Chief Information Officer in Germany

• Team leadership: Prioritization and coordination of four cross-functional teams.
• Platform strategy: Development and implementation of strategies to optimize existing IT platforms.
• Stakeholder management: Active management of expectations and communication with internal and external stakeholders.
• Program and innovation management: Prioritization and coordination of cross-department projects as well as innovation initiatives.
• Product Owner consulting: Advising Product Owners with a focus on product development and continuous product improvement.
• Organizational development: Improving communication and decision-making structures across all organizational levels.
• Change management: Implementing best-practice change management methods to ensure continuous optimization and innovation.
• Quality assurance: Ensuring high quality standards in processes, services, and deliverables.

• Responsible for infrastructure, operations, network and VoIP, security, quality assurance, as well as asset management and business continuity
• Planning and implementation of all requirements related to NIS 2.0
• Responsible for application development
• Company-wide implementation of SAP S/4Hana and leading development of new business processes, incl. cut-over planning
• Digital transformation and cultural transformation toward a "doer mentality"
• Realignment of infrastructure (hybrid)
• Restructuring of the organization with partial outsourcing
• Management of four direct reports with a total of 25 internal and external employees
• Budget responsibility of up to €25 million

• Optimization of business results and expansion of sales activities
• Responsible for personnel organization
• Introduction of a document management system (DMS)
• Introduction and optimization of the ERP, CMS and CRM landscape
• Introduction of digital signatures
• Increase in revenue, reduction in costs and increase in EBIT

• Brought back passion and motivation to corporate IT, initiating a new self-understanding of roles and responsibilities
• Marketed the CIO domain and restored dysfunctional communication between CEO and IT and other C-level executives
• Addressed issues such as lack of demand management and budget challenges
• Rolled out an IT roadmap for each C-level domain
• Established IT governance and a new target operating model

• Situation: Inherited a patchwork of aging proprietary systems accumulated over 20+ years — custom-built shop, pharmacy operations, logistics, and product data management. No standardization, no automation, no modern delivery practices.
• Team: Found a centralistic hero culture with one manager handling more than 20 direct reports. Removed the bottleneck, replaced low performers, brought resistant team members back on track or managed them out. Hired fresh talent that brought new energy and capability.
• Delivery: Unified nine brands into a single platform, improving delivery speed by roughly 10x and eliminating cross-brand inconsistencies. Launched a new mobile app that tripled mobile revenue share within 12 months.
• AI: Implemented AI coding tools across development departments. Continuously working on trainings and knowledge sharing for developers. Delivered analytics and agentic automation for customer care inbound emails, and initiated agentic call automation.
• Operations: Introduced automated build and deployment pipelines, initiated cloud migration, and brought the core pharmacy system onto a maintainable, current foundation.
• Governance: Took back project prioritization from ad-hoc business demands by introducing transparent capacity planning — the biggest “no” enforced and the most impactful change for the organization.

• Built Collective Minds as an AI-first company, embedding AI into operating model, delivery and client solutions.
• Built and lead an international offshore delivery organization of 25 professionals, complemented by senior specialists in Germany.
• Act as Interim CDO for ALWITRA, supporting the company-wide digitalization agenda across ERP, CRM, enterprise knowledge, AI, data and operating model.
• Advise managing directors, CIOs and IT leaders on transformation strategy, target operating models, governance, prioritization and execution.
• Own program structures, budgets, staffing, vendor coordination, risks and executive stakeholder communication.
• Develop scalable technology and delivery models across AI, CRM, IAM, integration and manufacturing-related initiatives.

IT infrastructure / SAP Grantor / SAP BTP transformation project at the Berlin Ministry of Finance to digitalize public funding programs. The goal was a clean-core-oriented SAP BTP solution architecture with CAP/RAP services, APIs, integrations, and operational readiness for run, AMO, and AMS structures.

• Industry: Federal authority, FM Berlin
• Budget 2026: 5 million EUR
• Planned budget for 2027: 8.7 million EUR
• Team size: 45 FTE

• Development and implementation of a long-term financial strategy in cooperation with the board and other executives

• Responsibility for budgeting, financial forecasting, and liquidity planning

• Monitoring the company's financial performance and identifying risks and opportunities

• Defining core financial principles

• Developing strategies to optimize business processes

• Improving or implementing management information systems

• Leading financial communications, maintaining relationships with shareholders and investors, and overseeing internal audit

• Personnel management and general services

• Designing a financial, controlling, and reporting system for the company

• Ensuring the accuracy and completeness of all financial reports and documents

• Compliance with all legal and regulatory requirements in finance

• Leading the finance team and coordinating with external auditors and tax advisors

• Managing off-balance-sheet transactions (acquisitions, mergers, divestitures)

• Cash management and financing administration

• Maintaining third-party relationships with bankers and auditors

• Monitoring and validating company controlling (planning, budget, reporting, data analysis)

• Preparing and managing annual financial statements, accounting, management reports, Federal Gazette filings, and support for auditors

• Handling legal and tax matters

• Preparing financial business plans for the parent company and future subsidiaries

• Consolidating results

• Coordinating due diligence and financial audits

• Implementing effective financial controls and procedures

• Optimizing financial processes and systems to increase efficiency

• Assessing investment opportunities and risk management strategies

• Preparing studies on industrial and financial investments

• Liquidity management

• Developing a comprehensive IT strategy to support company goals

• Ensuring the security and integrity of all IT systems and data

• Responsibility for selecting, implementing, and maintaining IT infrastructure and applications

• Monitoring compliance with all IT policies, regulations, and standards

• Identifying and managing IT risks and security threats

• Working with internal and external stakeholders to ensure that IT systems meet business requirements.

• Interim management, strategy, organization, and management consulting

• Member of the strategic management team
• Responsible for 50 direct reports and functional responsibility for 25 more
• Realigned the global IT strategy and merged individual IT divisions of the business units
• Led the central international IT organization of the corporate group
• Budget responsibility of €20 million p.a.
• Strategic advisor to the executive board
• Contributor to the company's strategic decisions as a leadership team member
• Driver of digitalization
• Evolved the global team structure across entities in a matrix setup
• Initiated and implemented process changes
• Operated and provided the central IT infrastructure including the data center for the entire group
• Designed the global application architecture
• Implemented AI-powered solutions
• Responsible for IT governance based on ISO 27001
• Rolled out Microsoft M365
• Conducted an ERP selection process for the corporate group
• Designed and implemented the new organizational structure as a foundation for future success
• Introduced requirements management, project portfolio management and capacity planning for cross-company IT within six months

• Technical lead of a team developing agentic chatbot solutions (React, TypeScript, Python, FastAPI)
• Architecture design for multi-LLM dialog systems - focus on maintainability, UX, and autonomous execution
• Stakeholder alignment, CI/CD processes, and AI integration at enterprise level

• Digitalization of accounting, signature/approval, and onboarding processes
• Restructuring of the IT department
• Introduction of a digital sales tool
• Implementation of an AI webinar series
• Introduction and optimization of information security
• Administration and optimization of the MS Office 365 environment

• Executed post-carve-out stabilization, system consolidation and cybersecurity uplift. Re-assessed system landscape and assets and designed new IT strategy for future. Implemented new IT operating model focusing on product-centric organization and re-internalization of critical resources.
• Successfully designed new IT operating model of the company, based on massive reduction of external dependencies, insourcing of key positions and upskilling of employees.
• Massive reduction of IT cost in the first three years (-40m$), bringing IT spend level below Gartner industry benchmark (1.27%).
• Introduced new product-centric organization based on fusion teams between business and IT across the company.
• Administered implementation of corporate-wide IT/OT cybersecurity program with more than 60 projects.
• Continuous improvement of enterprise IT/OT cybersecurity maturity level with significant increase in the first two years (CMMI >3.5, C2M2 >2.5).
• Governed successful implementation of the business transformation program within IT area by overachieving the savings target by $8m.
• Initiated and created new cloud-based data management platform based on best-in-class technology.
• Implemented first company-wide Microsoft Copilot AI program based on various business cases, leveraging GenAI and AgenticAI.

• Development and implementation of the international digitalization & IT strategy
• Group-wide ERP transformation, process harmonization, integration of subsidiaries
• IT responsibility for merging the three largest subsidiaries
• Design and implementation of the cyber security strategy based on ISO 27001
• Automation/OT integration
• AI platform implementation
• Budget responsibility
• License management/optimization
• Staff responsibility and development for 21 employees