 Gerlinger earned a master's degree in Business Administration and Management from JW Goethe University Frankfurt am Main in 1992.Early in his career, Gerlinger was CFO of the German subsidiary of Psygnosis (Sony Group)(1996 - 1998).Later he was CFO and Co-Founder of CDV Software Entertainment AG (1999 - 2001), listed at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange from 2000 until 2010, before serving as General Manager of Atari's German entity Infogrames Deutschland GmbH (2002).