Ralph Ehlers graduated with a PhD in Physics from RWTH Aachen, Germany, in 1981. He then spent two years in software development for industrial automation systems. After that joined BBC, Switzerland, a manufacturer of power plants and electrical equipment, first as a scientific researcher, then as consultant on Computer Aided Engineering applications.

In 1987 he moved into the field of office communications. Over 20 years he has held various positions in engineering and in service management of email, other end user communication systems like fax, instant messaging and later desktop video, as well as of workplace infrastructure, like directories and PKI for large corporations. More recently he has been focusing on project management for the above areas.

During all this time he has been following the development of email towards a mature service very closely. He had been active in several intercompany workgroups on aspects of email and in professional organizations like the European Electronic Messaging Association (EEMA).