Structure

Born and raised in Siegen, Germany, I left my hometown after graduation from school for an internship (2004) in the San Francisco Bay Area. Working for T-System Nova North America Inc. in San Mateo as a junior consultant gave me first hand experiences in the field of innovation engineering and trend-anlaysis. Even though I would have loved to stay longer in the Golden State, back in Germany my brother awaited me in autumn 2004 to start out student life in Leipzig. After a short excursion in the field of Information Technolgies, I decided to proceed my life as an intern (2005). This time I was caught by the vibe of Madrid. Backpacked with basic knowledge of Spanish and new working experiences in the field of internet related business from Ya.com (Internet Service Provider), I took another run to the University of Leipzig in autumn 2005 and startet my academic study of Japanese Studies and Linguistics. At the beginning of 2010 the writing of my thesis (The political, economic and social role of entrepreneurship in Japan) guided me to Tokyo. Beside conducting field studies, I substantiated the framework of my thesis during the two and a half month stay. After the return from Tokyo I completed my thesis and  filed it to the registrar's office in July 2010. During the last two semesters I spent a great potion of time on the preparation for the final exam in Japanese Studies and Linguistics. Mission accomplished: Graduated spring 2012.

Strategy

Related to the academic studies, my fields of interest are twofold. On the one hand, I would like to acquire a deeper understanding of dynamics of the japanese economic environment. In how far is the current static structure of the economy aiming for a more flexible system and global mindset to retain leading edge position in the industries of the future? Based on the findings of my thesis, entrepreneurs turned out to be once again crucial and relevant for a paradigm shift. Extrapolating from recent findings in the Kyōto and Tōkyō areas, it will be as well of interest to track the mutual understanding of formerly leading eadge Tech Companies and Tech-Startups respectively. Gearing up of political independent get-togethers on an equal  footing, might strengthen industry and enable overall economic upsurge. 

On the other hand my linguistic background is pushing my interest to the fields of neurolinguistic. The driving force is the idea to develop an autonomous computer system, which is able to communicate at eye level with humans in various real life scenarios. By reverse engineering the system of the human speech, one might expect helpful support for this endeavour. In general this project would encompass multiple disciplines. Even though I am at present not personally engaged in a project I let my mind wander. Some recent interesting approaches are the sematic-search engine of Wolfram (Wolfram Alpha) and project NELL (Never Ending Language Learner) from Carnegie Mellon University. 

Apart from my academic study, finance is another field of interest for me - therein the two areas investment and personal finance. Both should have the same underlying pursuit of „sound investment“ for achieving decent results, in short securing fundamental, sustainable growth. The 2008 investment crisis points to the gap between customer‘s and financial adviser‘s driving force. In addition securities have been excessively misused. Therefore from my point of view in order to reverse current imbalances, simple and effective long term investment strategies, represented and pursued by Benjamin Graham, Jack Bogle and Warren Buffet, should be taken, once again, into account. Thereby on the one hand financial advisors would act again as a trustee and execute their fiduciary duty. On the other hand investors would buy and hold company‘s securities because of their thorough analysis and believe in the business and not solely due to analyst‘s expectations. As time allows, I am working through the renown Book „Security Analysis“ by Benjamin Graham et al. in order to deepen my understanding, in general, and to get to the core of value investment.

Finally I have always held and still hold interest in the Information Technology Sector. Beside my two internships in the Telecommunication Industry, I have constantly educated myself about Tech Industry‘s drive. In addition the writing of my thesis let me return to the great vanguards of the Tech Community. In the course of entrepreneurship it turned out to be quiet appealing getting a deeper understanding about business start-up processes, start-up enviroment and management principles. Due to my personal interest I mainly focus, geographically, on the US and Japan.

Luck

In 2012 I graduated from University and the excitement about career planning was huge. Those rare moments in life, when approaching a fundamental crossroad, require simple but sophisticated thinking. Where do I come from, where am I, where do I want to go? Holding a Magister Artium (comparable to Master`s Degree) is both a blessing and a curse. Having an academic degree in humanities/social science does not obviously qualify for a job in the economy, but the more liberal structure of my study, compared to the „mass production of bachelors“, might contain more Gold than expected. It is my believe, that the most direct and obvious road is not always the best one. Therefore my job will always be to make business guys „think different“.

In 2013 I started working at Spreadshirt AG as Assistant to Business Development Manager in the B2B sales unit. It was a strategic move, positioning myself as a valuable source for the unit. It paid off after 4 month with the advancement to the position of Project Manager. Swiftly taking on the duties and responsibilites with the underlying drive to setup/optimize processes, helped me to continously streghten my position.

In 2015, backed by a good track record of successfully managed partner projects, I got promoted to Senior Project Manager. From there on, the focus shifted towards large cooperation partner projects including API integrations and other special integrations (e.g. Spreadshirt's shopify plugin), giving me the option of focusing on more tech-heavy subjects.

Since 2016, I became part of Spreadshirt's latest spinoff, called PixelCotton. It is a highly valueable experience due to the applied lean startup approach and AGILE methodology.  Within the team I hold the Senior Project Manager position.

In 2017, yet another opportunity popped up within Spreadshirt. I‘ve joined TeamShirts, a young thriving Business Unit, dedicated at catering easy to use online tools for groups to order customized team gear. Initially I took on the lead as Business Developer  , before taking over as Product Owner. 

Since my early childhood I started growing a global mindset, therefore location is a byproduct, whereas interesting, challenging projects are in the driver‘s seat...

"Stay hungry, stay foolish" (WEC),

TO