Manufacturing Execution System Experts in Munich

• Chief Information Officer with more than two decades of international leadership experience in publicly traded and regulated industrial environments.

• Responsible for the structural realignment of complex, long-standing IT organizations to bring transparency, control, and financial stability.

• Leading global IT organizations with budgets up to €120 million and up to 320 employees.

• Developing and rolling out centrally managed operating models, setting up transparent financial and governance structures, and consistently delivering business-critical platform initiatives (e.g., SAP S/4HANA).

• Focused on restoring decision-making, prioritization, and execution power during transformation phases under increased organizational pressure.

• Leveraging technology as a strategic tool to increase efficiency, stabilize operations, and support sustainable business development.

• Global IT Transformation & Operating Models

• SAP S/4HANA & Platform Harmonization

• Digital Manufacturing & Industry 4.0

• Governance, Compliance & Cyber Resilience

• International Organizational Leadership

• Sourcing & Location Strategies

• Overall responsibility for strategy, governance, budget, and operations of the global IT function with an annual budget of approximately €45 million and an international team of about 95 employees across all locations.

• Direct reporting line to the executive management and close strategic coordination with the CFO and COO.

• Realigned a historically decentralized IT landscape of 28 legally independent entities and separate budget and control logics into a centrally managed, internationally standardized operating model.

• Introduced transparent governance, reporting, and financial structures with clear separation and active management of CapEx and OpEx budgets at the corporate level.

• Established group-wide IT financial and performance management with clear investment prioritization, transparent CapEx/OpEx structure, and active portfolio governance to sustainably enhance decision-making at the executive level.

• By consistently centralizing, standardizing, and harmonizing platforms (including global rollout of SAP S/4HANA), structural complexity was significantly reduced.

• IT cost base was sustainably cut by about 15% while significantly improving performance and service levels and increasing transparency and control for executive management and leadership.

• At the same time, strategically expanded the production IT architecture in the context of Industry 4.0 by integrating MES and IoT systems in OEM-related, safety-critical production environments and building audit-ready governance and security structures while meeting regulatory requirements (e.g., automotive standards, TISAX-like frameworks, global compliance rules).

• Maintained strict focus on strategically relevant initiatives by clearing parallel projects, reducing redundant structures, and establishing clear responsibilities to noticeably increase speed, commitment, and execution power in the organization.

• High international presence with operational responsibility at production sites and an active role as a strategic sparring partner to the executive management.

• Conducting current-state analysis & implementing program management methods following SAFe
• Developing process structures for the Cloud Controlling & Monitoring Team (CCM)
• Planning & coordination workshops to develop implementation packages and milestones for private cloud development
• Developing roadmaps at portfolio & solution levels
• Setting up a unified backlog and task management tool
• Advising and enabling project teams in agile and traditional project management methods
• Building a unified documentation platform in Confluence and Jira

• Ongoing independent executive practice for ERP/MES, digital manufacturing, IT/OT and program delivery in industrial and regulated environments.
  
  

• Lead transformation and recovery programs across Europe, the US and Asia across programs with total value exceeding EUR 180M. Focus areas include governance reset, multi-site execution, vendor control, ERP/MES target architecture, executive steering and transition to stable operations.
  
  

Selected current and recent work:

• PE-backed Industrial Carve-out, Europe | Transformation & Separation Advisor | February 2026 – Present Supporting carve-out preparation and execution with focus on separation logic, operating model, governance, TSA implications, IT/ERP dependencies and Day-1 readiness. Translating transaction perimeter into executable workstreams across business, IT, operations and finance, with clear decision cadence and risk transparency.
  
  

• Industrial Software & Automation, Europe | Industry Strategy & Value Proposition Advisory | Jul 2025 – Apr 2026 Shaped industry strategy, value proposition and executive positioning for focused industrial software and automation providers in adjacent but distinct markets, including warehouse automation, enterprise architecture, process intelligence and manufacturing transformation. Work included ICP clarity, use-case framing, GTM logic, customer value realization and the translation of ERP/MES, IT/OT and shopfloor reality into scalable, provider-specific market narratives.
  
  

• AI LegalTech Platform, Switzerland | Interim CTO | Sep 2024 – Jun 2025 Defined product, data and technology roadmap for an AI-enabled LegalTech platform under DACH regulatory constraints. Implemented RAG architecture and delivered MVP, pilot clients and partner setup for first revenues and investor readiness.
  
  

• Industrial Components, Switzerland | Manufacturing Transformation Program Lead | Jan 2023 – Dec 2024 Re-established governance and roadmap for an eight-year stalled MES replacement across multiple plants. Aligned ERP and Quality interfaces, restored delivery cadence and improved OEE by more than 15% in a CHF 550M business unit.
  
  

• Pharma & Chemicals, Ireland | GxP Manufacturing Systems Program Lead | May 2020 – Dec 2022 Took over a failing MES/DNC rollout in Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing under strict GxP constraints. Reset governance, validation and site support, restoring operational stability and Day-1 compliance.
  
  

• Premium Automotive, Italy | Paint Shop Digitalization Program Manager | Sep 2020 – Dec 2021 Stabilized a failed MES rollout that had reduced throughput to 8–9 cars per day versus 23 contracted. Increased output to 26–28 cars per day, securing continuity of a premium product line worth more than EUR 1B.
  
  

• Automotive Tier-1, Germany | Manufacturing Transformation Program Manager | Oct 2019 – Jun 2020 Modernized an unstable legacy MES blocking ERP integration and traceability. Defined target architecture, aligned vendors and plants, and enabled more than 20% OT operating cost reduction.

• 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.

• Led UI/UX and engineering team using Agile to develop 'Crane Intelligence Safety Platform', communicated with customers from the factories to incorporate feedback into applications.
• Launched 'Crane Intelligence Safety Platform' across more than 10 user scenarios in various Chinese shipbuilding factories.
• Prioritized product roadmap with developers, aligning the product vision with the user needs and business strategy. Iterated the product to combine user needs and achieved 25 more implementations than forecast.
• Collaborated with the algorithm team to design a model deployment process compliant with security standards.
• Established a fault detection predictive model capable of analysing collected device data and automating maintenance strategy decisions.
• Developed the automated software inspection and operation mechanism to increase the project maintenance efficiency by 70%.
• Generated the software testing group in our department and realized the automatic software test for every product to be launched, significantly reduced 60% of post-launch revisions and improved user experience.
• Evangelized products in road shows, exhibitions, and events with industry cooperators.

• Training professionals in PLC technology, pneumatics, control engineering, and KUKA robots
• Creating scripts for Siemens systems: STEP 5, STEP 7, TIA Portal, WinCC
• Creating scripts for pneumatics, control engineering, and KUKA robot programming
• Serving on the examination committee for quality assurance in vocational training
• Training and certifying over 500 professionals

• Create epic and user stories for seamless integration of PAYBACK features in PAYBACK partner apps
• Discuss solution with partner dev teams to kickoff integration on partner side
• Create roadmap 2023 for Partner Integration Crew
• Mentor internal Product Owners

• Contributing to backend system development for a digital health platform
• Developing and maintaining gRPC-based microservices using Spring Boot
• Writing and optimizing automation scripts in Python, Unix, and Windows environments
• Collaborating in a cross-functional agile team to integrate new features
• Tech stack: Java, Spring Boot, gRPC, SQL, Windows/Unix scripting, Python