Hartmut Liebel is the CEO of iQor, a managed services and solutions provider for some of the world's most well-known technology brands. But I invited him on the show today to share his experiences in losing both as a professional tennis player and in business settings, and how these experiences have paid dividends in his role as CEO at iQor.

Former ranked tennis pro Hartmut Liebel is the current president and CEO of iQor, an integrated services partner for some of the world’s leading technology brands.

Liebel has an intriguing background. Born in Germany, he came from a working-class family—his father was a child during WWII. Around his later teen years, Liebel became interested in tennis and was ranked #20 in Europe by the time he was 21. He leveraged his aptitude for tennis into a move to Florida, playing against D1 schools on the college circuit, and quickly propelling himself to #2 in the US.

Liebel (humbly) says he never made much of a name for himself in the tennis world. However, he credits his playing career and the professional experiences that followed as a currency and auctions trader, a tennis coach at Notre Dame, and a financial analyst, to name a few, to his success as president and CEO of a $1.5 billion company.

"You get used to losing", is a comment he makes about both his athletic background and three years of constantly losing on deals as an auctions trader. In short, Liebel has learned a lot about managing risk—particularly insight of knowing how much loss to take before changing your strategy, how much loss is acceptable, and how much/when you need to change based on data.

About iQor

iQor is the only global managed services provider embedded in the flow between product, people, and services, from point of customer acquisition to sustainable recycling. With 45,000 employees in 18 countries, they partner with many of the world's best-known brands such as Apple and Microsoft.

The company delivers aftermarket product and customer support solutions that span the consumer value chain, from customer care and receivables management to product diagnostics and repair services.

Their award-winning technology, logistics, and analytics platforms enable us to measure, monitor, and analyze brand interactions, improve business processes, and find operational efficiencies that lead to superior outcomes for our partners across the customer and product life cycles.