Former Cherry CEO Oliver Kaltner has been appointed Chairman of the Advisory Board at Munich-based storage provider FAST LTA. His role will focus on corporate development, digital sovereignty and capital-market experience.
FAST LTA GmbH, a Munich-based provider of storage systems, has appointed Oliver Kaltner as Chairman of its Advisory Board. Kaltner served as CEO and chairman of Cherry SE until the end of 2025. Before that, he led Leica Camera AG as CEO and worked as an investor and supervisory and advisory board member for technology companies. His appointment comes as questions surrounding digital sovereignty and control over data infrastructure are gaining importance.
According to FAST LTA, Kaltner brings more than 30 years of experience spanning IT, consumer electronics, premium brands and start-ups. His career includes executive sales and marketing positions at Microsoft and Sony. He joined the management board of Leica Camera AG in 2014 and became CEO in 2015. His most recent executive position was at Cherry SE, where he served as CEO and chairman until the end of 2025.
Kaltner has also been involved in corporate transactions and capital-market activities. FAST LTA cites the sale of Kreisel Electric to John Deere, the sale of orderbird AG to NEXI Group and the sale of Lofelt to Meta among the transactions he supported. His experience also includes mergers and acquisitions, fundraising, PIPE transactions, SPACs, private equity and investment banking.
The appointment takes place against a backdrop of increasing attention to data control and the location of IT infrastructure. FAST LTA refers to Bitkom’s Cloud Report 2026, which surveyed 603 companies with at least 20 employees. According to the report, 71 percent of the companies surveyed obtain their cloud services from US providers, while only eight percent would prefer US providers. German providers are used by 53 percent, while 91 percent would prefer German providers. In addition, 85 percent consider Germany to be too dependent on US cloud providers.
The regulatory environment for the public sector has also changed. Since July 1, 2026, Section 58(2)(4) of Germany’s public procurement regulation, the VgV, allows aspects of digital sovereignty to be considered as an award criterion in public tenders. In April 2026, Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) also presented C3A, a criteria framework addressing cloud autonomy. For vendors that develop and manufacture their systems in Germany, these developments may affect their position in public-sector procurement processes.
Kaltner links his new role to the question of where companies store their data and under whose control the underlying infrastructure operates. He specifically points to on-premises environments and customer control over access rights. In his view, this is particularly relevant in regulated industries and markets.
FAST LTA CEO Samir Fadlallah said Kaltner’s background combines operational management with experience on the capital side of businesses. The company intends to use this combination as it enters what it describes as its next phase of development.
FAST LTA develops and sells storage systems for secondary and long-term data. Its offering includes hardware, integrated backup software and on-site maintenance contracts with terms of up to ten years. Applications include archival and backup environments in healthcare, public administration, services, industry and commerce.
Dr. Jakob Jung is Editor-in-Chief of Security Storage and Channel Germany. He has been working in IT journalism for more than 20 years. His career includes Computer Reseller News, Heise Resale, Informationweek, Techtarget (storage and data center) and ChannelBiz. He also freelances for numerous IT publications, including Computerwoche, Channelpartner, IT-Business, Storage-Insider and ZDnet. His main topics are channel, storage, security, data center, ERP and CRM.
Contact via Mail: jakob.jung@security-storage-und-channel-germany.de