Fabian Zellinger, who as Group Director is responsible for the Ruby Workspaces business segment, joins the management team and from the start of the year, also took over two newly created departments: New Ventures and Corporate Development. Both departments are aimed at the strategic international expansion of Ruby and include, among other things, the establishment of partnerships and joint ventures in new markets, as well as the development of new business areas and licensing concepts. In his new role as Group Director Corporate Development, New Ventures & Workspaces, Zellinger will report directly to founder and CEO Michael Struck.
The Ruby Workspaces division, for which Zellinger will continue to be responsible, posted strong revenue and margin growth last year despite the challenges in the market. The pipeline also continues to develop as planned. In summer 2022, the Ruby Paul Workspace will open in Vienna's first district with over 400 workspaces. Additional workspaces in Stuttgart and Florence are already under construction.
To support the ongoing international expansion, Mark Braune also joins Ruby's management team as Group Director Revenue & Distribution. Revenue specialist Braune, who joins from HR Group, started at Ruby in mid-2021. In his newly created role, Mark Braune leads the four-person Revenue & Distribution team, driving the expansion of Ruby's distribution landscape, pricing AI and BI, as well as the continued automation of all corresponding processes. He reports to Daniella Boeken, Vice President Commercial.
Also, Thomas Fink has been promoted to Group Director Finance & Administration. In this newly created role, Fink and his staff are responsible for the continued automation and complexity reduction of accounting, payments, cash management, and bookkeeping in order to efficiently handle international growth in the background. The Ruby Group already operates in six countries, with two more to be added shortly thanks to the contractually secured project pipeline. Thomas Fink has already been successfully accompanying Ruby's growth for five years as part of Martin Zilkens' team, Vice President Finance. His promotion is in line with Ruby's goal to train and develop junior management staff.
Ruby currently employs 330 people. By the end of 2023, the group plans to have around 680 employees across Europe, with a capacity of 3,576 rooms and more than 1,500 workspace desks.