Norderstedt, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
As an accomplished new business scout and manager, versatile scientist, and practitioner of open innovation, I connect external needs to internal capabilities, sources of external innovation to internal needs, and link internal stakeholders with each other to drive business growth both in the spaces "between" and outside the current businesses. I have significant industrial experience in synthesizing and characterizing inorganic materials from supported catalysts to novel molecular sieves with additional experience in catalyst evaluation, high-throughput methods, solid-state synthesis, molecular modeling, and experimental design. Key competencies include: systematic market exploration, innovative problem solving, networking, project management, creative organization, fluent German
Turned lifelong passion into a successful business introducing hand-made American-inspired donuts to the German market
Led communication and coordinated engagement between both corporate and business unit Research & Innovation teams and North American universities and government labs and agencies. Harmonized activity with global external affairs • Facilitated fluid communication between salient scientists, managers and directors to afford continuously updated view of innovation opportunities as well as efficient communication of information to support quick go/no-go decisions • Identified, explored, and championed consortia that aligned with broad technology efforts as well as expanded the technical competency base
Systematically identified new market opportunities for the company outside of current business and discussed findings with senior management • Focus industries: transportation, human nutrition, construction, and medical • Methodologies: market and need analysis, competitive intelligence, customer workshops, and opinion leader interviews • Tested and refined foresight approach via scenario and trend analysis, evaluation of the U.S. Federal Budget for research, review of Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funded startups, and both general and topical conferences • Managed effort to generate new ideas for company growth utilizing outside consulting services. Extended network within the company to assist in evaluating opportunities and to identify potential interest outside the division
Coordinated open innovation efforts with universities and government labs and agencies in North America • Spearheaded effort to encourage business units in North America to work together on projects of common interest by providing seed funding to fund development of a business case. Developed process for identifying, ranking, and evaluating projects and communicated the project and results across the organization. • Led team to assemble all university collaborations in North America across the organization in one place and to utilize the data in making strategic decisions with regard to increasing levels of partnership with particular universities. Additionally, convinced the corporation to join the University-Industry Demonstration Partnership in order to learn and share best practices around working with universities. • Initiated and managed effort to map the executive branch of the US government as a means to understand where the company currently has some level of influence, where it needs more influence, and to develop strategies to close the gap.
(On delegation to Germany from the U.S.) As project leader, developed next generation catalyst for the Hydrogen Peroxide Propylene Oxide process as well as managed intermediate-scale production of zeolites.