Thomas Riedel has been an entrepreneur since 1987 and is the founder and managing director of Wuppertal-based Riedel Communications. He started the business in a garage in the 1980s, while he was still in school, and in the following years would introduce numerous intercom solutions for a broad range of applications. Early prestigious contracts included the Formula One and the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer. These were followed by further Olympics, FIFA World Cups, Eurovision Song Contests, Red Bull Air Races, and Red Bull Stratos, when Felix Baumgartner jumped to earth from the Stratosphere.

Today, Riedel Communications develops, manufactures, and distributes leading edge real-time networks for video, audio, data, and communications for broadcast, event, theatre, sports, and industry worldwide. The company employs over 450 people in 19 locations around the globe.