Interim Managers in Germany

• Industry: Insurance, Trade, IT
• Customers & Projects: Consulting and selling insurance and similar services
• Main tasks: Insurance consulting (health insurance, retirement planning, wealth building); commercial services, inside and field sales; sales data analysis and forecasting; customer consulting and support; opening a new sales headquarters for private and business customers; business development & innovation management; business use case development; process optimization; stakeholder management; team leadership and training; preparation and delivery of trainings;
• Technologies used: Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Teams, Jira, Draw.IO, Camunda 8, Java (8, 17,21,25), Git, Spring Boot, Spring Batch, Spring Data REST, Spring Web, Spring Security, J-Unit, Playwright, Lombock, Vaadin, H2, PostgreSQL (16, 17 18), pgAdmin, Docker, LLMs, JasperSoft Studio, JasperReports

Stabilization of an Azure/.NET landscape in live operation.

• Architecture, DevOps, and operational readiness; technical decisions under time pressure
• Azure DevOps, monitoring, ETL/ELT, cloud security, FinOps, and data-mesh-related topics

Technologies: Azure DevOps, .NET, CI/CD, monitoring, FinOps

• Strategic and operational leadership of the technical service organization
• Improvement of all processes and workflows
• Development and introduction of a service management IT tool incl. AI database, customer app, and self-service portal

• AI product development: Design of an AI-supported GRC platform to automate compliance processes.
• AI expertise: Strategic deepening in Agentic AI and GenAI as a core asset for modern IT governance
• IT interim management and strategic consulting

• Industry: mechanical engineering, vehicle manufacturing
• Regulations: Data Act
• Project focus: data governance, legally compliant use of machine data, data platforms
• Assigned by: CFO, platform product owner

Successes/Results (early phase):

• Compliance support for the setup of an internal standardized data usage platform based on Databricks.
• Created the basis for the legally compliant and effective use of machine data, including:
• Technical: gap analysis and closing of gaps in the segmentation and maintenance of collected machine data.
• Technical: consideration of data flows from the platform to users and third parties.
• Organizational: drafting and finalizing the required data usage agreements.

I support the development of an industrial automation and communication product in which hardware, firmware, embedded software, system architecture, and testing work closely together. As a coach and technical sparring partner, I support product and project owners as well as development teams in turning product goals into a clear technical delivery structure.

• Technical Vision & Strategy: translated product goals into prioritized requirements, milestones, decisions, and executable work packages for HW-/SW teams.
• HW-/SW Collaboration: structured the interfaces between hardware, firmware, Embedded Linux/RTOS, fieldbus/connectivity, system test, and product management; made risks and dependencies transparent.
• Coaching & Leadership Sparring: clarified roles, responsibilities, prioritization, and decision paths with technical leads and teams and strengthened cross-disciplinary collaboration.

Methods & environment: Polarion, GitHub, requirements engineering, configuration management, PROFINET, embedded systems, agile delivery, coaching, and facilitation.

Due to the steady growth of the customer organization and the associated increase in the number of projects in a wide range of areas, including IT/digitalization, sales and organizational development, and controlling, the demands on the projects are increasing. Projects are often started but not implemented within the planned time frame, resources are not clearly assigned, and the business value is not clearly demonstrated. The goal of the assignment as Interim Head of PMO is to further develop and embed an existing project organization from the CDO area at management level. It is important that the governance is pragmatic, easy to understand, and simple to apply in daily project work. The tasks and roles are to be defined, embedded in the organization, and this strategic PMO is also to be supported by an IT solution. This solution is to be selected and introduced. In addition, all ongoing projects are to be gradually transferred into PMO governance and project control is to be centralized.

• Support in managing complex projects in agile, traditional, and hybrid environments
• Building and implementing governance structures to clarify roles, responsibilities, and decision paths
• Designing and facilitating workshops (e.g. kick-offs, retrospectives, lessons learned)
• Developing and introducing standardized processes and templates for project, portfolio, and change management
• Supporting companies in their development toward agile or autonomous structures
• Analyzing and improving collaboration between line organization, project management, and operations
• Introducing role profiles and competency models for new ways of working
• Developing guidelines for decision-making (e.g. based on corporate strategy, cost-effectiveness, customer focus)
• Facilitating conflict discussions and decision rounds between stakeholders
• Developing and applying guidelines for communication in change processes
• Supporting managers with feedback and review formats
• Visual preparation of complex topics for management decisions
• Developing use cases for AI-supported automations in project work
• Supporting the evaluation and introduction of digital tools to improve processes
• Operational responsibility for Citrix & AD/Access: ensuring stable IT operations, including incident handling, handovers, and quality assurance in day-to-day business
• Closing operational gaps by clearly defining responsibilities between BTC, BITS, and service providers
• Performing a structured gap analysis of existing service agreements, make-or-buy decisions, and role clarification with KPI anchoring
• Leading escalations with quick intervention in case of conflicting goals and unclear responsibilities

Planning, execution & moderation of crisis communication and reputation management

AQIM is a non-profit organization based in Austria. An association of interim managers from Germany and Austria. Founded in December 2024. Multi-part training with workshops and consulting for preventive crisis communication, in cooperation with the founding members and those responsible for communication. To assess crisis potential for the market entry strategy and ahead of a digital campaign.

The project in a nutshell:

Consulting and training for the purpose of:

• Analysis of crisis potential as a new market entrant and its internet-based communication activities
• Planning and developing crisis communication with targeted measures
• Developing a crisis plan to minimize reputation risks in an emergency
• Conducting training and information sessions

Success:

• What started as a one-time consulting event for preparing an information campaign became a multi-part workshop on preventive crisis communication. This not only gave the organization expertise and confidence in the event of acute challenges, but also gave the participating interim managers new skills for their day-to-day work on assignments
• The workshop enabled those responsible to launch the information campaign that was being prepared at the time and planned for six months, as scheduled at the end of January 2026 on social media
• Careful scheduling and defining how to handle critical voices in terms of terminology and tone, as well as compliance rules, ensured a smooth start and run of a 3-month information campaign

Automotive | Manufacturing | Commercial Excellence

• Analyzed sales strategy, product/market positioning, customer portfolio, acquisition approach, sales funnel, opportunity quality, and conversion.
• Developed a prioritized sales roadmap with quick wins and structural measures for target customers, pipeline, roles, routines, and management reviews.

• Prepared and reviewed quarterly royalty settlements for licensors across music, publishing and media brands, including minimum guarantees, recoupment, returns reconciliation and process optimisation.
• Reconstructed historical licensing data for an external audit by a major US studio, covering music publishing and recorded music across ROW and AUS, and coordinated the resulting statements with the licensor.
• Supported the reconciliation of music royalties with the German collecting society and its international hub for 2018 to 2024.
• Assessed licensing data for accruals and provisions, and structured metadata for contract negotiations.
• Designed target processes and SOPs for a royalty automation tool and accompanied testing during rollout.

• Project lead for all transformation projects since 01/2018

• Advisory role for the IT development team to ensure the best possible implementation of customer communication workflows within the new IT structure

• Monitoring cross-department process harmonization to create a unified approach for B2B customer communication

• Introduction of a new agile working method, including an optimized IT development process with clearly defined responsibilities

• Reduction of process redundancies by 35% through effective system integration and workflow optimization

• Successful unification of customer communication across three previously separate systems

• Introduction of customer journeys and customer experience