Landsberg, Bavaria, Germany
Based on +30 years of solid B2B commercial leadership experience, having worked in a variety of international business development, sales, marketing and excellence roles in renewable energies, fuels, process & base oils, lubricants and IT solutions at Siemens-Nixdorf, Shell and self-employed, I am offering my capabilities to business partners in the renewable energy and transport business. Since 2024 I have been working self-employed in the renewable energy and fuels business, focusing on business development opportunities in commercial road transport. I am helping customers to launch renewable product propositions (HVO100, truck charging, biomethane), develop market entries, establish new partnerships and sales to new key accounts. I am also supporting transport companies to successfully improve the business model for BioLNG as renewable truck fuel and to evaluate and develop truck charging solutions. In my last role at Shell from May 2017 until December 2023 I led the development of Shell’s low carbon fuels business for trucks from zero to +50kt BioLNG in Germany and Austria, building 38 LNG retail sites and leading the market at 34% market share. I am offering excellent contacts in Commercial Road Transport, Chemicals and various B2B businesses. I am also experienced in collaborating with regulators, authorities, consultants, lobbies and public stakeholders, recognized as trusted leader and firm business partner. Throughout my career I developed trustful board level relationships and applied strong influential negotiation skills with senior stakeholders at global B2B players, OEMs, distributors and entrepreneurs, across different industries and markets. Thank you for reading my profile, I am looking forward to talking to you about your business challenges, requirements and needs.
Based on my last role as head of business development for low carbon fuels I built my own business and started to offer my capabilities to companies and business partners in the energy and transport business environment, delivering value with immediate success. I am acting as sparing partner to board members of a leading energy company and helping to develop the renewables business by leveraging my network and skills. I am also consulting renewable start-up companies, energy distributors and transport companies in different renewable growth projects. In parallel I am very actively maintaining my network with lobbies and stakeholders, visiting conferences and fairs to develop existing and new contacts and I am studying a lot to keep my knowledge up to date.
In my last employment role as Head of Business Development - Low Carbon Fuels for DACH countries, I led the CRT sector towards net zero carbon fuels, by advocating and building the transformation with stakeholders in regulations, associations, truck OEMs, key industrial players, leading logistical and transport companies, constantly adopting to changing conditions and developing new partnerships and business models, to deliver sustainable success. Since 2017 my team scaled the market up from scratch to 38 public LNG sites, serving 1.000 customers and 8.000 trucks, leading the market at 34% share in Germany. Consequently, Shell invested in a 100.000mt bio-methane liquefier, preparing to switch to BioLNG in 2024, realizing carbon neutrality for long haulage transport for up to 5.000 trucks, also investing significantly into Europe’s largest biomethane producer Nature Energy. The role covered investment proposals, business design, supply chain integration, marketing and sales processes, and operational excellence. This included to leading the modeling of the infrastructure, (route to) marketing, LNG sites engineering and operations, evaluation of TCOs, develop new CVPs, create demand, offer to cash and funding. The acquisition and collaboration with blue chip companies proving an ecological footprint towards climate / emission friendly transport requirements. Lobbying advocacy opportunities with opinion leaders (BGL, Dena, Zukunft Gas) in support of the successful BioLNG ramp up for road transport. Collaboration with Truck OEMs (IVECO, Scania, Volvo) to commercialize LNG powered trucks. Leading operational performance and cost optimization programs, adopt learnings and synergies beyond own market. Position BioLNG as role model for other sustainable fuels roadmaps, such as HVO, BEV and H2FC for trucks. During this role I was able to negotiate a good deal to leave the company by end of 2023 and get the chance to make a dream come through in setting up my own business.
Developing and leading the implementation of the indirect excellence program to strengthen the indirect business model and prepare branded distributors for growth, measure performance and improve distributor capabilities to top notch profile. Position lubricants top of mind at entrepreneurs, balance interests, address underperformers, replace in case, identify and onboarding of new distributors. Coach indirect sales and marketing team towards indirect excellence flagship performance, improve operations and reduce costs by carving out inefficient processes, incentivize distributors to adopt. Lead consultancy programs to Top 5 macro distributors in North Europe, such as Univar in the Nordics. Contribute to 20-30% margin growth year on year. Heading leadership roles in B2B Sales and Indirect Excellence, I delivered advanced route to market models, indirect channel excellence programs, consultative selling techniques and state-of-the-art sales management.
Lead regional key account team of 8 direct reports towards sales mastery, beating targets and leading massive change program to customers, downsizing from 5 to 1 base oil refinery. In parallel support GSAP implementation to all countries. Expand indirect business model in waxes and process oils. Cutting base oils business model in favor of process oils. Sales proceeds accountability of $ 800mio, doubling margins during my assignment. As Sales Manager for Europe and South Africa I successfully re-positioned strategies for existing and new business fields and models, running significant restructuring and change programs, delivering improved sustainable results simultaneously.
Leading and integrating 2 country sales teams of 12 account managers, delivering significant changes to distributor portfolio, business size and capabilities, seizing down from +70 to 12 key distributors, delivering 30% growth in parallel during my assignment. expatriated assignment
Heading the European Pricing strategy for Lubricants in Europe, implementing best in class pricing models to local markets, building up pricing intelligence, measuring business performance, develop new pricing propositions for the business, integrating pricing processes in IT architecture. Increasing margin contribution by +45%.
Lead and develop a sales team of 8 direct reports, beating targets year on year.