Transformation Managers

• 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.

• Launched a new digital product in the Chinese market as part of a global growth strategy.

• Served as the link and coordinating interface between central product management, local Chinese teams and international stakeholders.

• Managed the overall program to coordinate complex digital projects.

• Successfully launched a digital product in China (including successful certification for the Chinese market).

• Balanced local requirements with global priorities while taking tax and regulatory requirements into account.

• Introduced a new way of working to improve collaboration and coordination across locations.

• Developed and implemented a scaling strategy for the digital business model in China.

• Used Jira, Confluence, Miro, Scrum, Agile ways of working, SAFe.

• Project language: English.

I build. I advise. I think in systems. After years leading digital transformation at scale — Accenture, BP, Lidl — I made a deliberate choice: trade platform dependency for structural independence. My focus is at the intersection of AI systems, product strategy, and venture thinking. I work with operators and founders who want to move fast without losing control — of their data, their stack, their direction.

• Defined and launched a major European digital transformation program, leading a six-bidder RFP, overseeing solution blueprint development and co-developing the business case, roadmap and multimillion budget. Secured board approval within five months.
• Built and led a multidisciplinary delivery organization of nearly 50 people at peak, spanning internal teams and three external partners. Defined responsibilities, allocated resources, set priorities and oversaw vendor performance, coordinating 200+ stakeholders.
• Led the two-year delivery of a common Salesforce CRM and digital sales portals across four EU subsidiaries, integrating local systems through MuleSoft Anypoint. Connected to Databricks for reporting, and embedded Databricks-based pricing and credit checks into the sales processes. Applied an Agile, business-first approach to evolving business needs, achieving adoption in France, Italy and Spain and business-validated technical go-live in Germany, within budget.
• Established a sustainable post-program ownership and support model: appointed a Business Analyst as Product Owner and coached him over two years to take full ownership of the solution and the digitalization strategy. Built the functional delivery team, brought one of its Functional Analysts in-house as the business-side Application Manager to oversee functional management and future enhancements, and recruited two Salesforce Admins into Group IT for country-level user support and day-to-day technical operations.
• Enabled further group-wide expansion through a reusable, scalable platform, securing board approval for a rollout to Czechia & Poland. Initiated both rollouts before completing the assignment.

Agile Transformation: introducing agile principles and transforming traditional IT departments into Scrum and Kanban teams

IT Operating Model: redesigning the IT organization and introducing modern delivery structures and roles

Flight Levels: building up Flight Levels practices within IT to align strategy, coordination and operational execution

Leadership & Coaching: recruiting Agile Coaches and coaching Scrum Masters and IT leaders

ERP Operations: acting as Interim Product Owner for the existing ERP landscape and ensuring business continuity

ERP Transformation: reorganizing and supporting the ERP migration as a Project Manager; Phase 1 (financial accounting) live since October 2025

Operational Core (ERP): establishing dedicated teams for ERP Support, Feature Development, and ERP Migration

Modern Workplace: initiating the transition towards a Microsoft 365-based cloud workplace environment

Integration: establishing a dedicated team to drive integration and connectivity initiatives

Warehouse Operations: building a cross-functional team to support logistics and warehouse-related capabilities

Maintenance & Operations (M&O): introducing a dedicated team for system engineering, security, stable operations and continuous improvement

AI Initiatives: identifying and promoting practical Artificial Intelligence use cases across the IT department

As Interim Head of IT for a German medium-sized industrial distributor, I am responsible for 31 IT employees and lead the digital and organizational transformation, reporting directly to executive leadership. I took over an IT department with almost no basic structures – no clear roles, processes, documentation or ticket system – and with significant technical debt that tied up most of its capacity. Introduced agile principles and ways of working in the IT organization and transformed the traditionally structured IT department into cross-functional Scrum and Kanban teams focused on transparency, collaboration, and customer value delivery.

Redesigned the entire IT organization by establishing a modern operating model, introducing new roles such as Product Owner, Scrum Master and Solution Architect and strengthening the organization through strategic hiring and targeted capability development. Recruited and onboarded Agile Coaches to accelerate the transformation and personally managed and coached Scrum Masters as well as IT department leaders to foster servant leadership, self-management and a culture of continuous improvement.

Aligned IT-internal planning across eight teams to three Flight Levels based on Klaus Leopold (strategy, coordination, team), laying the foundation for later company-wide portfolio management. Consolidated the backlog of more than 10 workstreams and prioritized it by business value and cost of delay. Introduced a ticketing system to increase transparency and enable data-driven decision-making, flow-based work management, and greater accountability at all levels.

Established and supported multiple cross-functional teams, including the Operational Core (ERP) domain with dedicated streams for Support, Feature Development and ERP Migration, as well as teams responsible for Warehouse Operations, Maintenance & Operations (M&O) including system engineering and security, Modern Workplace, Data Quality and integration initiatives. Worked closely with Agile Coaches to support team development, remove impediments, and continuously improve delivery effectiveness.

Acted as Interim Product Owner for the operation and enhancement of the existing ERP landscape while supporting the ERP migration as a Project Manager. Reorganized the project organization and had the already negotiated contract with the implementation partner realigned with a focus on approach and overall responsibility; Phase 1 (financial accounting) has been live since October 2025. Collaborated with the selected implementation partner to design and establish the project organization and target operating model for the ERP transformation, introducing agile delivery structures and ways of working. Facilitated the alignment between business, IT and the external vendor and played a key role in negotiating the contractual framework and delivery model to ensure a sustainable foundation for the transformation program.

Initiated the strategic modernization of the workplace environment through the adoption of Microsoft 365 cloud capabilities, establishing the foundation for enhanced collaboration, scalability and future digital services.

Launched AI initiatives to identify practical business use cases and promote the responsible adoption of Artificial Intelligence across the IT department. Encouraged self-management and empowered teams to take ownership of decisions, delivery and continuous improvement.

Project management process harmonization between French parent company (Equans Group, Axima Marine) and German manufacturing company (Noske Kaeser) for marine refrigeration and air conditioning systems.

• Leading procurement transformation activities as part of a strategic carve-out program at a global life sciences company
• Responsibility for business separation, IT and operational technology contract management, supplier migration, and Day-1 readiness
• Close collaboration with Legal, IT, HR, PMO, Finance, and business functions to manage contractual risks, ensure business continuity, and successfully deliver the transformation.

• Acting as project controller for the STEAM sub-project within Iqony's long-term modernisation programme for an industrial water demineralisation plant at the BP refinery site in Gelsenkirchen-Scholven alongside the parallel WATER sub-project
• Managing cost control, SAP PS data integrity and project tracking in a challenging data environment

• Program delivery: set-up of strategic initiatives from ideation to execution, designing cross-divisional operating models that streamlined delivery across 6 business units.+
• Large scale initiatives: IT project manager of eMobility mobile app development for entire group, cross-country and multi-year initiative, with budget oversight of >2Mn and 20 FTEs.
• Product lifecycle management: delivered the end-to-end SDLC of a key B2B digital mobility application, successfully launching to 10 000+ users while managing vendor partnerships and system architecture.
• Vendor oversight: successfully negotiated and managed multi-vendor contracts, with negotiated contract value of 30% with no impact on scope.
• Architecture definition: definition of system architectures to ensure scalable, cost-effective solutions for the pricing, logistics and mobility domains, integration of 3 back-end systems.
• Digital transformation & coaching: supported group-wide agile maturity as a coach, upskilling pool of over 40 professionals in Product Management to increase delivery predictability and ensure value-driven approach.

• Led the business and operational responsibilities for Netcracker in the EMEA region for clients such as Virgin Media O2, Telenet, Deutsche Telekom, Swisscom, Bechtle, and DHL.
• Held responsibility for P&L, ensuring profitability and financial stability.
• Successfully introduced and implemented as-a-Service solutions for top telecom clients.
• Drove sustainable revenue growth in the region through successful project delivery, client engagement, and strategic selling.
• Improved and optimized team structures to enhance cultural fit and strengthen client relationships.

Transformation mandate: IT operating model and governance

• Managed the operationalization of a new IT operating model for a service- and customer-oriented organization in the managed services and Microsoft 365 environment.
• Translated the organizational target vision into concrete roles, responsibilities, organizational elements, decision-making paths and collaboration principles.
• Designed and operationalized a layered model with autonomous delivery teams, supporting units and clearly defined governance functions.
• Designed governance for Service Delivery Management, People Leads, Global Service Owner (GSO), operational teams, clusters and management committees.
• Structured the transformation rollout into ramp-up, implementation, stabilization and operations, and developed kick-off, communication and feedback formats.
• Further developed PMO and office structures as well as portfolio and workforce management to create transparency on resources, risks, dependencies and decision-making needs.
• Facilitated cross-functional workshops and decision-making meetings and translated different stakeholder interests into implementable principles, rules and actions.

Interim mandate: IT service and operations management

• Took over operational responsibility for Citrix and AD/Access, including incident, escalation, transition and quality management in day-to-day operations.
• Clarified operational interfaces and clearly defined responsibilities between internal units, Service Delivery Management and external service providers.
• Conducted structured GAP analyses of existing service descriptions, prepared make-or-buy decisions and clarified roles with KPI integration.
• Managed conflicting objectives, dependencies and escalations in complex customer, operations and transformation situations.

Selected results

• The transformation target vision was translated into practically applicable roles, governance rules, organizational elements and rollout formats.
• Decision-making paths, responsibilities and interfaces between operational delivery, supporting functions and management were described transparently and bindingly.
• The foundations for self-managed teams, standardized service descriptions and reliable portfolio, resource and management transparency were established.

Methods: Operating model design, governance design, RACI, GAP analysis, stakeholder analysis, workshop facilitation, change communication, risk and escalation management, KPI and service management

Completed project assignment · 12/2025 – 06/2026

• Current state & interviews: Analysis of team structure, roles, responsibilities, dependencies, knowledge distribution, seniority, and agile maturity through one-on-one, team, and stakeholder interviews.
• Team diagnosis & risks: Structured assessment of skill level, ownership, willingness to learn, collaboration, communication, and team fit; analysis of knowledge concentration, risks for operations, team, and product, as well as external perception with root causes and improvement suggestions.
• Target-state options & impact analysis: Development of structural options and assessment of their effects on collaboration, delivery speed, responsibilities, quality, and knowledge distribution.
• Organizational design & alignment: Introduction of measures to distribute knowledge and responsibility, improve collaboration with departments and external teams, define the stakeholder communication framework, and provide recommendations for involvement in the technology relaunch.
• Management decision basis: Documentation of implemented measures and their effects; option catalog with risks, consequences, and scenarios for team and product, plus a final overall recommendation. The scoped analysis and optimization assignment was successfully completed at the end of June 2026.

Current tasks

• Scrum Master / Agile Coach for two complex teams: Further development of agile collaboration and self-organization, facilitation of Scrum events, and impediment management.
• Delivery & team development: Improvement of requirements and refinement processes, clarification of roles, responsibilities, and workflows, as well as further development of the team and knowledge distribution.
• Cross-functional alignment: Coordination between development, Product Owner, Requirements Engineering, UX/UI, architecture, and stakeholders.
• Cross-area analysis: Examination of communication paths, process deviations, dependencies, processing times, and status transparency, with derivation of concrete improvement measures.

• Mandate with Swiss Post Cargo Transformation Program (among others SAP & IT landscape integration)
• Leading the change management workstream within a multi-country transformation program across 30 entities in Europe
• Supporting leadership in harmonizing processes, culture and governance under a new Target Operating Model
• Facilitating alignment between IT, business and operations to ensure adoption and engagement