Barbara-Maria Loth

Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Officer

Chicago, Illinois, United States

About

Executive leadership role with budget and line responsibility for Corporate Commercial Strategy, Operations Improvement, and Organization Development. Approx. 20 years of experience in strategy development, deployment and organizational transformation throughout diverse areas of business. Transformation and change management leader, tenured experience in program management and leading program management entities. Responsibility for design and roll-out management of regional and global business strategies. Providing strong leadership in improvement and transformation projects as well as introduction of new business processes and technology deployment. Excelling in implementing a strategic core into organizations which are going through shifts and realignments. Revamping programs in failure mode and resetting for success Examples include • Successful reset of marketing and sales transformation program at Group level, new sales strategy including blueprint for CRM rollout within 12 months and scaled program and organization for rollouts to 60+ more entities within another year • Development of digital rollout roadmap for Knauf Group to master global business case targeting both process savings and top-line growth • Development of blueprint for CPQ process optimization and subsequent rollout process • Set-up of strategic and structural foundation for digital transformation for Knauf Group defining a multi-year program • Conduction of supply chain improvement program – Managing both saving on the bottom line and increasing customer satisfaction for North America • Rebuilding of departmental structures and leadership teams (multiple) • Set-up of strategic program development from scratch for North America • Responsibility for business case, blueprint and rollout of Salesforce for North America • Reset of compensation and benefit design and management practices for North America • Design and roll-out of succession planning and talent management standards (multiple) High level of flexibility in adjusting to new jobs and challenges as well as new environments with high political attention; high motivation and ability to motivate others in a team environment and foster and gain support of new programs from stakeholders. International work experience both in management consulting (EU-focused) as well as in my career at Knauf (5+ years work experience in the United States with regular cross-border interactions with the headquarter in Germany and globally focused interactions with business entities across the globe).

Experience

  • Chief Customer Officer (SVP) at USG
    Apr 2023 - Present · 3 yrs 4 mos

    • Responsibility North America for customer service and experience, sales support, marketing and digital platforms • USG is a family of enterprises and part of the Knauf Goup. With around 8,000 employees and over 60 production sites in North America, we generate annual sales of more than USD 5bn

  • Knauf (4 yrs 11 mos)
    • Global Head of Commercial Excellence (SVP) for Knauf Group | Managing Director Knauf Digital GmbH
      Nov 2020 - Mar 2023 · 2 yrs 5 mos

      • Global responsibility for marketing, sales and service process enhancements to enable digitalization and hereby sponsorship for major programs: sales strategy, CRM rollout, business intelligence, pricing and CPQ, service strategy 2.0 as well as a comprehensive change, training and rollout program • Achievements: refocusing the team, successful reset of commercial program on Group level and its subsequent operationalization on a multi-year roadmap • Knauf is an internationally active group of companies in the building materials industry. With around 40,000 employees in over 300 production sites worldwide, we generate annual sales of more than EUR 12.6 billion (2020)

    • Chief Digital Officer (VP) for Knauf Group | Managing Director Knauf Digital GmbH
      May 2018 - Mar 2021 · 2 yrs 11 mos

      • Managing Director of two companies Knauf Digital GmbH (Germany) and Knauf Digital LLC (USA) to define and implement the strategic direction and manage the digital transformation of the Knauf Group • Achievements: building the core of the digital organization in a short period of time, setting a global agenda and establishing local partnerships with Knauf companies and technology partnerships with external partners

  • Knauf Insulation North America (5 yrs 4 mos)
    • Chief Operating Officer | Member of the Management Board
      Feb 2016 - Apr 2018 · 2 yrs 3 mos

      • Responsible for Operations Management, Strategy, HR, Legal and all relevant special projects of the organization • Achievements: significant performance increase of the company through the implementation of comprehensive improvement measures in transport and production planning. Frontrunner role of the company within the Knauf Group in the implementation of novel measures such as the introduction of a strategy process, managing process from restructuring to growth and hence also introducing new people management practices such as succession planning, data analytics for supply chain • Knauf Insulation, Inc. was the largest single entity company of the Knauf Group at that time - focus market is the USA and Canada with annual sales of EUR 0.9 billion (2018) and 1,800 employees

    • Senior Vice President, Organization and People Development
      2015 - Jan 2016 · 1 yr 1 mo

      • Responsible for the human resources and insurance area of the company and special projects of the shareholder family

    • Vice President, Organization and People Development
      2013 - 2015 · 2 yrs

      • Responsible for the personnel and insurance area of the US and Canadian companies as well as the organizational integration of an acquired company with several locations and production facilities • Achievements: complete overhaul of HR administration (upgrade of compensation and time management practices and technology), standardization of guidelines and renewal of the health and pension plan with a significant impact on the company's cost position

  • Project Manager (Principal at exit) at Roland Berger
    2007 - 2013 · 6 yrs

    • Responsible for the acquisition and implementation of strategic projects in the public service, tourism, chemicals and building materials sectors spanning from transformation projects over marketing and sales to cultural and communication matters • Achievements: already at the beginning of the career at Roland Berger, taken over project acquisitions on own responsibility with great success. Among other things, acquisition of one of the most lucrative individual projects in the public sector for the company • Roland Berger is the only top management consultancy of German origin with announced annual revenues of USD 670 million (2018) and 2,400 employees in over 35 countries