Chief Transformation Officers in Germany

In-house consulting provider and driver of transformation within the group, multi-stakeholder environment and C-level.

Realignment and stabilization of a cross-functional transformation and scaling program within the group. Sharpening the target picture, priorities, and set of measures, as well as building reliable governance, planning, and steering structures. Structuring roles, responsibilities, and strategic initiatives while including AI and IT automation ideas.

• Designed program realignment and project portfolio management

• Developed strategy model and target picture for IT projects

• Structured portfolio, roadmap, and priorities

• Established governance and regular meetings

• Worked out operating model for flagship projects

• Assessed AI and automation ideas

• Clarified roles and responsibilities

• Implemented change measures

• Developed, moderated, and evaluated workshops

• Transformed 17 initiatives into a steering model

• Increased transparency and decision-making ability

• Strengthened commitment in steering

• Sharpened the operating model structurally

• Integrated three top-5 institutes

• Involved over 80% of stakeholders

• Governance

• Portfolio steering (PPM)

• Change management

• Artificial intelligence

• Workflow automation

• AI use case assessment

• Confluence

• Jira

• Stakeholder management

• Electronics – Surface Solutions | Carve-out of IT, data and system landscape*

• Separation of a full business division's IT, data and system landscape following divestment; centrally governed investment envelope in the three-digit m€ range

• Laboratory notebook and laboratory analytics platform stream: Palantir Foundry, Snowflake, Signals Notebook, Power BI and connected laboratory instrumentation; site transition completed without interruption to laboratory operations

• Decision authority and escalation point for business, IT infrastructure, IT security and vendors; separation executed across globally distributed users and systems, handed over on schedule

• After several S/4 go-lives, structure, role clarity, and decision clarity were missing in Finance and IT; governance mechanisms, prioritization logic, and responsibilities were not defined well enough.

• Unclear interfaces, high coordination effort, and inconsistent ways of working led to organizational instability and limited leadership and steering capability.

• The existing operating model between Finance, Controlling, and IT was not working, which affected transparency, collaboration, and decision paths.

• Designed the transformation and organization architecture for Finance and clarified roles, decision paths, and priorities.

• Diagnosed and structured the Finance and IT organizations (DE/UK/PL), including collaboration, responsibilities, and interfaces.

• Redesigned the Finance–IT operating model with a focus on governance, steering routines, and cross-functional collaboration.

• Enabled leaders and teams, especially Global Process Owners, Key Users, and Finance Leads (systemic organizational development / leadership).

• Steered the transformation portfolio, including clarity on risks, dependencies, and cross-functional decision processes.

• Restored structural steering capability by clearly defining roles, decision paths, and priorities and anchoring them across the organization.

• Strengthened governance and cross-functional collaboration in a systemic way - Finance, Controlling, and IT worked again in consistent, aligned structures; friction losses dropped measurably.

• Harmonized working and communication logic, making coordination faster, more transparent, and less conflict-heavy.

• Enabled the organization in a sustainable way, including the build-up of a strong Key User / Process Owner community and clearly defined steering routines.

• Made the transformation structurally manageable - prioritized initiatives, clear risk and progress logic, and consistent decision formats increased execution speed.

• Selected as SME for a government executive authority in Dubai, benchmarking four PPM platforms against technical fit and delivery risk and developing the target operating model and strategic benchmarks.
• Led an operational optimization project for a performance-based road maintenance contract, directing two consultants and delivering a 10% improvement against contract KPIs.
• Managed delivery of a smart city implementation as the consulting firm's project manager, coordinating the specialist solution consultant and the site's asset owner, and owning project governance and reporting.

• Designed and implemented comprehensive business processes, leading cross-functional teams to increase customer satisfaction and reduce costs
• Provided training and ensured benefits realization through end-to-end workflow development
• Contributed to the “Generate Insights from Hidden Knowledge” initiative by developing and deploying AI-driven workflow automation solutions using Large Language Models (LLMs) and low-code/no-code platforms
• Designed multi-agentic workflows integrating OpenAI, LangChain, Haystack, and n8n to automate document review, data extraction, and knowledge summarization processes
• Led the orchestration of AI and automation frameworks to enhance medical and business review processes, ensuring compliance, explainability, and transparency
• Collaborated cross-functionally to translate complex business requirements into AI-enabled automation prototypes aligned with enterprise compliance and data privacy standards
• Applied Power Automate, UiPath, Nintex, and ServiceNow to deliver rapid, scalable, and secure automation solutions within validated operational environments
• Leveraged Lean Six Sigma, Agile/SAFe, and ITIL principles to structure AI development pipelines ensuring measurable impact, auditability, and sustainable governance
• Managed cross-departmental collaboration to standardize workflows, reducing errors and enhancing task management. Established governance frameworks to ensure the sustainability of automation solutions

• Migration of SEPA direct debits, credit transfers & card clearing to Worldline's internal platform as part of the outsourcing contract

• Definition of the MIGR strategy

• Mobilization of the community (300+ experts at client & Worldline)

• Creation of the MIGR runbook (100+ workshops)

• Close collaboration with upstream project streams: BUILD & TEST, as well as with the operating units

• Set up of the governance framework, capacity management & reporting

• 100% of SEPA DD, CT & CC transaction traffic migrated (7 months)

• ~80 migrations carried out with a success rate of 70% ("first-time right")

• Set up technical & manual production monitoring

• Established a "fast-track" incident management process in the MIGR & hypercare phases

• Set up 20+ exception handling processes

• Conducted trainings

• Implemented SLAs & billing

Training wave for education of first transformation agents. Training of candidates in: Lean management, Six Sigma & data analysis, change management, rationalization meetings, conflict & crisis management, stakeholder management international, project management, cultural development, AI for OpEx. Strong response to training & certification concept.

AI-first workforce management platform for medical practices (scheduling, time tracking). Market insight: no modern SaaS solution for the sector. Product insight: only fully autonomous with AI agents.

• Vibe-coding with Claude Code — built the entire platform myself, including the AI agent "Kira" as autonomous scheduling support.
• Brand building (medishift) including SEO distribution; built onboarding and sales.
• Early-stage traction (May 2026): 7 paying practices plus 70+ practices and 500+ users on the free plan.

• Agile coach and Scrum Master for an international, remote-working team (5–7 experts).
• Building the product vision, roadmap, and MVP.
• Implementing Scrum, training on agile values and principles.
• Establishing lean processes and continuous improvement.

• Increased product-related work time by 20% by introducing agile routines, clear task clarification, and improved coordination processes
• Built and led a 25-member multiplier network to broadly embed the new collaboration model
• Worked closely with department heads, steering committee, and governance board to continuously guide and secure the transformation
• Transformation approach was adopted internally as a blueprint and rolled out to other areas

• Strategic Transformation & Value Creation: Initiated and implemented a company-wide transformation program to establish a scalable, process-oriented organization. Focus on strategic agility, cost leadership and long-term financial resilience in a volatile market environment.
• Operational Excellence & Digitalization: Introduced digital management tools and automation initiatives to improve efficiency and speed up decision-making. Designed a modern operating model to promote data-driven leadership and transparency across the value chain.
• Finance, Controlling & Performance Management: Built an integrated finance and controlling framework with clear KPI structures to manage profitability, OPEX and cash flow. Developed a rolling forecast model and established robust reporting mechanisms as a basis for strategic decisions at the C-level.
• Working Capital, Liquidity Management & Treasury: Optimized working capital and managed the cash conversion cycle through targeted measures in inventory, receivables and payables management. Established an integrated treasury architecture for active liquidity planning and strengthening financial flexibility.
• Global Integration & ERP Transformation: Led the global harmonization of systems and processes by implementing a scalable ERP platform. Promoted synergies and transparency across borders to strengthen the global finance architecture.
• Growth Strategy, Efficiency Improvement & Executive Sparring: Responsible for designing and implementing group-wide initiatives for cost reduction, efficiency gains and sustainable growth, directly impacting EBITDA and overall financial performance. Worked closely on developing and executing investment strategies, resource allocation and transformation priorities to strengthen long-term competitiveness and return on capital.

• Role & Scope Responsible for realigning a unit of 600+ people as part of the top leadership team. Led a team of agile coaches and oversaw the entire transformation architecture – strategic, structural and cultural.

• Result The organization was fundamentally professionalized – reduced friction and costs, faster execution, higher team motivation and visibly more effective leadership.

Key Contributions

• Redesigned strategy and implementation processes
• Created a clear link between vision, priorities and operational execution
• Established business-IT alignment and communication structures
• Embedded shared goals, priorities and decision paths
• Developed a leadership-operating model
• Strengthened roles, responsibilities and leadership culture
• Introduced a unit-wide impediment removal process
• Systematically identified obstacles, assigned owners and developed solutions
• Consolidated 35+ Jira boards
• Created cross-unit manageability and transparency
• Led a team of agile coaches; established skill matrices and improvement processes
• Solidified a learning and development culture

PMO | AI Incubator Debt Collection/Financial Services Establishment and implementation of a cross-functional project and governance structure for one of Europe’s leading technology-driven debt collection firms. Focus on collaboration across business units, identification of AI use cases, scaling of data-driven business processes and automation of AI-supported customer interactions.

Strategy and Efficiency Consultant | Retail Analysis, identification, and optimization of inefficient workflows with the goal of increasing employee productivity, improving communication flows, and better aligning the organization with strategic business objectives.

PMO | Big Pharma Establishment of agile working processes and organizational structures, as well as coaching of a cross-functional business unit of a major vaccine manufacturer to enhance efficiency, transparency, and collaboration. Design and implementation of a structured onboarding program to enable more efficient scaling of headcount, along with the establishment of sustainable formats for knowledge sharing and transfer within the organization.

Project Manager | Big Pharma Management and support of the tendering and procurement process for an innovation project aimed at improving efficiency in vaccine management, including coordination of internal and external stakeholders.

Project Manager | Big Pharma Identification and evaluation of additional vaccination sites beyond traditional medical practices. Development of a pilot concept considering regulatory requirements as well as diverse market and stakeholder interests.

Strategy Consultant | Automotive & Retail Development of a market analysis on “innovation in retail” for a luxury automotive manufacturer, including an international benchmark of current trends and innovations. The project included analyzing innovative retail store concepts, experience centers, and showrooms with a focus on interactivity and technology, as well as deriving recommendations on brand fit and customer experience to support the design of a new, forward-looking brand store.

Product Owner | Automotive Management of the integration of a service provider’s SDK for identity verification into the OEM’s system landscape, ensuring secure driver authentication before enabling safety-critical features. Responsibilities included managing technical, contractual, and process requirements, leading the tendering process, forecasting usage, and preparing management reports, while working closely with IT development, legal, compliance, customer service, and procurement teams.

Product Owner | Automotive Responsible for ensuring GDPR-compliant documentation of software components and establishing proper processes for data processing and storage. This included creating records of processing activities, managing data processing agreements, and overseeing the review and update of privacy policies, as well as defining and implementing requirements to ensure data security and integrity.

Interim Head of Buying & Category Management | E-Commerce Led the strategic and operational development of the buying department of a fashion e-commerce company, with full responsibility for process optimization and budget management. The role involved building and maintaining supplier relationships, negotiating contracts, and managing a team of 7–10 direct reports, including recruiting and onboarding new employees and a new Head of Buying & Planning. Additionally, a standardized onboarding program was designed and implemented, and close collaboration with the CEO and cross-functional teams ensured alignment with the overall business strategy.

Product Owner | Aviation Led the relaunch of a private jet airline’s website, including the redesign of backend and content management systems. The role covered gathering and structuring stakeholder requirements, defining functional specifications, shaping the visual design and user experience, and coordinating the development team to ensure timely and high-quality implementation.

Consultant | Various Projects: Digital Transformation Retail Provided consulting services on digital transformation, customer engagement/CRM, digital store concepts, and omnichannel strategies. This included developing forward-looking concepts, managing agile software development projects for mobile applications, collaborating closely with developers and UX/UI designers, and supporting IT recruiting efforts.

• Overall responsibility for platform transformation across ERP, CRM, PIM, and AI-driven process automation
• ERP transformation: Implementing and migrating to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central
• CRM & growth stack: Implementing HubSpot as the central CRM and a platform for lead and marketing automation
• Product data & commerce enablement: Introducing an ePIM to scale category management and digital commerce processes
• AI-driven process automation: Designing and implementing agent-based AI workflows to automate processes in business services, accounting, tender management, and marketing
• Building a scalable platform organization including product development, DevOps, UX, cloud engineering, and corporate IT
• Implementing modern product and portfolio governance (e.g., OKRs, portfolio boards, value-based roadmaps) to manage technology-driven initiatives
• Harmonizing heterogeneous system landscapes and transforming them into a modular, scalable platform architecture (ERP, CRM, PIM, integrated customer journeys)
• Coaching and developing product owners, tech leads, delivery managers, and UX teams to build a scalable product organization