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IT strategy and leadership

Technology decisions are always organisational decisions too. I have spent more than 35 years building, modernising and leading IT organisations — as CTO, CIO and IT director — and today I bring that experience into your company as a consultant or interim leader.

What this is about

Many IT problems look like technology problems but are really problems of structure and leadership: unclear responsibilities, systems that have grown over the years and that nobody wants to touch any more, projects ground down between business units and IT. Strategy here doesn't mean paper — it means deciding what gets built, what gets modernised and what gets retired, and in which order.

My path led from industrial IT specialist at Hoechst via Oracle's European competence centre for chemicals and pharma to CTO of Deutsches Gesundheitsnetz. In between: IT leadership and product responsibility at publishers and data providers, eight years as CIO of a pharmacists' association, large-scale projects with SAP, QM and LIMS systems. I know both sides of the table — the board and the development team — and I translate between them.

Focus areas

Building and modernising IT organisations

Structures, roles, processes, sourcing: I help set up IT organisations so that they can deliver — from building a development department from scratch to modernising a grown IT function stuck in day-to-day business. Pragmatic, with clear priorities and without reorganisation for its own sake.

Digital transformation

Transformation succeeds when it starts from concrete products and processes rather than buzzwords. I accompany the journey from analysis through roadmap to implementation — including the question of how AI tools already make development and operations measurably more productive today.

Distributed and offshore teams

Distributed development rarely fails because of distance; it fails because of unclear interfaces and missing technical leadership. I have steered offshore and nearshore teams over many years and know which structures, reviews and communication channels it takes to keep quality and pace on track.

Large-scale projects: SAP, QM, LIMS

Business-critical implementations — ERP, quality management, laboratory systems — tie up business units, IT and vendors for years. I have led such projects in chemicals and pharma and take on project leadership, quality assurance or the critical review when a project threatens to tip over.

How I work

It starts with an honest assessment: where does the organisation stand, and what is actually blocking it? Building on that, I develop a roadmap with clear priorities together with you — and stay on board for the implementation where wanted: as a consultant, interim IT director or sparring partner to the management team. Throughout, I stay technically close enough to the substance to judge what vendors and teams tell you for myself.

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