Markus Pertl

Visionary and entrepreneur in both the business and the non-profit world

Markus has bought out Stern Stewart & Co. from the founders in 2003 and established the firm in its current form. He is acting managing partner.

Markus is chairman of Stern Stewart Industries and controlling shareholder of Siteco, an industrial company with 160 years of history.

With a desire to connect leaders in business, politics and technology and to inspire controversial ideas, Markus has founded the Stern Stewart Institute.

To create impact beyond the business world, he spearheaded the Institute’s entrepreneurial and educational initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa for more than twenty years, most recently our own university BIT - The Burkina Institute of Technology.

Markus has served 14 years as trustee and independent director of a large family-owned business in the offshore installation business. Markus is a member of the executive advisory board of WORLD.MINDS

Gerhard Nenning

Out-of-the-box strategy advisor and facilitator of organizational change

Gerhard focuses for 20 years on M&A and strategy development, typically followed by organizational transformation. His creative and rigorously independent thinking has impacted strategic decisions in growing as well as contracting businesses.

Often going against the grain, Gerhard has advised large international corporates and mid-sized companies in ambitious growth strategies outside of the client’s initial comfort zone. Conversely, he has helped prevent multi-billion investments which in hindsight would have been crippling. Gerhard is a non-executive director of an entrepreneurial and growing Canadian tech-service company.

Gerhard has co-founded The Stern Stewart Institute and shapes the Institute’s yearly agenda of dialogue with leaders in business, politics, and science.

Stefan Heppelmann

Creative disruptor and re-thinker of organizations in challenging times

Stefan is an independent thinker and senior advisor mainly in transformation/ turnaround situations. Combining deep corporate finance know-how as a CFA charterholder with two decades of consulting experience, he often has the one inspirational idea.

Discussing key themes of the executive agenda, he shows his entrepreneurial spirit with great personal involvement. Stefan’s track record includes big transformations of multinationals as well as sensitive restructurings of multi-billion private held companies.

Stefan is a true entrepreneur outside the office as well, managing his own vineyard in the South of France with heartblood. Moreover he is the chairman of Wend Puiré, the Stern Stewart Institute’s apiculture non-profit organization in Burkina Faso.

Dimitri Belobokov

Deep operations expertise grounded in strong business sense

Dimitri advises clients across a range of manufacturing industries for almost 20 years. Underlying his consulting work is one common theme: Bringing together process know-how and business sense to drive operational excellence at the same time as financial performance.

Dimitri is the one to manage extremely complex, interdisciplinary operational issues within very tight time constraints. The more challenging, the better – some things could have appeared almost impossible until there was a clear way to do it and finally the effect in the client’s P&L or balance sheet.

Apart from his strong academic background, Dimitri is also an accomplished conductor of symphonic orchestras. From being the founder of a trading house in post-communist Moscow, he is a now also a non-executive director of one of the world’s premier commodities traders.

Robert Dominovic

Transforming industries and driving digitalization…

Robert’s work is focused on digital strategy, digital transformation, and developing definition of disruptive business models for international corporations across multiple industries. Besides his digitalization experience, he has a strong track record in transformation and restructuring projects. He focuses on pragmatic solutions and delivering tangible results.

Over the past decade, he has successfully completed a broad range of consulting projects in more than 10 countries. Robert holds a Master’s degree from the Vienna University of Economics and Business. Despite his affinity for all things digital, he prefers listening to vinyl in his free time.

Daniel Fischer

A true turnaround and transformation master

Daniel has years of experience in many kinds of projects, focusing on strategy, turnaround, restructuring, organizational transformation and performance optimization, and has successfully managed M&A deals, including business plans and due diligence.

He knows first-hand what it takes to implement strategies and create value. In one case, he took over as acting managing director of a medium-sized electronics manufacturer and within two years transformed it into a leading solutions provider. This not only led to the first positive results in ten-years’ company history but also to an impressive and sustainable annual growth of over 25%.

In his spare time, Daniel enjoys an adventurous lifestyle: he loves to ski, travel the world and is passionate about cars and road trips.

Moritz Fliescher

A true all-rounder for peak performance

Moritz has a broad background driving change for his clients, including M&A projects, corporate carve-outs, the set-up of new organizational and governance structures, and cost optimization programs. He brings a pragmatic approach that is valued by the whole project team and ensures that real change happens quickly. He contributes a strong, independent opinion to his projects, challenging existing ideas and providing a fresh perspective to achieve a better strategic outcome for clients.

Most recently, he has worked on developing a new structure and governance model to better position an organization for growth and helped to identify and generate synergies in a major acquisition.

Moritz holds degrees from Georgetown University and New York University from the United States and utilizes this experience to bring an international perspective to Stern Stewart. He also is a passionate mountaineer who loves to explore mountain ranges around the world.

Ralph Hesse

A sharp strategist always focusing on the real business impact

Ralph has an impressive track record of over 10 years in our comnpany. And he is a very rare combination: a razor-sharp analytical brain with a truly creative and out-of-the-Box mind.

Being able to put complex things into boxes as well as to think and create value beyond all boxes, Ralph has developed and shaped strategic decisions: a vast range from M&A to corporate finance to operational improvements - you name it. When it comes to large-scale transformations, Ralph focuses on the real business impact, with just the right amount of pragmatism navigating the organizational maze of corporations.

Maybe it comes from his passion for photography - but Ralph truly masters the oxymoron of being focused whilst seeing the big picture!

Ashley Joffe

Transaction facilitator with true (ad)venturousness

Financial expertise meets operational savvy – this is Ashley, our NY based leader with 20+ years of experience in building, restructuring and advising companies on 6 continents. He has an extensive track record of transaction and M&A projects, making him the perfect match for all acquisition, partnering and disposal situations.

Ashley started his career at Stern Stewart as CFO, building on a rock-solid financial background. Today, Ashley is the Director of Stern Stewart Industries, the investment arm of our boutique. And as if that wasn’t enough, he is also CEO of Premier Commission, one of the investment cases of Stern Stewart Capital.

Milan Manduch

Empathic pacemaker for PMOs and passionate organizational optimizer

Boldness meets rationality in Milan, who can by now look back on 15 years of experience of organizational transformation and restructuring. He is a highly valued sparring partner when disruption shakes business – and immediate hands-on support is needed.

His ambition to always find (or better to forge) the best solution proves to be invaluable when it comes to his focus of orchestrating turnarounds or in particular to find and push measures to make organizations leaner, more efficient or even more powerful.
Being a cross-linked thinker and a traveler between cultures he also understands to quickly grasp the custom corporate culture and read characters of individuals.

Marcus Middelmann

Trusted leadership personality for company transformations & personal advisor to board members

Marcus advises leaders of international corporates and especially family owned businesses on holistic company transformations for more than 20 years. For the transformation of a blue chip company he was nominated interim Chief Operating & Transformation Officer and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of subsidiaries.
In his client relationships, Marcus is all about long-term commitment – shaping businesses with visionary moves and implementation excellence – especially in his role as personal advisor to individual board members of recognizable international companies.
Marcus is truly living entrepreneurship: as entrepreneur, non-executive advisor to his family business and founder in the climate-tech industry.
He is also passionately engaged in non-profit activities centered around children in need.

Olaf Paltian

Enthusiast and driver of strategic transformation

Olaf is a passionate strategy and turnaround advisor. Primarily this means to intensively challenge his clients for more than 10 years now when it comes to the core questions of management.

Olaf has thorough experience in M&A transactions including business plan, due diligence and carve-out support. But he is also an expert in organizational transformations and performance optimization programs with sustainable cost reduction over a billion Euro savings. Amongst others, he spent over two years turning around a mid-sized manufacturer, reorganizing the company inside out - finally resulting in the first positive results in ten years’ company history.

And it is not only during his international project work (USA, China and Middle East), that he always finds or makes the time to get to know new countries and cultures –he is a passionate traveller, spending his holidays exploring the world.

Carlo Paoloni

Facilitator of M&A transactions and portfolio strategist

When it comes to deals, Carlo much benefits from his M&A track record across Europe and US. Born and raised in investment banking he is a vivid personality and experienced advisor for transactions and portfolio strategy.

Being a true global citizen of Italian origin, he thrives with excitement in the momentous times when a transaction needs to be closed. Moreover, he is also the senior advisor, when it comes to making the deal work: he is a master in managing large scale PMIs to integrate businesses and realize synergies.

Carlo proves also to be a true entrepreneur in his private life, running a mid-sized winery in his home country.

Dr. Wulf Rendtorff

Legitimate Transformation Ace

Wulf is a real asset in all transaction and transformation challenges. Holding a PhD in Law, he combines sharp business sense with thourough legal expertise.

With 15+ years of managing key growth initiatives, developing portfolio management solutions and optimizing business models, Wulf is the one to talk to before jumping shortsighted into big transformations. He has advised on complex corporate finance solutions and deals including their organizational integration throughout all industries, making him an in-depth expert in M&A transactions and negotiation support worldwide.

As a passionate golfer, Wulf definitely knows that it is all about strategy, mindset and picking the right spot – skills that come in handy in his project work, too.

Sibo Sollors

Turnaround expert with passion for complexity

Sibo loves to embrace the client´s problems as his own – and he has successfully been the keystone in most complex projects for almost 20 years now. Sibo’s clients can be found across all industries – from the technology sector to real estate development, to automotive and mobility industry. Before joining Stern Stewart, he proved his entrepreneurial guts in developing an e-commerce start up.

His interest in next generation business models lately made him manage the modular platform strategy for multi-modal transportation that makes full use of both ground and airspace. Being fascinated by disruptive technologies, he combines visionary ideality with profound strategic methodology. With the head in the skies and the feet firmly rooted on the ground, he is the one to make quantum leaps in organizations and business models reality.

Uta Stratmann

Automotive Excellence and Female Leadership

Uta has accumulated over a decade of experience contributing to various industries, including mobility, technology, services, and notably, the automotive sector. Her expertise lies in optimizing costs across different areas such as R&D, procurement, operations, and SG&A, leading automotive conglomerates to realize their full potential.

In the realm of international transformation initiatives, Uta has played a key role in establishing robust organizational structures during complex restructuring or post-merger integration scenarios. Her analytical acumen, coupled with social intelligence and diplomatic skills, has proven instrumental in successful negotiations with social partners, resulting in the achievement of new nationwide collective agreements.

Uta strongly supports and champions female leadership, actively serving as a role model, emphasizing the importance of diversity and inclusion across various domains. Beyond her professional contributions, Uta holds the position of Chairwoman at the Computer Science Department at the Burkina Institute of Technology. In this role, she plays a pivotal part in shaping the minds of future leaders, instilling values such as innovation, collaboration, and excellence.

Outside of her professional commitments, Uta pursues personal interests such as tennis and running, showcasing a well-rounded and balanced approach to her life.

Johannes Tüxen

Creative and sharp mastermind

Johannes brings in new and bold ideas when it comes to strategy, transformation and NextGen operating models. He is advising clients from concept to implementation covering changing go-to-market situations, multi-business turnarounds as well as re-designing complete organizational structures from top-to-bottom.

His pragmatic and hands-on attitude accelerated the financial return for numerous clients in the financial services, industrial and technology industries. His experience ranges from DAX30-client transitions to developing profitable digital business models or preparing the sale of Private Equity-based companies.

When Johannes is not busy shaping the business world, he enjoys reading, hiking in the nearby mountains or travelling the world with his family.

Konstantin Wrona

Visionary in NextGen Corporations

Konstantin focuses on state-of-the-art organizational operating models, lean group center structures, complexity and bureaucracy reductions, functional excellence and end-to-end process optimization. His most recent work is centered around increasing digitalization and flexibility in large-scale organizations.

He combines a genuine interest in improving businesses with a strictly goal-oriented and hands-on approach. He is a key contributor to Stern Stewart thought leadership – just look at our studies on NextGenCorp, Lead, Lean, Fighting Bureaucracy, Planning 4.0 …

Having managed our Middle East operations for several years, Konstantin has helped a number of national flagship companies through the hyper-booms and deepest depressions. Right now he is also responsible for our recruiting and for getting the best talents into our entrepreneurial boutique.

Konstantin leads our alphabetization initiative in Burkina Faso, which teaches more than 3,000 women and men every year to read, write and do math, allowing them to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities and improve their lives.