Executive Summary

Professional Experience

Interim Executive Manager

Project in the Logistics Industry

December 2023 - present

Director IT | Reporting to CFO

My client is one of five companies in a group providing pallets and other load carriers to the logistics industry.

The company is the European leader in providing open pool services for the management, supply and relocation of standardized exchangeable (Euro) pallets and containers. The client supports transport companies, retailers and manufacturers across Europe with the handling of their specific load carrier needs.

• Contract | Greater Düsseldorf area
• Budget responsibility: 10m €
• Personnel responsibility: 35 (internal & external)
• Direct reports: 7
• Context: my client is seeking to permanently fill the position
• Core Competencies: IT / Organizational Management, Data Warehouse, Outsourcing, Strategy / Governance

Responsibility & Projects

• Management of the IT-Organization
• ERP upgrade from Navision to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central
• Migration of the company services portal to a central services portal of the group
• Providing a Data Warehouse for the company and integrating this with the group solution
• Product Development for the digital services around pallet handling
• IT-Operations for the public cloud, private cloud and on-premises
• IT-Security

Results

• will be posted at the conclusion of the project

Metro AG

Hospitality Digital GmbH & Eijsink GmbH

September 2022 - November 2023

Group CIO | Reporting to CEO

Hospitality Digital, 100% subsidiary of Metro AG, is the world's largest provider of digital solutions for the hotel, restaurant and catering (HoReCa) industry

Eijsink GmbH, purchased recently, is the leading provider of a Point-Of-Sales (POS) platform, specialized for gastronomy, in the Benelux countries. The POS platform is currently becoming the basis of the future product portfolio of Hospitality Digital

• Permanent | Düsseldorf
• Budget responsibility: 25m €
• Personnel responsibility: 200 (internal & external)
• Direct reports: 5
• Context: Post Merger with Eijsink GmbH
• Core Competencies: IT / Organizational Management, Cloud / Virtualization, Strategy / Governance

Responsibility

• Member of the extended Executive Committee
• Technical implementation of the merger with Eijsink GmbH, primarily in the backend
• Integration der Point-Of-Sale (POS) Software in the existing systems
• Member of the Technical Architecture Board of Metro AG (until March)
• B2B SaaS product development (customer facing DISH platform for purchase and administration of products (E-commerce), Business Support Systems (CRM, ERP, Finances, Payment and Invoicing, GDPR relevant systems and products), as well as all Metro facing Systems (Data Warehouse, HR, Payroll via SAP, travel cost management)
• Operational IT-Security

Results

• Successfully integrated and launched POS software in both France and Germany
• Effectively defended against two global cyberattacks targeting Metro
• Developed strategic plans for both companies post-merger, with a strong emphasis on technical integration
• Initiated a strategic product roadmap to guide investment decisions
• Created the target architecture for the joined backend systems of both companies
• Restructured and harmonized the customer life cycle, transitioning from individual, fragmented solutions to a unified and jointly owned process
• Achieved successful ISO 27001 recertification for the company

Hospitality Digital GmbH

March 2022 - August 2022

CTO | Reporting to CEO

• Permanent | Düsseldorf
• Budget responsibility: 20m €
• Personnel responsibility: 150 (internal & external)
• Direct reports: 3
• Context: Operational Management
• Core Competencies: IT / Organizational Management, Nearshoring, Process Optimization

Responsibility

• Assume leadership of the IT organization, taking over from the CEO who had served as interim CTO for 1.5 years
• Strategically manage the IT platform, aligning it with business objectives and driving innovation
• Hold a key position as a member of the Technical Architecture Board of Metro, contributing to decision-making processes and shaping the technological landscape
• Oversee the entire SaaS Product Development, leading roughly 17 teams. Manage Business Support Systems, IT-Security, and cloud infrastructure to ensure efficient operations and high-quality outputs
• Ensure continuous compliance with ISO27001 standards, maintaining a robust information security management system and uphold best practices

Results

• Successfully stabilized the DISH platform, achieving a 4x increase in performance
• Implemented cost-saving measures for the DISH Order product, resulting in a reduction of 66%
• Introduced load tests and an integration test platform, ensuring robustness and reliability in the system
• Assumed internal responsibility for software development from external developers, strategically hiring and onboarding internal senior developers to secure critical know-how in-house
• Recruited an experienced Enterprise Architect to establish the target enterprise architecture, setting the foundation for a scalable and efficient technology framework
• Implemented targeted measures led by the newly hired senior developers, resulting in improved quality across individual products
• Optimized the Scrum process, driving efficiency and effectiveness by making necessary personnel changes and streamlining workflows

Independent Consultant

Client: WCG Gmbh

September 2021 - Feb 2022

Consultant

WCG GmbH is a mid-sized consulting company specializing in business excellence, strategy- and brand development

• Consulting | Siegen
• Context: Startup
• Core Competencies: IT / organizational management, software and app development, risk Management

Responsibility and Results

• Consulting of WCG for the technical side of creating a startup, intended for WCG customers
• Development of a roadmap, with a strong focus on product management, based on my experience and some pre-existing ideas
• Setup of a personnel and growth plan for the startup, all the way to the intended exit
• Supporting the owner and the team in meetings with potential investors, by presenting the technical implementation of the project

StepStone Group

StepStone GmbH

December 2019 - August 2021

Development Director - Continental Europe & UK | Reporting to Group CTO

The Stepstone Group is one of the world's leading job platforms, specializing in digital recruiting

• Permanent | Düsseldorf
• Budget responsibility: 12m €
• Personnel responsibility: 65
• Direct reports: 3
• Context: Post Merger / Carve Out / Joint Venture
• Core Competencies: IT / Organizational Management, IT Infrastructure, Software / Hardware Development

Responsibility

• Formation of a new, internal IT organization, merging StepStone Continental Europe and TotalJobs Group
• Integration of two technology landscapes into a single IT platform, for IT, Product Management and Marketing
• Cloud Program Management for StepStone Group
• Efficient cooperation of over 70 product teams, by providing AWS Cloud infrastructure
• Planning and execution of the migration from a Belgian data center into the cloud

Results

• Operations was fully integrated after 3 months
• Introduced Site Reliability Engineering (SRE)
• Successfully deployed a platform for approximately 1000 IT, product management and marketing employees
• 70 product development teams were reorganized and able cooperate successfully across both organizations
• Provided new AWS cloud infrastructure, with cost savings of 50 % over 3 years
• Standardized processes, such as ticket management, handling about 3000 tickets per month
• Planning and managing the migration from a Belgian data center to the cloud
• Stabilizing employee turnover at 3 % (20 % below average)

Experience Abroad

• Warsaw, Poland, every second week, for one week
• Brussels, Belgium, occasionally
• United Kingdom, occasionally

StepStone Continental Europe GmbH

June 2017 - December 2019

Development Director - Continental Europe | Reporting to Group CTO

• Permanent | Düsseldorf
• Budget responsibility: 14m €
• Personnel responsibility: 180
• Direct reports: 3
• Context: Operational Management
• Core Competencies: Software / Hardware Development, ECommerce, Process Optimization

Responsibility

• Assuming responsibility for the core organization from the Group CTO, who wanted to focus more on the group
• Product development with 26 teams
• Operations in hybrid cloud and data center environment
• Finalizing the migration into the cloud, turning a shift & lift platform into a cloud native platform
• Creation and implementation of a new, cloud specific security concept

Results

• Increased the number of releases by 400%, through creation of a One-Click-Deployment process
• Enabled several thousand service releases per year, through complete transfer of ownership to individual development teams
• Expanded the E-commerce platform with self-service features, which increased E-commerce revenue from 1 to 10 million Euro
• Created an automated test framework for CI/CD, with ca. 800 test case, which could be run within 45 minutes
• Implemented GDPR in the company
• Successful implementation of a cloud-specific security concept, with partially automated, continuous checks
• Reduced errors in production by 99,95%, through introduction of error reduction sprints
• Resolved significant issues between Product Management and IT, through increasing common understanding of requirements

Experience Abroad

• Warsaw, Poland, every second week, for one week
• Brussels, Belgium, occasionally
• United Kingdom, occasionally

StepStone Continental Europe GmbH

August 2015 - May 2017

Development Director - Group Components | Reporting to Group CTO

• Permanent | Düsseldorf
• Budget responsibility: 8m €
• Personnel responsibility: 120
• Direct reports: 2
• Context: Operational Management, Reorganization
• Core Competencies: IT / Organizational Management, Software / Hardware Development, Process Optimization

Responsibility and Results

• Successful setup of IT for a newly created business unit, with 17-20 international development teams
• Implemented a service-oriented architecture to modularize the existing, monolithic, legacy software
• Provided those services for all companies within StepStone Group
• Introduced and created a data warehouse for StepStone Group
• Set up agile software development, based on Scrum and Kanban
• Developed native iOS and Android apps in 14 variations for different countries and companies
• Modernized a feed-platform (roughly 1500 feeds for 70% of the content), for automated publishing of ads

Experience Abroad

• Warsaw, Poland, every second week, for one week
• Brussels, Belgium, occasionally

Idenpendent Consultant

Client: BKM Stahl und Anlagenbau GmbH

August 2014 - July 2015

Consultant

BKM is a mid-sized company creating custom-made products and providing services for the oil and gas industry

• Consulting | Berkhöpen
• Context: Growth, Networking
• Core Competencies: Business Development, Online Sales / EBusiness, Indirect Sales

Responsibility and Results

• Improved the digital representation of the company
• Optimized the presentation of products
• Created a service catalog
• Utilization of my international network to help increase the customer base
• Internationalization of offered services and products

New Yorker GmbH

November 2012 - July 2014

Head of Software Development | Reporting to CIO

NewYorker is one of the largest, international fashion labels and retailers

• Permanent | Braunschweig
• Budget responsibility: 2m €
• Personnel responsibility: 17
• Direct reports: 17
• Context: Operational Management
• Core Competencies: IT / Organizational Management, Software / Hardware Development, Project Management

Responsibility and results

• International software development for 1000 stores in 40 countries
• Restructured software development via clearly defined processes and requirements
• Developed a previously non-existent software development strategy for business intelligence, ERP and Point-Of-Sale
• Established a comprehensive requirements management system for all IT departments
• Integrated software development into the company's existing processes and structures, for example ITIL, Cobit and Prince2
• Continued a project to exchange a self-made ERP system against Microsoft Dynamics AX, with ca. 40 external developers
• Set up quality assurance for software and data warehouse

Deutsche Telekom AG

Deutsche Telekom, Products & Innovation (formerly T-Online)

April 2010 - October 2012

Team Lead Software Development Portal Solutions | Reporting to Head of Portal Services

Products & Innovation, formerly known as T-Online, is the ISP of Deutsche Telekom AG, one of the world's largest telecommunication companies

• Permanent | Darmstadt
• Budget responsibility: 10m €
• Personnel responsibility: 50
• Direct reports: 2
• Context: Operational Management
• Core Competencies: Software / Hardware Development, Cloud / Virtualization, Project Management

Responsibility

• Development and optimization of one of the largest, highly available, general interest portals in Europe, with up to 30 individual sub-portals, 26 million customers and 4.5 billion page views per month

Results

• Raised availability from 90% to 99.9%
• Improved customer satisfaction by 48%
• Reduced required infrastructure by 33% through the utilization of highly-performant delivery servers (Varnish)
• Developed a configurative method to transfer 80% of software development to non-developers
• Realized large projects, with initially up to 8000 person days, by introduction of Scrum at T-Online
• Successfully built an early streaming platform (VideoLoad) and Erotic Lounge, with content that required special protection
• Created a E-Commerce portal for software products (SoftwareLoad)
• Created an integrated requirements management system, based on Confluence and Jira

Deutsche Telekom, Products & Innovation (formerly T-Online)

April 2005 - August 2011

Head of W3C Activities (concurrent activity) | Reporting to Head of Portal Services

• Permanent | Darmstadt
• Context: Standardization
• Core Competencies: Prototyping, Research and Development (R&D), QM Strategy / Business Excellence

Responsibility and Results

• Representing Deutsche Telekom AG in the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) for the standardization of web technologies, mobile and desktop convergence and human-machine interaction
• Participation in panel discussions on international conferences, as representative of one of Europe's largest ISPs (T-Online)
• Contribution in working groups for the development of web standards, such as XForms, POWDER, HTML 5 and CSS
• Introduction of new technologies and methods, at T-Online, for monetization purposes

T-Online

March 2003 - April 2010

Project Manager Content Management | Reporting to Head of Media Platform Integration

• Permanent | Darmstadt
• Budget responsibility: 7m €
• Personnel responsibility: 6
• Context: Operational Management
• Core Competencies: IT / Organizational Management, Project Management, Software / Hardware Development

Responsibility and Results

• Successful analysis of the existing CMS-system, as content providing system, which had initially been questioned as basis for all T-Online Portals. It was then used for the next 10 years
• Setup of quality assurance, with automated error detection
• Setup of a requirement's management systems and a change request board, for prioritization of requirements of ca. 25 portals
• Standardization of processes and in development and testing

Mozquito AG

May 2000 - June 2002

Director of Product Integrations | Reporting to CEO

Mozquito AG was a startup, specializing in Web applications, that provided smart online forms in a client/server configuration

• Permanent | Munich
• Budget responsibility: 1m €
• Personnel responsibility: 8
• Direct reports: 8
• Context: Off-the-shelf Software Development
• Core Competencies: Software / Hardware Development, IT / Organizational Management, Project Management

Responsibility

• Responsibility for the entire product creation process, from ideation, over software development, to the final, off-the-shelf package

PolyPort GmbH

December 1997 - April 2000

Head of Internet Department | Reporting to Owner

PolyPort GmbH was a small company providing network, general IT and Web services

• Permanent | Munich
• Personnel responsibility: 1
• Direct reports: 1
• Context: Strategic positioning, IT / Organizational Management
• Core Competencies: IT / Organizational Management, Software / Hardware Development, E-Commerce

Responsibility

• Creation of the Internet Department, to conceptualize and implement Websites for customers