Simon Schmidt
Founder / Co-CEO / Independent Contact Consultant
Experience
Feb 2022 - Present
3 years 6 months Mainz, Germany
Founder / Co-CEO / Independent Contact Consultant
Virtwo GmbH
- Founded a boutique consulting firm
- Coached the CEO of a film agency startup on company transformation and scaling the business model
- Interim Head of Controlling for a PE-backed telecom and fiber optics company
- Designed and led a company-wide transformation program for a PE-backed telecom and fiber optics company
Oct 2021 - Jan 2022
4 months Mannheim, Germany
Regional Chief Financial Officer
MBCC Group
- Interim leadership of European finance, controlling, and IT functions with over 200 employees
- Stabilized the organization after a successful carve-out from BASF
Jan 2020 - Feb 2022
1 year 2 months Mannheim, Germany
Group Senior Vice President Commercial Excellence / Managing Director Business Transformation
MBCC Group
- Led the concept phase of the transformation program (PMI, '100 day plan')
- Led M&A projects including due diligence
- Planned, implemented, and led the global Commercial Excellence unit
- Global responsibility for Sales Excellence/CRM (Salesforce), pricing, digitalization, and in-house academy
Feb 2019 - Sep 2020
1 year 8 months Mannheim, Germany
Program Lead Carve-Out
BASF Construction Solutions GmbH
- Full responsibility for the operational carve-out of BASF's European construction chemicals business (including financials, TSAs, and IT separation)
- Led global stand-alone workstreams in the carve-out (including vision, mission, values; change management; functional TOMs; and a new governance model)
- Led and implemented a project to realign corporate management (completely new KPIs, dashboards, and goal-setting processes)
Sep 2017 - Sep 2020
3 years 1 month Mannheim, Germany
Head of Controlling and Projects Europe
BASF Construction Solutions GmbH
- Reported to the Head of European Business Unit (SVP) and part of the European executive management team
- Led 20+ operational controllers in Continental Europe and a central analysis and project management team
- Successfully transformed the controlling unit into an efficient business partner organization (including achieving significant cost savings)
- Implemented several improvement initiatives
- Improved EBITDA by over 50%
Mar 2015 - Aug 2017
2 years 6 months Austria
Head of Controlling and Projects Central Europe
BASF Österreich GmbH
- Implemented the new regional strategy for Central and Eastern Europe
- Led the European strategy workstream for commercial excellence and market development
- Led the controlling department for Central and Eastern Europe (16 countries)
- Transformed the controlling department into a business partner organization, including automated BI dashboards
- Restructured the sub-regional customer service organization into an efficient shared service unit with a new KPI set
Nov 2012 - Feb 2015
2 years 4 months Warsaw, Poland
Head of Project Management and Controlling
BASF Polska Sp. z o.o.
- Full commercial responsibility for a €150m greenfield investment project (automotive catalyst plant)
- Led all functional workstreams to set up a 400 FTE site organization
- Responsible for transforming local functions (including HR, finance, procurement, IT, etc.) to meet requirements after the new site opened
- Led the local controlling unit
Oct 2008 - Oct 2012
4 years 1 month Ludwigshafen, Germany
Various Marketing and Business Development Roles
BASF SE
- Developed a global business unit strategy (Home Care Chemicals)
- Led projects to evaluate strategic options for divisions (investing/harvesting/divesting)
- Managed cross-functional synergy projects
- Scouted new business opportunities
- Planned and led industry initiatives (e.g. trade show booth at furniture fair)
- Organized major customer projects (e.g. key account role for IKEA)
- Mentored a junior team member
- Supported strategy projects
Summary
I’m a very versatile ex-top manager with hands-on experience from a 15-year career at German corporations and a range of successfully implemented projects. My inner drive, passion for people, and urge to optimize, combined with industry and private equity experience, make me an asset for your project!
Languages
German
Native
English
Advanced
Polish
Advanced
Spanish
Advanced
French
Elementary
Education
Oct 2005 - Sep 2008
Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg - Mannheim
Diploma in Business Informatics · Business Information Systems · Mannheim, Germany
Oct 2005 - Sep 2008
The Open University
Bachelor of Arts · Business Administration · London, United Kingdom
Certifications & licenses
Professional SCRUM Master I
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