Greater Munich Metropolitan Area
If I had to sum up my career in a few words, it would be BUSINESS GROWTH and TRANSFORMATION. Across more than 20 years in the enterprise software and SaaS spaces, I have powered considerable investor returns, lucrative company exits, market leadership, and operational turnarounds. I have served as COO, CPO, and Managing Director in companies, from start-ups to global Fortune 500s, consistently delivering business impact. ► EXECUTIVE STRENGTHS • Strategic Vision • Strategic Growth • Business Strategy • Business Planning • Operations Management • Business Transformation • Project Management • Agile Project & Process Management • P&L Management • Go-to-Market Strategy • Business Development • Sales Management Product Development • Partnerships • Financial Management • Business Process Improvement • Innovation Leadership • Team Building & Coaching ► CAREER SNAPSHOT I am the Co-Founder and CEO of BADVISOR.IO, a SaaS start-up that has grown significantly in valuation by securing repeat business with BMW and other multi-national players. I’m also the Founder and Owner of BrainDecisions Consulting, which focuses on business transformation for small and mid-sized companies. I previously served as the Managing Director, Chief Operating Officer, and Chief Product Officer at NextGuest/Serenata IntraWare, where I headed a company turnaround, preceded by 12 years at NetApp, Inc., steering commercial strategies across EMEA and globally. ► MY APPROACH I credit my success to my knack for devising holistic strategies that traverse business, operations, people, and technology. I’m known for leveraging my entrepreneurial spirit to envision and devise new technology stacks, operating models, management frameworks, and internal organizations that revolutionize business results. Never one to stand on the sidelines, I enjoy rolling up my sleeves and getting deep in the weeds to help out my teams. I’m not a micro-manager though – I believe in empowering people to excel and creating cultures that value collaboration, innovation, and dedication to customer success. ► OUTSIDE THE OFFICE My passions are many, and they include my family, sports, vintage cars, wood crafting, and cooking. ► CONTACT ME I’m active on LinkedIn and would enjoy connecting with you. Feel free to message me – I’d love to chat.
VP Mid-Market & Transformation | WithSecure Leading the Mid-Market business and key transformation initiatives as part of WithSecure’s transition toward a scalable, partner-led SaaS operating model. Responsible for driving ARR growth, strengthening go-to-market execution, and building the operational foundations required for sustainable, data-driven scale across regions and partner ecosystems. Key responsibilities and initiatives • Re-focused and strengthened the Mid-Market organization following a major reorganization, restoring execution focus and leadership continuity across regions • Designed and introduced a new Sales Operating Model combining 360° business analytics, structured account planning, and QBR execution to create a repeatable and data-driven execution framework • Introduced a new market segmentation and coverage model, aligning sales capacity, territory design, and partner portfolios with the company’s strategic growth priorities • Led the shift toward data-driven upsell and cross-sell go-to-market motions, aligning Sales, Customer Success, Product, and Marketing to increase customer lifetime value and expand ARR • Established a predictable operating rhythm across regions, strengthening forecasting discipline, deal governance, and executive visibility into pipeline and performance • Initiated AI-supported sales productivity initiatives, including AI Sales Labs and automation of account planning and QBR preparation to increase sales efficiency • Designed advanced sales and partner analytics frameworks, including Partner 360° analytics and dashboard concepts to enable fact-based planning and decision-making • Strengthened cross-functional execution between Sales, Customer Success, Product, Marketing, and Finance to drive customer-centric growth and retention initiatives • Leading value-creation planning projects with company leadership and Private Equity Fund, focusing on scalable GTM capabilities, operational excellence, and SaaS growth acceleration
SaaS Transformation Consulting
I built this business transformation consulting firm and its services from the ground up with a focus on digital business process optimization. In tandem with leading all areas of business planning and management, offer tailored consulting solutions to help small and mid-sized companies achieve sustainable growth, operational excellence, and digital transformation. We work with the client C-suite of small and mid-sized companies to create and institute digital solutions across sales, marketing, and customer success. ► Growth Strategy & Business Planning: We help businesses define their vision and develop robust, actionable business plans that drive growth, improve market positioning, and ensure long-term success. ► Digital Transformation & Process Optimization: In partnership with a business automation service provider, we specialize in the implementation of digital tools, including CRM and KPI systems, to streamline operations, enhance customer experience, and boost profitability. ► Performance Management & KPI Implementation: We develop custom performance management frameworks to help businesses monitor key metrics, ensuring that teams stay aligned with their strategic goals and deliver measurable results. ► Agile Transformation & Innovation Leadership: We guide organizations in adopting agile methodologies and fostering a culture of innovation, ensuring they remain competitive and adaptive in fast-changing markets. ► Equipping clients for long-term growth, I have assisted numerous companies to refine their business planning capabilities through custom digital strategies. ► In operationalizing the firm, I partnered with a business automation service provider to handle client implementations.
Head all aspects of the business, from the strategy and operations to people and business partnerships. Drive fundraising, investor relations, go-to-market strategy, business development, sales, and program and project management. I significantly increased company valuation by securing repeat business with BMW and other multi-national companies in diverse industries in the first year, setting up partnership with international systems integrators, e.g. Deloitte and built a foundation for sustainable growth.
As the driving force behind new visions, strategies, approaches, methodologies, frameworks, and teams for the company, I delivered transformation through continuous improvement. As a multi-disciplinary executive, I managed business planning, product innovation, business development, AI-driven sales, operations, and organizational change. ► I orchestrated a company turnaround that supported the company’s successful merger by restoring profitability, improving valuation, and revitalizing organizational performance through a 3-year transformation agenda. • Increases in key metrics: FY20 new logos 200%, ARR 25%, consulting revenue 26%, upsell/cross-sell business 35%, customer retention 43%. • Turnaround components included organization redesign, operational improvement, a new HR framework, new leadership team, culture change, Scrum/Agile methodology, enterprise OKR framework, and analytics. • I also established business operations, HR, DevOps, QA/testing, a Data Security Officer, and solution selling. ► To disrupt the industry through a completely new technology stack, I envisioned and delivered a scalable MS Azure-based CRM product portfolio with BI, decision support, and AI/ML-driven customer use-case automation. Changes included a re-platform to a cloud-native, service-oriented, public cloud-based solution and the roll-out of data-driven automation and hyper-personalization. ► I generated double-digit business growth and customer success by implementing sales strategy, business planning process, AI-driven upselling, cross-selling, a new SaaS pricing model, Salesforce.com, and PandaDoc. I also separated the new business development and key account management functions. ► Moving the NPS from 2,3 to 4,0 in 2 years, I drove 50%+ faster customer deployments 50%+ with a guaranteed launch in 5 business days. ► I managed the successful company exit, leading investor relations and supporting due diligence and merger preparations.
Managed and developed a global x-functional sales and channel strategy project and took over end-to-end responsibility for global business development team to drive up tech refresh, up- and cross-sell business in the mid-market segment: ● Based upon the success in EMEA, designed and developed a central 360° Business, Customer and Market Intelligence System and demand forecasting methodology for each customer which fully automated the identification of tech refresh, up- and cross-sell sales potential during the life cycle of any customer ● 360° Business, Customer and Market Intelligence System integrated, matched and merged all relevant data sources of market, customer, sales and financial data became the global “single source of thruth” for sales strategy planning and execution monitoring, segmentation and targeting ● Built up international business developers’ team and setup from scratch - focusing on converting identified business opportunities to sales opportunities – from 0 – 50 FTEs ● Designed and implemented a Customer Life Cycle Program for the midmarket generating +$200M incremental up- and cross-selling bookings in business. ● 360° Business and Customer Intelligence System and demand forecasting methodology awarded as global best practice and rolled out globally
Planned, built, and spearheaded a pan-EMEA Go-To-Market organization and implemented and executed sales acceleration programs. Led global Sales and Marketing Transformation projects and developed and managed an EMEA Big Data/Data Science Competence Center. Carried out cross-functional business planning and Go-To-Market workshops: ● Based upon on the successful launch in EMEA, managed a global Sales Transformation Project leveraging a new PGA (Protect-Grow-Acquire) segmentation and targeting methodology (global best practice and roll out), optimizing sales coverage across all global sales regions; achieved increase of new account sales bookings of 15-20% ● Led global Sales Transformation project focused on low/mid-market; designed, and successfully implemented a new cost effective low/mid-market coverage model and opportunity engine ● Optimized the mid/low end coverage model and Business Development model with highly targeted Go-To-Market programs generating substantial incremental bookings in the first 12 months across 15 EMEA countries ● Developed ROI for Pipeline increasing GTM Programs by 3x ● Designed and introduced KPI and OKR framework for the EMEA sales organization to plan and set targets for strategic initiatives and to monitor successful execution ● Drove annual sales/business strategy and planning workshops leading to yearly EMEA key initiatives and sales and channel coverage optimization
In addition to EMEA Marketing Team (21 FTEs), founded and developed a pan EMEA in-house sales strategy and Go-To-Market team (19 FTEs), as well as an EMEA Big Data Competence Center in Bangalore (35 FTEs): ● Designed and introduced a central 360° Customer and Market Intelligence System to increase EMEA sales productivity and ROI of Go-To-Market activities ● Successfully managed an EMEA Sales Transformation Project introducing a new PGA (Protect-Grow-Acquire) segmentation and targeting methodology (global best practice), optimizing sales coverage across EMEA sales regions: achieved new account sales bookings of 15-20% ● Extended Marketing Information and Planning System to EMEA-wide use and established an implemented Strategic Planning framework across EMEA and planned and implemented pan EMEA sales initiatives and programs. Designed and implemented an EMEA balanced scorecard executives ● Founded and managed a Marketing Transformation in UK&I and FR and implemented strategic Marketing organizations within the EMEA area: centralizing marketing and campaign strategy, asset creation and marketing infrastructure led to 25 % cost reduction and 35% increase in sales qualified leads (SQL) ● Elected as the highest performing team in EMEA with the largest business impact.