provider, namely Bloxxter. This company was founded in 2019 with the aim of using digital technology to make premium real-estate investments accessible to as many people as possible. Bloxxter was acquired by quirion in 2021.
On the team for clients
That was how Kirchner came into contact with quirion. And he was quickly won over by the approach of digital wealth management. „I used to have little time for the finance industry,“ Kirchner admits. In his mind, „bank“ was associated with „boring“ – and also with the idea that „they want to sell you their products at any cost.“ The fact that a wealth manager advises independently of product commissions and thus focuses on the interests of investors impressed him. „I noticed right away: at quirion, they genuinely want clients to be happy.“
Part of that is making everything as simple as possible for users. And here, much as in sport, the rule applies: when a performance looks effortless and natural, there was usually a lot of work behind it. Whether it’s ensuring that personalised emails with important information can be sent out regularly, or that an interest-rate offer appears in the right place on the website of a new partner – for that to succeed, a great many technical details have to be sorted out in advance.
Being a good team player matters in projects like these, too. Coordinating with colleagues, with service providers, with partners, plus extensive programming work: „It usually starts with a roughly sketched idea. Then you first have to work out what’s feasible, and afterwards implement it within the existing IT structures,“ Kirchner explains. When everything goes well, his work stays in the background. „All that should win users over is the result.“
