Kallola Bal

Two decades at the edge of connected technology.

From European telecom research to wireless standards work at OSRAM, and on to co-founding companies in hospitality and autonomous retail — a career built around a single question: how do we make the physical world programmable, without losing what makes it human?

16+
Years in industry
4
Companies co-founded or led
3
Continents of work
1
Quiet thesis: connect everything
I.

Connected Mobility

Vehicle-to-vehicle systems, telematics, and the early architectures behind 5G connected vehicles.

II.

Smart Buildings

Thread, wireless mesh, and the standards work that quietly made commercial buildings programmable.

III.

Hospitality Technology

Digital access, room control, and the operating layer behind connected hotels.

IV.

Autonomous Retail

Unattended stores where hardware, payment, and software disappear into a single experience.

The work, in order.

  1. 2024 — Present

    Munich, Germany

    SUITEe

    Co-Founder

    Building connected hospitality — smart rooms, digital access, and the operating layer behind modern hotels. Continuing a long-running thesis that buildings, mobility, and retail share the same underlying problem: making physical environments programmable.

    • Co-Founder— Jun 2024 — Present
    • Co-Founder— Jan 2021 — Present · Full-time · Munich
    Hospitality TechSmart BuildingsIoTProduct

  2. 2022 — Present

    Germany

    LOKBEST GmbH

    Co-Founder

    Autonomous retail and unattended commerce. Hardware, software, payment, and operations stitched into a single experience customers can trust without staff in the room.

    • Co-Founder— Mar 2022 — Present · Full-time
    Autonomous RetailHardware + SoftwareOperations

  3. 2020 — 2024

    Wertingen, Bavaria

    LUSINI Group

    VP of Technology

    Led technology for one of Europe's largest B2B suppliers to the hospitality industry. Modernised digital commerce, platform architecture, and engineering organisation across multiple brands and markets.

    • VP of Technology— Sep 2020 — Aug 2024 · 4 yrs
    Digital CommercePlatformLeadershipB2B

  4. 2020

    Greater Munich

    Erwin Müller Group

    Senior IoT Consultant

    Advisory engagement on connected products and IoT strategy for a large European retail group.

    • Senior Internet of Things Consultant— Jun 2020 — Sep 2020 · Part-time
    IoT StrategyAdvisory

  5. 2017 — 2020

    Munich, Germany

    OSRAM

    Global Standardization Manager

    Drove the commercial adoption of wireless mesh standards — most notably Thread — for connected lighting and smart buildings. Bridged specification work, certification, and shipping product across global markets.

    • Global Standardization Manager— Jul 2017 — Aug 2020 · 3 yrs 2 mos · Full-time

      Global standardization manager for wireless communication.

    Thread ProtocolSmart BuildingsWirelessStandards

  6. 2017 — 2020

    Thread Group

    Co-Author & Lead Testcase Development

    Co-authored and led test case development for the Thread protocol in commercial buildings — the wireless mesh layer now embedded in millions of connected devices.

    • Co-Author & Lead Testcase Development— Jul 2017 — Jul 2020 · Part-time

      Thread for commercial buildings.

    ThreadProtocolsCertification

  7. 2012 — 2017

    Greater Munich

    DOCOMO Euro-Labs

    IoT Project Manager

    Long-horizon research and project leadership at the European R&D lab of NTT DOCOMO — connected mobility, vehicle-to-vehicle communication, and the early architectures that now underpin 5G and connected vehicles.

    • IoT Project Manager— Oct 2012 — Jun 2017 · 4 yrs 9 mos
    Connected MobilityV2X5GResearch

  8. 2010 — 2012

    Greater Munich

    DoCoMo Euro-Labs

    Engineering Foundations

    Started in European telecom research as an engineer, then led a small team. The years that shaped a lifelong preference for systems thinking and protocol-level reasoning.

    • Team Lead— Sep 2011 — May 2012 · 9 mos
    • Application Developer— Aug 2010 — Sep 2011 · 1 yr 2 mos
    TelecomResearchEngineering

Where the foundations were laid.

2009 — 2011

Hochschule Hof, University of Applied Sciences

Master's

Bavaria, Germany

2004 — 2008

College of Engineering, Bhubaneswar

B.Tech, Computer Science Engineering

India

Continuing the craft.

  • Agile Project Management — Advanced

    Haufe Akademie

    2019

  • Professional Scrum Product Owner (PSPO)

    Scrum.org

    2020

  • Data Analysis for Social Scientists

    edX

    2016

  • Python for Data Science (edX 5.2)

    DataCamp

    —

  • Leading Awareness-Based Systems Change

    edX

    2016

  • Sun Certified JAVA Programmer

    Sun Microsystems

    —

Munich · Available for select engagements

If any of this resonates, let's talk.

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