Sabine L.-Expert & Interim Manager in B2B Communications, Change Communications, Content Creation

With more than 95,000 employees across several locations in Germany and an annual budget of approximately 35 billion euros. Assignment in the agency's in-house IT service center (BA) with approximately 5,000 employees.

The agency has been transforming since 2019, with the goal of becoming a fully digital organization.

Goal: This will allow the agency's customers to benefit from a fully digital service, enabling them to handle all their administrative matters entirely online without having to visit in person.

Reporting to: Head of Central Online Services

Project highlights:

Ongoing content development and optimization:

• Writing and editing online content as part of a content team within agile product development using SCRUM, Jira, and Confluence
• Preparing content for the web and optimizing it for SEO
• Reviewing editorial content against strategic goals (e.g., language use, accessibility: plain and easy-to-understand language, length, web-friendly presentation)
• Ensuring accessibility during reviews
• Uploading text to the Oracle Webcenter Service content management system
• Developing the agency's online presence and keeping its information up to date to strengthen its profile as a provider of career-related services
• Managing and developing the relevant web pages to ensure consistent communications and user journeys
• Strategically developing and optimizing topics related to careers

Project management:

• Analyzing and designing processes, e.g., transferring the external KURSNET continuing education portal to the agency's main portal
• Preparing high-level functional concepts, creating and maintaining a content plan, process descriptions, and click guides
• Coordinating and aligning individual work steps, including schedules, minutes, and to-do documentation

Change communications & stakeholder management:

• Communicating with department and section heads, agency specialists, and sub-project managers
• Identifying stakeholders' communications needs and developing solutions
• Preparing and facilitating meetings with these stakeholders
• Facilitating differing interests among the agency's internal stakeholders
• Coordinating and aligning individual work steps, including schedules, minutes, and To-do documentation

Results:

• Established the foundations for a consistent, user-friendly, and accessible portal
• Within the planned three months, established the conditions for rolling out digital communications for citizen services, on schedule by year-end
• Improved the concept for restructuring the portal content
• The fast development of the concept made it possible to meet the tight schedule

PR agency specializing in information technology, 45 employees, revenue not available.

Supported the delivery of an online campaign for an IT startup, focused on digitalization in the process industry

Project highlights:

• Creating advertorials and articles on digitalization, artificial intelligence, and machine learning
• Writing stories for publication across online channels of various trade media, each with a different industry focus
• Shared responsibility for editorial management: creating schedules and content plans
• Creating advertorials and articles
• Delivering the media plan, including booking advertorials, ads, and banners, and coordinating with the advertising departments of relevant media outlets

Results

Met very tight deadlines and launched the project on schedule, delivering it as planned without delays

Change and B2B communication specialist based in Eckental near Nuremberg, with two decades of experience in corporate communications, change communication, public relations, project management and editorial work.

Focus: Change and B2B communication for industry and technology

Experience from projects in corporations, family-owned businesses, associations and publishing houses Certified Fachredakteurin für Print- und digitale Medien. Certified Projektmanagerin für Digitale Medien. Certified Kanban Team Practitioner - Used for: Agile process management in corporate communications

Qualifications: Building or realigning corporate communications and press and public relations Developing strategic communication concepts and putting them into practice, e.g. for campaigns or change and transformation processes Creating editorial copy/content Communications support for market launches and brand positioning

Benefits for clients: Positioning them in their target markets through effective and successful communication, raising their profile and visibility, and supporting their competitiveness Building acceptance and understanding among key target groups, such as customers, employees, partners and investors, for example during transformation processes Agile communication process management (Kanban) Benefit: Improving workflows in communications departments to handle tasks more efficiently

Industry experience: Mechanical and plant engineering, automotive/electrical engineering, information technology, energy technology, public sector

Key strengths: Proven experience in developing strategic communication concepts and putting them into practice Equally strong in analyzing target groups, market conditions and developments in the market and current affairs Writing persuasively, explaining complex topics clearly and presenting facts in a concise, compelling way Agile working methods: Kanban, Scrum Team leadership experience with 5 - 10 members STEM studies; graduated as a Diplom-Geologin; strong interest in science and technology

About me and my approach to work: Flexible, proactive, independent and structured approach to work Consistently meeting deadlines and reliability Communicative with managers and teammates Team- and results-oriented working style

Building strategic communications to support change and growth in new target markets

A family-owned corporate group with a corporate structure in the mechanical and plant engineering industry, with approx. 3,500 employees and revenue of around 800 million euros.

To strengthen its international competitiveness, the mechanical engineering company pursued a diversification strategy. To this end, it had developed a new type of machine to establish itself as a key player in the food/confectionery production target market. Until then, the company had been known as an expert in fine grinding technology for mineral raw materials. The move into the food industry, with its high hygiene requirements, required considerable explanation for market participants and raised doubts, so communications had to be realigned to support this change.

Project summary: Within the first three months of working together, strategically targeted topic management and systematic press work had already achieved broad media coverage for Netzsch in key media outlets across the targeted international markets of Europe, the USA and EMEA. All invited press representatives from these target markets attended the press conference and interviews at the Netzsch trade fair stand at the leading international Interpak trade fair. This campaign, designed around the trade fair presence, helped the sales team hold qualified sales discussions at the fair and afterwards.

Reporting to: Management, internal project lead

Project summary:

• Develop a detailed communication concept and put it into practice, including target group, market and competitor analyses, and ensure a consistent strategy
• Project-manage a six-month PR campaign for a new product launch at a leading international trade fair, including the following tasks:
• Organize previous sporadic press activities and bring them up to an international standard
• Create key messages tailored to target groups
• Develop a storyline and derive stories from the strategy for all relevant business areas: For press work, journalists were regularly offered a story of the month as a press release with specific messages
• Build trade fair PR for the company's presence at a leading international trade fair
• Act as the contact for journalists, handle press inquiries and coordinate the flow of information between the press and Netzsch management
• Prepare press reviews
• Reporting and monthly documentation

Stakeholder management:

• Work closely with the client's marketing management and executive team
• Proactively build contacts and relationships with representatives of leading international media and generate interest in Netzsch, to encourage ongoing coverage of fine grinding technology and visits to the company's stand at the leading trade fair

Information event: Prepare and organize a press conference/press meetings during the leading Interpack trade fair in Düsseldorf

Measuring results:

• Monitor press coverage and prepare reports/press clippings
• Evaluate the impact of communications and identify improvements to further develop press and media work

Results:

• Within just three months of the PR campaign launch, consistent and regular press work generated broad media coverage of the company and the business benefits of energy-efficient, hygienic food production in the selected trade media in Germany, Europe and overseas, with a focus on the UK, USA and EMEA
• Within the first three months, press representatives/journalists from these regions contacted me on their own initiative, following regular press releases, to request interviews with the relevant managing director, and published stories about the new type of machine even before the trade fair
• This made it easier for the sales team to connect with visitors at the trade fair and move into qualified sales discussions more quickly
• All invited press representatives attended the press meeting as an official information event held as part of the trade fair presence and subsequently reported on the company and its technical innovations
• By the end of the press campaign, 80 percent of all press releases issued had been published in trade media

Owner-managed real estate services provider specializing in the valuation, rental and sale of commercial properties. 10 employees, revenue not available.

Worked with: Owner

Tasks:

• Edited a sales brochure marketing commercial office space, with a focus on sustainability
• Visited the building under construction
• Met with the architect and project manager
• Revised the text and drafted new copy where needed
• Replaced technical jargon and vague wording with clear explanations highlighting the environmentally friendly building features and cost-effective energy supply

Challenge:

The existing text describing the features of a newly built office building did not communicate the specific benefits of a building designed to be sustainable both environmentally and economically. Prospective clients could not see the business benefits the building offered as a low-energy property compared with conventional office buildings. These benefits needed to be presented clearly and in a way that everyone could understand

Bavarian daily newspaper, a publishing group comprising twelve local publishers, with regional editions for Middle Franconia and parts of the Upper Palatinate and Upper Franconia. Circulation: 225.782 copies

Tasks:

• Collaboration with the Rewitech editorial office in Deining/Opf.
• Editorial support for special supplements published twice a year for the North Bavarian daily press, covering construction, maintenance, interior finishing and energy technology

Challenge:

Short delivery deadlines, as editorial work could only begin once 2/3 of advertising revenue had been secured

Results:

• On-time delivery of 16 carefully researched, engaging individual articles offering strong reader value and requiring very little editing, for 16 of a total of 25 freelance editorial pages
• This increased productivity and secured the contract and revenue

Building strategic communications for market entry in Germany

A US consulting firm with over 500 employees worldwide and revenue of approx. 140 Mio. US-Dollar. Consulting services for insourcing and outsourcing, with particular expertise in finance and accounting, human resources, IT and procurement. US-based EquaTerra had recently merged with the sourcing advisory firm TPI Inc. From its European headquarters in London, the company was now looking to expand to continental Europe and establish a presence in Germany. Under the shared name EquaTerra, the goal was to gain market share in the German consulting market. As the company was virtually unknown in Germany at the time, it needed to build and carefully implement a communications strategy.

The challenge: When EquaTerra first got in touch, the company was under considerable time pressure, as its market entry was planned for fall 2008, but EquaTerra only sought external support for the first time in September. The launch date in the German market could not be postponed.

Reporting to: Head of Global Communications EquaTerra, London, and Managing Directors of EquaTerra Deutschland GmbH

Project overview:

• Advising the German EquaTerra management team and the PR leads at the European headquarters in the UK
• Communicating and corresponding with EquaTerra’s European headquarters in English
• Coordinating and carrying out press work
• Creating an initial media package with a company profile, interview and management profile, factsheet, and initial press information for the launch in the German market
• Proactively building and maintaining contacts with representatives of German trade and business media
• Managing topics to raise the company’s profile with trade and business editors in Germany
• Creating and managing timelines and editorial plans
• Documentation and reporting
• Regular media monitoring and analysis of EquaTerra’s coverage in the media

Results:

• Despite internal delays at Equaterra and the resulting time pressure, the PR launch and onboarding were prepared within four weeks and started as planned with an initial communications package.
• A convincing discussion with the UK headquarters also helped resolve concerns that its promotional press releases would not be accepted by German media outlets. This shortened the review and approval processes, allowing the launch to start as planned.
• Within the first three months of the engagement, the company received media coverage, including company profiles in the trade and business press, and further media interest was generated in the company and its topic of IT outsourcing.

Deutscher Ingenieurverlag is a division of VNR Verlag, a specialist publisher of guides, reference books and expert information, with 414 employees and revenue of 123 million euros. DIV planned to publish a new handbook for engineers in leadership roles. The handbook was to be accompanied by an online information portal and newsletter, as well as a magazine published six times a year.

Reporting to: DIV Project Manager

Responsibilities:

• Planning topics and managing the editorial workflow for the magazine and newsletter
• Researching management trends and developing articles
• Creating content for the online portal twice a month
• Creating content plans
• Coordinating with the project manager and editor-in-chief

Results:

• Developed a compelling range of topics for engineers through journalistic research and writing, for both the magazine and the online portal
• Managed time efficiently by delivering press-ready articles that required no further editing
• Expanded a so-called dummy issue of the magazine into an information compendium published six times a year
• Gained practical professional knowledge of engineers’ reading and information habits
• The publisher valued the compelling range of topics and professionally written journalistic content. This quickly attracted attention and buying interest among its target audience of engineers in the first year of publication

Created a business plan, conducted market research, developed and implemented a marketing and financial plan, handled marketing, PR and press relations for the agency, built a sales process and established contacts with the first client companies

Focus: Change and B2B communications for industry and technology

Experience from projects with corporations, family businesses, associations and publishing houses Certified specialist editor for print and digital media. Certified project manager for digital media. Certified Kanban Team Practitioner - applied to: Agile process management in corporate communications

Qualifications: Set up or realigned corporate communications, as well as press and public relations Developed strategic communications concepts and put them into practice, for example for campaigns or change and transformation processes Created editorial copy and content Provided communications support for market entry and brand positioning

Benefits for clients: Positioning clients in their target markets through effective and successful communications, building awareness and visibility, and supporting their competitiveness Building acceptance and understanding among key audiences, such as customers, employees, partners and investors, for example during transformation processes Agile process management in communications (Kanban) Benefit: Improved workflows in communications departments for more efficient task management

Industry experience: Mechanical and plant engineering, automotive/electrical engineering, information technology, energy technology, public sector

Key strengths: Proven experience in developing strategic communications concepts and putting them into practice Equally strong in analyzing target groups, market conditions, and market and current affairs trends Writing persuasively, explaining complex topics clearly and getting to the point with compelling facts Agile working methods: Kanban, Scrum Leadership experience with teams of 5 - 10 members STEM degree; degree awarded: Diplom-Geologin; strong interest in science and technology

About me and my working style Flexible, proactive, independent and structured approach to work Consistently meet deadlines and dependable Communicative with managers and team colleagues Team- and results-oriented working style

Professional development: 2026: Kanban-based process optimization and AI in the agile project management team - Business Agility Nürnberg Conference

2026: Strategic Project Management – Münchner Projektmanagement-Tage 2026

2024: Agile working methods for process management, Kanban, Flight Levels, Scrum - Business Agility Nürnberg Conference:

2024: AI in corporate communications - Deutscher PR-Tag der DPRG:

Willingness to travel: Throughout Germany and the DACH region, without restrictions, on site with clients and/or remotely

Change communications during organizational transformation Employed on a permanent contract in a state construction and infrastructure project

Head of Engineering Geology and Measurement Technology Department: Lead contact responsible for all engineering geology, hydrogeology and foundation engineering matters

The civil engineering authority of the Free State of Bavaria, responsible for delivering major water management construction projects, faced the challenge of transforming from a traditional construction authority into an authority responsible for water management operations. As the state’s major construction projects neared completion, restructuring was planned, especially in the construction department. This department was to take primary responsibility for the technical inspections and monitoring required for the stress tests of two reservoir systems before they were handed over for operation. The restructuring therefore had to be completed within six months so that employees could become familiar with their new responsibilities in time.

Project at a glance: Change management and communications

• Led a specialist team of up to ten employees
• Helped employees take on new responsibilities and adapt to new ways of working
• Maintained ongoing, transparent communication with employees within the department
• Managed stakeholder communications internally (department head and division heads) and externally with higher-level authorities (Oberste Baubehörde/ Bayer. Umweltministerium)
• Supported cultural change at the civil engineering authority and built strong acceptance of the need to transform into an operational authority by developing and delivering cross-departmental and cross-division information sessions and workshops
• Created opportunities for the authority’s specialists to present their project work and raise its profile
• Created opportunities for cross-functional exchange to build understanding and acceptance of the needs and concerns of each department

Results:

• Completed the internal restructuring of the department as planned within six months
• Ongoing communication, a vision for the department’s new role and training for individual team members quickly eased uncertainty and built trust
• Employees were motivated and able to carry out their new responsibilities independently within the six-month restructuring period
• Completed the restructuring as planned before the start of the large-scale, multi-stage stress tests of two reservoir systems, allowing the tests to begin on schedule
• The authority’s transformation into an operational authority gained strong staff acceptance, particularly through the internal shift toward an open knowledge-sharing culture, and fostered a sense of “WE”