Lingen (Ems), Lower Saxony, Germany
Most deep-tech is a brilliant solution looking for someone to make it pay. That someone is usually me. I'm an engineer by training but have spent the last decade somewhere mechanical engineers rarely go: IoT, digital business models, AI, agility and new ways of working. The hardware-software seam is exactly where industrial value gets stuck, and it's where I'm most at home. So I do the unglamorous thing engineers rarely do: I make the technology pay. How the value-creation journey translates to my profile: • I founded an AI SaaS inspection company, took it as CEO from zero to 30 people and a single digit M€ in revenue, closed contracts with top-10 pharma names, and exited it to Körber. Value built to be sold. • As CDO at Körber Pharma I ran a €25M digital P&L across seven companies and drove M&A and post-merger integration to grow them inorganically. • As CDPO at allsafe I ran the commercial & product side of a €90M Mittelstand, focusing on circular-economy and digitally-enhanced business models. • Today I do it across a portfolio of eight deep-tech ventures as Co-CVO at Rosenxt. Scaling, dealmaking, and integrating across the portfolio. I've sat on both sides of the deal table: building businesses to sell, and buying and integrating others to grow. Organic or inorganic, the job is the same. Create value that's real, measurable, and realizable. Founder, corporate, Mittelstand, portfolio - four very different rooms, one job: take something technically world-class and commercially half-asleep, wake it up, and make it commercial, scalable, and sellable. I've done it enough times now to know it's not luck. It's a playbook. The playbook travels. So do I.
Rosenxt is a long-term oriented business builder investing at the frontier of deep-tech innovation, with particular focus on industrial tech, digital platforms, and sustainable innovation. The company supports early-stage disruptive ideas, often before markets or customer needs are clearly defined. 𝗥𝗼𝗹𝗲 𝗢𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄: Leading the initial Value-Creation, GTM, commercial ramp-up & scaling, M&A & integration of a portfolio of deeptech and industrial ventures across autonomous inspection (on/offshore), industrial AI-driven performance optimization and structural integrity: ➔ Accountable for commercial scaling and value creation across a portfolio of 8+ deep-tech & industrial ventures - go-to-market, M&A, integration, and structural performance. ➔ Define venture objectives and strategies. Ensure alignment with the Venture Leaders, Board of Directors, and executive managers to shape business, market, and product/service direction. ➔ Head the end-to-end incubation for ventures: establish structured processes, accelerate time to market, and maximize early value creation. ➔ Support multiple M&A and corporate development activities, including due diligences, assessing market, business & operational fit as well as synergies with existing businesses and translating findings into integration concepts and value-creation plans. ➔ Lead teams to rapidly reach product-market fit, balancing agility in execution with long-term vision. Develop and implement targeted go-to-market strategies, ensuring strong launch readiness and commercial traction. ➔ Foster a customer-centric culture, focusing on creating and refining products and services that achieve outstanding user acceptance. ➔ Decide on strategic options with Chairmen of the Board to ensure value progression of ventures and streamlined operations. Key outcomes include increased validated venture products & services, improved time-2-market, rapid learning cycles & reduced operational bottlenecks.
allsafe is a leading provider of safety-critical components and system solutions for the automotive, transportation, and aerospace sectors. Renowned as a Tier 1 supplier and circular economy pioneer, allsafe drives innovation through efficient manufacturing and sustainable business models. 𝗥𝗼𝗹𝗲 𝗢𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄: ➔ Created enterprise value in a ~€90M Mittelstand by building digital platforms and data-driven services that strengthened commercial channels and customer experience. ➔ Directed digital, mechanical, and marketing teams (approx. 30 members) with full product & marketing responsibility. ➔ Defined and executed digital strategies, driving the transformation & efficiency of both automotive and aerospace businesses. ➔ Led the development of new digital products & processes that enabled pioneering sustainability models - such as refurbishing, on-demand load securing, and track & trace platforms. ➔ Built & implemented an internal process intelligence suite using advanced data analytics and machine learning, resulting in measurable improvements in purchasing accuracy (20% less buying volume) and production compliance (batch-matching optimization cut planning time by 2 hours/day). ➔ Fostered a culture of continuous learning by supervising dual engineering and data science students and launching training initiatives in partnership with NGOs. 𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗔𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀: ➔ Improved product-market fit & time-to-market for multiple digital and sustainable offerings. ➔ Implemented multi-channel revenue streams & e-commerce excellence. ➔ Elevated the organization’s digital readiness and circular business impact. ➔ Enhanced operational performance through automation and analytics, directly supporting business profitability and compliance. ➔ Enabled social impact via mentoring and global skill-building partnerships.
InspectifAI is a leading provider of AI-powered SaaS solutions for regulatory-compliant visual inspection in the pharmaceutical industry, enabling significant reduction in waste and increase in quality. 𝗥𝗼𝗹𝗲 𝗢𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄: Built and realized enterprise value end-to-end from inception to successful exit, merging both strategic vision and operational excellence: ➔ Founded the company, commercially validated the business model, and scaled the team from 0 to 30 employees, holding full P&L responsibility. ➔ Designed and delivered market-leading AI vision products, achieving product-market fit and industry benchmarks (~90% waste reduction, ~38% quality improvement). ➔ Closed multi-million EUR contracts with top global pharma clients and major contract manufacturers, expanding customer base and market share. ➔ Established regulatory-compliant qualification processes, driving broad enterprise adoption of AI-driven inspection. ➔ Forged strategic tech partnerships with AWS and NVIDIA, accelerating development and performance. ➔ Oversaw Board of Director meetings, managed stakeholder alignment, and ensured strategic adherence. ➔ Drove the successful exit to Körber Pharma, ensuring business continuity and long-term growth. ➔ Positioned InspectifAI as a recognized thought leader via presentations at industry events and active market presence. 𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗔𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀: ➔ Achieved rapid, sustainable growth and a successful exit. ➔ Delivered substantial operational impacts for clients: ~90% less waste, ~38% higher quality. ➔ Secured industry leadership in regulatory AI compliance and digital inspection.
Koerber Pharma is the market-leading solution provider for the international pharma and biotech industry with ~1bn sales. Koerber Pharma’s portfolio ranges from software solutions, inspection and packaging machines throughout consulting services and packaging material. As Chief Digital Officer, I am responsible for the overall digital portfolio and P&L of 7 companies. 𝗥𝗼𝗹𝗲 𝗢𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄: ➔ Oversaw the digital portfolio and P&L for seven group companies, leading a €25M digital business. ➔ Developed and executed the group-wide digital strategy, increasing digital health market share and launching five new digital product offerings. ➔ Directed M&A activities focused on digital expansion, assessing targets and integrating best-in-class digital capabilities. ➔ Launched and scaled internal ventures, such as InspectifAI, contributing to a 30% growth in AI-based inspection solutions and expanded global footprint. ➔ Led cross-functional teams, aligning digital initiatives with executive leadership and board-level objectives. ➔ Drove digital transformation initiatives, optimizing processes and building a robust platform for innovation. 𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗔𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀: ➔ Increased digital portfolio revenue and accelerated time-to-market for new offerings. ➔ Ideated future product portfolio, complemented by comprehensive digital solutions. ➔ Enhanced digital maturity across subsidiaries and harmonized KPIs for strategic oversight.
𝗥𝗼𝗹𝗲 𝗢𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄: ➔ Defined and implemented a digital product development framework, tripling the innovation pipeline. ➔ Orchestrated customer-centric ideation workshops, focusing on problem discovery and increasing NPS scores by 20%. ➔ Monitored and steered implementation of the corporate digital strategy, ensuring alignment across leadership and operations. ➔ Enabled iterative evaluation and funding of digital projects, leading to rapid prototyping and faster execution. 𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗔𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀: ➔ Drove organization-wide adoption of agile methodologies, increasing cross-functional collaboration and project throughput. ➔ Initiated strategic measures that led to measurable improvements in process efficiency and digital literacy.
Drove strategic exec. management decision making. Managed & executed strategic key projects.
Developed & validated novel methodology for optimal system design under uncertainty, balancing technical, economic, and ecological aspects. ➔ Created “Multipole Systems Analysis” (MPSA) framework - an interdisciplinary approach combining system topology, stochastic modeling, and optimization to evaluate and design robust, sustainable systems. ➔ Applied MPSA to wind energy systems, revealing trade-offs and potentials across technical, economic, and environmental dimensions in early-stage design. ➔ Integrated mathematical modeling, simulation, and system sensitivity analysis to derive high-impact insights for industry-relevant energy systems. ➔ Collaborated internationally during a Research Stay Abroad at Naval Postgraduate School (USA) 𝗔𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀: ➔ Dissertation awarded summa cum laude and distinguished with two prestigious recognitions: ➔ Special Award of the House of Energy for outstanding contribution to sustainable energy systems ➔ Best Paper Award by the Society for Experimental Mechanics (USA) for excellence in model validation and uncertainty quantification