P EXECUTIVE ADVISORY PARTNERS - Key Persons
Christoph Beckmann has held leadership positions for more than 25 years. He served as CMO of Swiss International Airlines and is now running an investment firm in Zurich. He has long-standing experience in managing change in various organisations in service industries. His range of experience in corporate transformations combines significant restructuring/turn-arounds as well as facilitating substantial growth.
Christoph supports his clients to exploit their full potential by providing experience- based advice to develop organisations successfully, especially when ambitious corporate transformations need to be accomplished. He helps his clients to define adequate strategies and to win the people involved; and challenges them to identify opportunities, risks and potential problems at an early stage, enabling them to address these in a focused approach and to implement a quantitative steering to stay on top of things. This approach is based on a wide range of executive experiences in restructuring/turn around as well as implementing dynamic growth strategies; M&A activities on the sell and buy side including complex post-merger integration processes and understanding disruption of markets and industries driven by innovation especially in the context of digitalisation.
Christoph holds a combined mechanical engineering and business administration degree (Diplom- Wirtschaftsingenieur) and a PhD in technology and innovation management. He was Head of Strategy and Corporate Development at Deutsche Bahn, and his core experiences include massive restructuring of large organizations and post-merger integration, large scale, sale side M&A- transactions, infrastructure development and financing. He then became managing partner of opus5 interactive, enabling digital transformation in service industries like transportation/tourism, finance and health care. From there he became Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer on the executive committee of Swiss International Airlines, supporting their successful turnaround and sale to Lufthansa group, being responsible for the PMI process, digital transformation, product innovation and brand building. Today he is a founding partner and co-owner of Turgot Ventures, an active investor in growth companies in sectors like health care, digital and transportation. He also holds board positions e.g. Chair of Element Group (international commodity trading) and Vice-Chair of Gessner Group (real estate, retail).
He has been married for more than 30 years with three grown up children. He enjoys the mountains together with family and friends, biking and hiking in summer and ski touring in winter. He has got a passion for competitive sailing on old wooden boats and enjoys traveling the world, making friends, getting to know different cultures and enjoying good food.
Job Titles:
- Senior Advisor and Executive Coach
Sandra Wieland works as a senior advisor and executive coach in various industries and environments, including startups. In addition to 1:1 coaching, she is specialized in leadership development programs and mentoring of teams and high potentials.
Job Titles:
- Certified Professional Coach
- Global Marketing Executive With Several Fortune 100
Esther Goette is an international facilitator and certified professional coach based in Geneva, Switzerland with over 10 years of coaching and facilitation experience. She is specialized in Executive Coaching, Leadership Development, and Team Development and works with international leaders, particularly women leaders, in supporting their professional and personal growth. She works with groups as well as individuals, and her ideal client is curious about their impact and eager to grow. She works in English, German, Spanish, and occasionally in French.
Esther Goette is working with global leaders and executives, often women leaders, from different geographies in both the non-profit as well as in the for-profit sectors across several industries. Esther is a certified professional coach (CPCC) from the Co-Active Training Institute and received the Swiss Advanced Federal Diploma as a "Supervisor-Coach". Today she is faculty member of the Co-Active Training Institute (CTI). She is an Accredited Supervisor with the Coach Supervision Academy (CSA). Esther holds the PCC credential from the International Coaching Federation (ICF) where she served as the President of ICF Switzerland until 2019. She has a diploma degree in Business Administration from the University of Hamburg, Germany, specialized in Marketing.
Esther Goette spent 20 year as global marketing executive with several Fortune 100 corporations, in the FMCG/Consumer Goods sector and in Health Care. She is an experienced global leader of multi-functional and multi-cultural teams and has held leadership positions with Colgate-Palmolive, Procter & Gamble and Novartis OTC, in Europe and the USA. This background is of great service to her work today: she understands the complexity of working in a diverse environment, the challenges organizational change can impose, and the leadership competencies required to thrive in global organizations.
Originally from Hamburg, Germany, she has lived in Argentina, Singapore and New York and is now based in Geneva, Switzerland. She coaches and facilitates in English, German, Spanish, and occasionally in French.
With her husband Juan-Carlos she enjoys hiking and skiing in the Swiss Alpes and is a huge fan of Lac Leman in the summer. Whenever she can she checks out a new restaurant and goes wine-tasting. Staying in touch and being connected to her globally dispersed friends and family is very important to her.
Gunnar Riemann is a pharmacist with 30 years of experience in leadership roles in the international health and agricultural industries. He brings a broad range of experience to the table, including people development, product launches, restructuring & transformation processes, R&D, M&A and related work on corporate culture. He left the corporate world after having been on the board of the Bayer Healthcare AG and the Bayer Cropscience AG.
His customer centric view allows Gunnar to quickly understand how his experience and insights can benefit his clients - whether these are specific to social contexts or his broad international business experience having worked in different cultures and lived in three countries. His starting point in working with his clients is always a thorough understanding of their situation and needs - some of which are obvious, many of which usually need to be discovered together, by helping his clients build broader awareness for their situation. For his successful work with the client the chemistry has to fit, to create the needed level of trust. Then mutual learning and development can happen effectively.
Gunnar Riemann started his career as a plant manager in the Pharma Division of Bayer. He was then asked to take over R&D in the Consumer Care unit based in the US. Upon his return, he was put in charge of the Global Insect Control business unit and became a member of the ExCo of the Global Consumer Care business of Bayer. As a next step, he took responsibility for the region Asia/South America, later for the region Europe within Consumer Care. His focus areas were the internationalisation of the business, professionalisation of marketing, then selling of several consumer brands to focus the unit on the OTC business. He was then appointed a member of the Bayer Healthcare ExCo and took over the Global Biologicals business unit based in the US. He turned the business around, put manufacturing back on its feet after warning letters had been issued by the FDA, reestablished the credibility of the business internally and externally, and then sold the plasma business. From there he went to take over the Global Animal Health business of Bayer, and after a few years he was put in charge of the Global Pharma activities of Bayer. His focus areas here were the acquisition and integration of Schering AG, selecting the leadership team for the new business, developing, and implementing a R&D strategy, inlicensing of products in various stages of development, organisational & cultural development, as well as transformation management. Upon successful completion he became CEO of the Global Environmental Sciences unit based in France, with a view of revitalising the business based on a new strategy, a revised organisational structure, and a new approach to innovation. He left Bayer at the end of 2015 and works as a consultant and advisor ever since.
Gunnar lives in Berlin, with his wife, and together they have 4 grown-up children. He is member of the advisory board of various business and advises selected investment funds. Gunnar has broad political and economic interests, enjoys reading a lot and is passionate about rowing which he practices actively.
Job Titles:
- Coach and Team Developer With DBVC
- Senior Advisor and Executive Coach
Heiko Franken works as a senior advisor and executive coach in various industries and environments. In addition to 1:1 coaching, he specializes in workshops that simultaneously focus on business and team development.
Trained as a systemic coach and team developer, Heiko uses a wide range of methodological approaches. His guiding principle is - "what is effective is helpful". In doing so, he attaches great importance to the connectivity and alignment of the respective approach to his client's culture.
Heiko studied Business Administration in Mannheim. He began his career at Unilever in the marketing department. In 1996, he founded his own company SunTechnics in the growing market of photovoltaics. After selling his shares, he joined the Boston Consulting Group in Hamburg for 12 years, leaving the company as an equity partner in 2010. His next step brought him into the world of science as managing director at Leuphana University in Lüneburg to build up a Professional School. Since 2013, he has worked as a senior advisor and executive coach.
Heiko is a trained systemic coach and team developer with DBVC accreditation.
Since the spring of 2023, Heiko has returned to live on Lake Constance, where he had already spent his school years. This brings him full circle after more than 30 years in northern Germany and a multitude of private and professional changes. In his free time, he is out and about on the lake or in nature with his hunting dog. Food, wine and cooking are among his favorite hobbies.
Isabel Poensgen has many years of experience in the development of coaching programs. In recent years, she has worked internationally as a coach, especially for top executives and their teams. From 2019 to 2022 she had built the Executive Coaching Program Europe for BCG, where she led teams of coaches and senior advisors who coordinated with selected cohorts of executives to implement changed governance and a common focus on achieving transformational goals.
In working with top executives, Isabel takes on a pragmatic approach. Coaching goals usually serve to achieve concrete business objectives. As a sparring partner, she brings in an external perspective, helps to find concrete starting points for behavioral change and supports in understanding and responding to third party perspectives and agendas. Her coaching interactions are characterized by clearly articulated observations and feedback, tangible suggestions for behavioral and mindset regulation, and do not lack humor. In addition to working 1:1 with clients, Isabel has in-depth experience in team development according to P. Lencioni.
After building up and leading BCG's internal Coaching and Career Services from 2003-2013, Isabel founded Bernotat & Cie. GmbH with 2 other partners in 2013 . As a coach she worked for the World Economic Forum and various DAX companies and global players. After changes in the shareholder structure, she went back to BCG in 2019 to build up the European Coaching Program for BCG clients. Here she established a team of C-suite executives who received a coach certification. In "at scale" transformations, this team supported large transformations as a companion module. Since 2023 Isabel has been working freelance and in close cooperation with the Bernotat & Cie. successor company.
Isabel lives in Lüneburg and Provence. She coaches in German and English, and speaks French. She graduated with a diploma in psychology from the Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe University in Frankfurt, followed by further training in organizational development at the MZSG . Isabel is certified for DISC, MBTI, Profilor, Hogan and FiroB. She is also a certified SCRUM Master and SAFe Agile 5 certified.
Luc Albert is a successful international executive turned investor, non-executive director, and executive advisor. His executive advisory work is underpinned by his international background, having run businesses on various continents. He regularly works with executives and their teams, supporting them to achieve ambitious growth and development goals.
Luc brings a wealth of experience in change management, having restructured business units and successfully led diverse teams through times of transformation. He has spent most of his career in global firms and very well understands the field of tension caused by internal organizational complexity and market pressures. He easily builds relationships, brings a lot of energy to conversations, and moves effortlessly between support and challenge. His curiosity is a source for new ideas in every conversation. He is a very keen listener, who enjoys supporting his clients pragmatically.
Luc joined Swiss Re in Zurich in 1994. He moved to Mexico City in 1996, acting as a Market Executive and COO, and co-leading the integration of Reaseguros Alianza. Based in New York from 2000, he led the restructuring of Swiss Re's Latin American business, redefining its strategic repositioning and turning the market unit into a profit contributor. He was the global integration leader after Swiss Re acquired General Electric's reinsurance activities. Between 2006 and 2008 Luc was CEO of Swiss Re Frankona and a Management Board Member of Swiss Re's German entities. From the end of 2008, he led several EMEA market teams, including Continental European, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern markets. After completing university, Luc started his career in the Swiss machinery industry, working as a Research Engineer in Geneva and a Project Manager in Zurich. He has a master's in mechanical engineering from TU Delft, completed an Executive MBA (D1) at IPADE in Mexico City, as well as the Advanced Management Program and International Directors Program at INSEAD in Fontainebleau. Luc also is a longstanding member of the Executive Education Board of TUM School of Management in Munich.
Born in the Netherlands, Luc holds both a Dutch and Swiss citizenship. He is fluent in Dutch, English, German, Spanish and French. Together with his wife he lives near Zurich and has three grown children.
Manfred Wennemer is a widely respected executive with 30+ years of global experience in both fam- ily-owned and listed companies. His specific background is in the automotive and automotive supply industries where he has transformed large organisations into future-oriented competitors, thereby en- suring their growth and profitability. He was CEO of Continental AG (DAX-listed and one of the three largest automotive suppliers worldwide).
Manfred Wennemer uses his many years of experience in top executive roles and as supervisory board member to quickly understand the situation of his clients, co-create thorough analyses and co- develop meaningful actions. He is known to go straight to the essence of situations very quickly.
After obtaining a masters' degree in mathematics, he went on to pursue an MBA at Insead. He then spent a few years in management consulting and consumer goods. For another 15 years he was an executive for a large family-owned conglomerate in the textiles industry, and he spent 8 years working in South Africa and the US. He then joined Continental, built their automotive electronics business that grew rapidly because of both organic growth and successful acquisitions, and transformed the company for the future. Manfred Wennemer has been CEO of Continental for a total of 9 years.
Manfred Wennemer is married with three grown-up children. He has a keen interest in football and is passionate about skiing and hiking.
Job Titles:
- Experience across International Executive
Michael Schmidt has over 30 years of experience across international executive roles in the chemical and oil industries. As a result of successively holding professional and leadership roles across a range of functions he has very broad experience. In addition, he has successfully led several restruc- tures and transformation projects. His most recent corporate role was as the CEO of BP Europe SE. He holds a master's degree in business administration.
Michael Schmidt uses his compelling interpersonal skills combined with his broad entrepreneurial ex- pertise and rich experience across a variety of roles to support clients. He is familiar with the daily de- mands faced by leaders in global organizations - be they entrepreneurial, interpersonal, or personal in nature.
Michael started his professional career in the coatings division of BASF. After several years in the in- ternational controlling department, he was put in charge of a business unit that he restructured suc- cessfully so that it could be sold in an asset swap. He then was appointed commercial MD for all refin- ing and petrochemical activities of Veba Oel. After BP took over Veba Oel in 2002 the respective BP activities were added to his responsibilities. In 2005 he was appointed to the main board of directors of Deutsche BP and of BP Europe as CHRO. As of 2007 he was the CHRO Europe for BP. This role saw him successfully lead a variety of optimization and restructuring programs including material changes to the operating model of BP Europe. He was a co-founder of "TalentMetropole Ruhr", a leading regional educational initiative and became a D&I champion. In 2012 he was promoted to CEO of BP Europe and held this role until the end of 2016 when he retired from a full-time operational role. In addition to his business roles, he also represented BP in public bodies and served as the president of the Oil Industry Association. He currently serves as the president of the British Chamber of Commerce in Germany. He is also an active advisor to a variety of non-profit organizations and foundations.
Michael has been married for over 30 years and has two grown-up children. He has been the local chapter president of Deutsche Lebens-Rettungs-Gesellschaft in his hometown Münster. An active supporter of a range of political, business, and societal causes, he's an avid golfer and enjoys reading and travelling.
Job Titles:
- Portfolio of Non - Executive
Pamela Knapp has an international portfolio of non-executive and supervisory board positions in differ-ent European countries (France, The Netherlands, Germany). She serves on audit committees and remuneration and nomination committees of company boards listed in the CAC40, AEX and MDAX. Her board experience covers a wide range of industries from automotive through building materials and distribution to the chemical industry.
Since July 2020 she has been a member of the German Monopolies Commission, an expert commit-tee which advises the German government and legislature in areas of competition policymaking, com-petition law and regulation.
As an accomplished leader with long-time executive responsibilities in fast-paced global business envi-ronments and strong change management expertise, Pamela brings an independent international view and can challenge strategy, processes and performance in a constructive manner. She is particularly interested in the impact of digitalization on business systems, processes, and people. She under-stands the challenges of change management situations and is passionate about mastering them.
Before her non-executive career, Pamela spent almost 25 years in international leadership roles at Siemens and as CFO of GfK SE, a listed German market research group. At Siemens, she started in the Transportation Systems Group and was responsible for Strategic Projects and later for the devel-opment of the Maintenance and Service Business Unit. She continued her career as CFO of Siemens in Belgium/Luxembourg where she drove a major transformation of the business (spin-off of several businesses and factories, SAP introduction, introduction of EVA logic).
From 2000 to 2004 she headed the corporate department for Management Development and Senior Management remuneration, reporting directly to the Siemens CEO. From 2004 to 2008 she served as CFO for the Power Transmission and Distribution Division of Siemens with responsibilities for all CFO related functions as well as purchasing, IT, compliance and the sales offices in Latin America and Western Europe. In this role, she had to master a major anti-trust case and the integration of the transmission and distribution business of VA Tech along with organic revenue growth from 4 bn to 7 bn.
In her role as CFO of GfK SE from 2009 to 2014, she implemented proper governance and controlling processes and an HR and Purchasing organization. Together with the new management board, she undertook a major strategic reorganization, established a performance management system, and guided the change from traditional to digital market research.
Pamela lives in Salzburg, enjoys her life in the middle of culture, mountains and lakes and is passionate about contemporary art, culinary experiences and being together with friends, family, and interesting people. She serves on the steering committee of the German French Chamber of Commerce and is member of the Kuratorium of Paris Lodron University Salzburg (PLUS).
11 years of consulting and leadership experience (e.g. DACH-CHRO of Accenture and CRO/CHRO of CSL Behring). Focus on executive development since 2006, including co-founding an executive development company that is still operating successfully; concurrent work at the Center for Creative Leadership (for 11 years); since 2018 Managing Partner of Bernotat & Cie, the predecessor company of Schwarz & Pfeiffer Executive Advisory Partners.
Uwe Franke has gained very broad international experience during 40 years across several busi- nesses and functions in the oil and chemical industries. Following leadership roles in operations, con- trolling, strategy and planning - both in refining and marketing - in Germany, UK, Belgium, and Portugal, he spent 16 years in leading corporate roles, first as CEO of BP Portugal, followed by CEO of BP Germany and finally CEO of BP Europe SE. He has led major acquisitions, mergers, restructurings, and cultural integrations. Uwe holds a PhD in Chemistry.
Uwe Franke has played a role in many associations and organisations at the interface between business and politics, e.g., Board of the German Industry Association, Board of the German Transport Forum, Board of the Eastern Committee of the German Industry, Steering Committee of the Energy Commission, Advisory Council to the Government, the German-Russian Forum, the German-British Königswinter Conference etc. He founded the Diversity Charter under sponsorship of Chancellor Merkel and was appointed German Ambassador for Diversity.
Uwe has three grown-up children with his wife Haike, from whom he is divorced. He is President of the World Energy Council in Germany, and he is a senior advisor to IFM Investors. Furthermore, he is a non-executive Director of Basalt AG and Brahms Oil Refineries Ltd. Further- more, he is a Boardmember of the Max Planck Institute for Plasmaphysics and of the Forum for Future Energies. He loves golf, skiing, audio books and travelling the world.