Transformation Consultant in Germany

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.

• Currently working as an Interim Manager in a dual role: as Head of IT/VP IT (approx. 75 internal employees and 20 external staff) and ERP Program Manager (approx. 90 employees and an annual program budget of 10 Mio. EUR) at a leading DIY and building materials retailer in DACH (B2B and B2C).

Career roles and levelling framework for an AI startup. Defining role scope, progression criteria, and how promotion decisions get made and communicated — including the question most frameworks now have to answer: what "senior" means when a large part of the work is AI-assisted.

• Advising executive teams on digitalization, AI and change management
• AI prototypes in around 14 days; business cases and rollout plans with measurable productivity gains

MOVE-ZPD – Strategic Infrastructure Project | Total Program Budget 48 Mio. € | Data Center Migration Hannover → Hamburg

Responsibility for a central subproject for migrating business-critical specialist applications to a highly available data center architecture.

• Management of a central subproject for migrating business-critical specialist applications to a highly available data center architecture.
• Independent management of around 30 of approximately 100 business-critical specialist applications, including Exchange (approx. 30'000 users), LDAP, DNS and cross-state applications.
• Management of project structure, milestones, dependencies, risks and escalations, as well as coordination of the required business and technical stakeholders.
• End-to-end coordination of the managed migrations, from planning and structuring through environment provision, testing and acceptance to production deployment and go-live.
• Stakeholder management between business units, Product Owners, data center operations, program organization and external service providers.
• Development and implementation of a standardized server request and change process to speed up VM provisioning and reduce manual coordination.
• Management reporting as well as preparation and moderation of steering and decision-making bodies and workshops.

Technologies & Tools: MS Project, MS Teams, SharePoint, Oracle APEX, CA Automation Manager, Visio, MindManager

The consultancy is developing AI agents for managers for a client. The underlying logic is built in GPTs, while the client works with Microsoft.

In progress:

• Designing and implementing agents for people management and leadership development in Copilot Studio
• Transferring the GPT logic to the end client's Microsoft environment

Available for interim and contract mandates

I am responsible for developing and implementing AI, innovation and digitalization initiatives at the German Golf Association. My focus is on developing digital products, identifying new technologies and successfully connecting strategy, communications and innovation.

I work closely with the executive board, specialist departments, the communications department as well as external agencies and technology partners, and support projects from the initial idea through to successful implementation.

Highlights:

• Strategic co-responsibility for the relaunch of golf.de, Germany's leading digital platform in golf
• Development and implementation of the German Golf Association's AI strategy
• Development of new AI-supported products and digital services for golf clubs, coaches and golfers
• Management of innovation and transformation projects
• Close collaboration with communications and press relations on future-focused and innovation topics
• Design and delivery of workshops, presentations and AI training sessions
• Management of external software, digital and technology partners
• Preparation of strategic concepts and decision papers for the executive board and management committees

Focus areas: Digital Product Development, AI & Innovation, Digital Transformation, Marketing, Corporate Communications, Public Relations, Business Development, Stakeholder Management

ISMS-/KRITIS Target Vision and Development Roadmap

Energy / Utilities | regulated and KRITIS-focused environment

• Two half-day workshops with a structured interim phase to further develop the ISMS.
• Three-year target vision for governance/scope/roles, integration/scopes, management, as well as policies and interfaces.
• Facilitation of key areas of tension and consolidation into an implementation-oriented development roadmap.

Result: 30 specified work packages | 15 workshop focus areas + 15 additions

• Drive enterprise-wide transformation through leadership coaching and a clear vision that stimulates and guides organizational change
• Guide organisations in developing agile strategies, optimising workflows, and embedding best practices
• Foster stakeholders' buy-in through effective communication, ensuring collaborative engagement throughout the transformation and change management process
• Support post-acquisition integration, aligning processes and ways of working between the acquired company and Xebia
• Guide clients in adopting digital and AI innovations to streamline operations and enable smarter decision-making
• Empower teams with tools and techniques to foster continuous improvement, adaptability, and sustainable growth

Independent advisory practice for strategy, organisational transformation, M&A / investor work and AI/data-enabled change.

• Short-term diagnostic and problem-solving mandates: rapid strategic and organisational assessments for leadership teams and Boards, translated into recommendations and transformation roadmaps.
• Organisational redesign and AI governance for an international group of approximately 1,500 employees: structure, mandates, decision rights and interfaces; AI-readiness and data-maturity assessment; vendor evaluation and selection; capability building.
• Design of a centralised Strategy Execution / Results Delivery Office for an industrial client: mandate, governance, portfolio steering, KPI logic, decision forums and implementation roadmap.
• Selected part-time mandate with SPARS GmbH (as a Business Development and Investments Director): developed M&A pipelines, assessed targets for strategic fit and synergy potential, led commercial due-diligence workstreams and investor / partner engagement.

• Supported the strategic realignment of an HR organization affecting 4,500 employees; analyzed structures, roles, processes and governance and supported the introduction of a new HR partner model (public administration)

Leading international delivery, cross-functional teams, rollout and governance of a global digital platform across markets and development partners.

GenAI – Chat & Voicebot

Setup of a GenAI solution with a knowledge base as well as chat and voicebots.

• Definition of use cases and chat/voicebot functionalities
• Project setup for cloud, knowledge base, LLMs and RAG
• AI guardrails, IAM concept
• Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC)

Result:

Setup of an enterprise GenAI solution with knowledge base, chat/voicebots, IAM and governance.