Thomas Hetschold joined the GMD TKT in October 1993 after he had received his diploma in computer science from the Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe Universität of Frankfurt. At GMD he worked in the division of security technology (SIT), where he leaded some projects with Deutsche Telekom AG concerning the use of the security toolkit SECUDE of GMD.

Thomas Hetschold is co-founder and managing director of SECUDE Sicherheitstechnologie Informationssysteme GmbH, a spin-off enterprise of GMD, founded in December 1996. This enterprise is dedicated to offer solutions for the authenticity and privacy of electronic information that is communicated and used in open systems.