Interim Manager

Food

I took over the leadership of the Controlling department at Ströck GmbH at short notice. Accounting and Controlling report directly to the management team. In addition to overseeing day-to-day Controlling activities, I was responsible for developing reporting and setting the strategic direction for Controlling. At the start of the engagement, the Controlling department had only four employees instead of eight. Given the staff shortage, I first ensured that key reports were delivered on time while developing a new reporting structure.

Another key focus of my engagement was introducing a Single Source of Truth. Existing reporting was based on numerous Excel files and different source systems. I therefore worked with IT to drive the introduction of a modern BI system. Reports will be generated automatically with Qlik Sense, providing a consistent data basis for management decisions. Together with the management team, I also developed a completely new production reporting system that enables weekly production management based on defined efficiency metrics. At the end of my engagement, I supported the search for my successor, trained the new Head of Controlling, and helped rebuild the Controlling department to eight employees.

Actions:

• Interim leadership of Controlling
• Ensured day-to-day reporting continued
• Introduced a Single Source of Truth
• Introduced Qlik Sense
• Built a new production reporting system
• Developed the reporting landscape
• Supported recruitment
• Handover to the new Head of Controlling

Achievements:

• Maintained Controlling despite a 50% staffing shortage
• Introduced a central data basis for reporting
• Digitized reporting with Qlik Sense
• Developed a new weekly production reporting system
• Successful handover to my successor
• Rebuilt the Controlling department to eight employees

Technical and financial advisory services related to portfolio management, direct investments, private equity and venture investments for family offices and other institutional investors

B2C, PetCare

• Marketing lead for the BU
• Strategic and operational brand management, including development of short-, medium- and long-term marketing plans
• Implementation of brand communications with a focus on digital channels and influencer partnerships
• Building an expert platform and brand partnerships
• Leading the innovation process and developing new products

• Restructuring during insolvency proceedings, continuation solution, reorganization and portfolio streamlining; return to positive EBT
• AI-supported controlling with Claude Cowork: Power BI dashboards for production and sales controlling, purchasing and procurement controlling, contract review and drafting
• Development of integrated month-end closing, plan-versus-actual and post-calculation processes

• Built an AI operating model in which specialized agents work with clear roles, precise briefings, review standards and governance boundaries; decision-making responsibility remains with humans.
• AI Transformation Lab as a real-world validation environment for agentic workflows, local/cloud AI models, automation and human-in-the-loop governance (details above).
• Applied transformation principles to AI: ownership, risk control, stakeholder alignment, quality review, traceability, delivery discipline; DEV/TEST/PROD mindset.

Disciplinary leadership, team of five

(Senior Procurement Manager from Nov 2023, title adjusted to reflect the role in Jun 2025)

There was no procurement function, and no one owned the spend. Built it from scratch with my Director; we both started on the same day. 150 Mio. EUR total spend across five categories: IT, Marketing, Corporate Services, Travel, Real Estate.

• Analyzed and grouped all spend, then focused on the largest items first, especially cloud (Google alone was around 50 Mio. USD): around 10 Mio. EUR in savings in the first year and up to 7 % better terms in multi-year contracts.
• Built the supplier model that did not exist: quarterly reviews with KPIs and defined escalation for the largest suppliers.
• Evaluated procurement suites (Omnea, Opstream, Mercanis, HiveBuy) and made spend transparent in SpendHQ with dashboards across all categories.
• Negotiated using leverage, not discounts: Atlassian reduced from 805 to 630 Tsd. USD through a tender among resellers with a line-by-line offer comparison (2024) · ADP credit of 18.450 EUR following an invoice review across six countries (2025).
• Set up Microsoft Premier Support through Bechtle as a service framework: 24/7 contact, escalation, monthly report.
• Integrated the 1E acquisition: every acquired contract was consolidated, renegotiated, or terminated.
• Built the team from scratch to five, with career paths for each category and a performance system. Embedded procurement targets in company KPIs.

• Shape strategies, transformation and organizational effectiveness initiatives by turning leadership and execution challenges into clear decision paths, governance structures and actionable workstreams.
• Develop executive-oriented approaches to strengthen alignment, decision ownership and transformation readiness.
• Align stakeholders, clarify priorities and strengthen execution across organizational boundaries in project contexts.

Klinikum Nürnberg

Healthcare · approx. 10,000 employees; around 100 employees in HR

Mandate focus:

HR processes, document control and interface quality

• Recorded and structured inconsistent HR processes and cleaned up contradictory documentation.
• Coordinated work instructions, process maps, forms and diagrams for TVöD, TV-Ärzte and other employee groups.
• Clarified responsibilities, document storage and interfaces; revised Draw.io diagrams and reported to HR management.

Areas of expertise: HR Process Management, HR Operations, HR Governance, HR Documentation

Interim leadership of a department within Sales IT with around 80 internal and external FTE, including 32 internal employees. Responsible for IT and financial portfolio management, project management, requirements engineering and agile coaching.

• Led four team leaders and two portfolio managers, supporting their development through professional and methodological guidance and coaching; also covered the Agile Coaching team lead role
• Further developed the methodology for prioritizing the IT portfolio and introduced mechanisms to align priorities with available budgets and capacity
• Set up a project to transition projects and development teams to a nearshore location: clarified goals and scope, defined the governance structure and responsibilities, and led the first team transition with 15 employees through to live operations
• Developed and aligned a concept to standardize and support budget planning, forecasting, reporting and ordering processes with tools
• Coordinated the introduction of Spec-Driven Development for requirements engineering in the context of Agentic AI; clarified roles across requirements engineering, business and development, and launched a pilot project
• Developed and aligned an AI maturity model and coordinated its organization-wide assessment

• Consulting and interim management at the intersection of IT operations and regulation
• Impact assessment and implementation planning for NISG 2026 and the EU AI Act, including risk management and reporting and evidence processes
• Training for governing bodies and employees on regulatory obligations
• Teaching assignments in Data & Information Management and Human-Machine Interaction at Hochschule Burgenland, since 2023
• Supervision of Master's theses and participation on examination boards
• Industry talks for businesses and educational institutions
• Design and development of data and AI products, platforms and pipelines
• Privacy-first architectures and Zero-Knowledge encryption, cloud-native on EU infrastructure
• Integration with bank account systems using SEPA direct debit mandates and message formats under ISO 20022 (pain.008, camt.053)
• MLOps and AIOps in live operations
• Own applications under my own brand: shared codebase, separate deployment for each target device
• AI-assisted software development (vibe-coding), complete agentic pipelines, code generation, implementation, automated testing, CI/CD and release cycles
• Professional publications on the EU AI Act, NIS2, DORA, CRA and CER as an integrated governance system
• Professional publications on data sovereignty, cloud economics and industrial image processing
• AI governance / compliance: data quality, Responsible AI, EU AI Act readiness, risk classification, AI ethics

Swiss University of Applied Sciences institute (HEdA/AAQ accredited); ranked #5 globally for Executive MBA (CEO Magazine 2025)

• Led the research function and chaired the Research Advisory Board.
• Editor of the Journal of Applied Business Research.
• Member of the Thesis and Dissertation Committee.
• Contributed to the AAQ and ACBSP accreditation processes.

Engagement through Wonneberger Consulting.

• Led due diligence for an investor group and took over operational leadership of the period underwear brand after the acquisition.
• Managed day-to-day operations with seven-figure annual revenue; reported directly to the investors.
• Restructured operations in six weeks: new team, branding, online store and logistics.
• Built and led a ten-person team, supported by freelancers and partners in marketing, technology, fulfillment and production.
• Planned and managed revenue, liquidity, product requirements and ongoing costs; coordinated regularly with the investors.
• Replaced Excel-based order processing with integrated systems and automated workflows. Reduced manual work and improved operational reliability.

Commercial support for a property developer undergoing restructuring — financial management, transparency and reliable decision-making foundations. In parallel: AI mandates for an international cinema group (HR, energy technology) and an international construction group (consolidation, company valuation); additionally, auditing. Business consulting trade license (WKO).

• Set up and led a PMO to manage 8 Finance and Legal workstreams
• Planned and implemented a 2-stage transformation (7 → 2 companies), including coordination of key stakeholders
• Redesigned business structures as well as Finance and reporting processes
• Restructured the ERP landscape in Abacus, including go-live
• Structured financing initiatives, including Supply Chain Financing
• Established transparent reporting structures and improved liquidity, governance and compliance