Thomas Pacal
Leading global organizational change executive / digital transformation & post-merger integration
Experience
Change Manager / Sales Transformation
SEFE
- Organizational change management as part of a company-wide, supranational sales transformation, serving as the core of a comprehensive restructuring of mission-critical areas, under end-to-end control of the change process, ensuring sustainable embedding and future viability of the sales function.
- Initiation and holistic management of the sales transformation program, including in-depth analysis to identify, assess and strategically involve all relevant stakeholders, tactically leveraging their specific operational interests and influence.
- Conducting extended, detailed change impact analyses to forecast the organizational effects of the transformation, derive a tailored change strategy, and develop a change roadmap and change story as the core narrative for campaigning.
- Designing and implementing an integrated communication and action plan to ensure maximum transparency, effectively manage implicit expectations, and steer a change process understandable to all stakeholders.
- Actively managing all phases of the transformation, including establishing robust monitoring mechanisms for continuous progress analysis and forecasting based on recommended and jointly defined KPIs.
- Establishing an agile analysis and adjustment cycle to continuously assess the effectiveness of measures, detect challenges early, and fine-tune the change strategy in a timely manner.
- Conducting precise gap analyses to identify competency gaps in the sales team in the context of the new strategic direction, and deriving and developing targeted qualification strategies (e.g., coaching, training).
- Significantly reducing resistance to change by converting opposing stakeholder mindsets into proactive change ambassadors.
- Deep and sustainable realignment of sales structures and processes, fully aligned with overarching corporate goals.
- Measurable qualitative and quantitative improvement of sales efficiency and performance as a direct result of implemented transformation initiatives and skill-building programs.
Change Manager / Product-Centric Transformation
Arlanxeo, Saudi Aramco Group
- Organizational change management as part of a company-wide transformation initiative focused on restructuring into a product-centric organization (PCO) and simultaneous agile IT transformation (global IT pilot), including designing new ways of working and strengthening leadership capabilities.
- Strategically steering the transformation process towards a product-centric organization within global IT, creating a positive pull effect across the company, breaking silos and cultural boundaries.
- Identifying and analyzing all key stakeholders in IT and interface areas; developing a tailored change roadmap to navigate the change process in a structured way.
- Continuously supporting implementation through progress monitoring and establishing a robust two-way feedback system using pulse-check surveys and one-on-one stakeholder meetings for ongoing evaluation and adaptation.
- Iteratively identifying critical leadership skill gaps (e.g., prioritization, ownership, psychological safety, decision inertia) through one-on-one analyses, executive jour fixes, and town halls.
- Designing and facilitating leadership offsite workshops to strengthen reprioritization skills, cultivate an ownership mindset, and clarify responsibilities.
- Conducting executive leadership coaching sessions to foster psychological safety and build trust at the top two leadership levels.
- Ensuring continuous communication and genuine alignment throughout the process to promote transparency, acceptance, and maintain change momentum.
- Increasing leadership effectiveness by 68% through improved prioritization skills and the establishment of a clear accountability culture in global IT.
- Qualitatively improving the organizational climate by 39% and increasing psychological safety at the leadership level with top-down role modeling as well as a more open communication and feedback culture.
- Successfully embedding the transformation effects in global IT as a company-wide blueprint.
Change Manager / Digital Transformation
Mann+Hummel
- Organizational change management for a strategic flagship digitization initiative to achieve end-to-end transformation of the company-wide PLM system, building a multi-scenario-forecasting-capable digital twin of all processes (design-to-cost approach with VR/AR support for product developers).
- Comprehensive stakeholder management at the executive level with step-by-step building of a dedicated change agent network to generate maximum leadership commitment.
- Planning and executing change communication campaigns and strategic internal communications management to ensure high acceptance before, during, and after go-live; measuring change adoption and delivering regular interactive presentations to the executive board.
- Guiding agile change management for the parallel agile transformation of the entire company, including initially transformation-resistant manufacturing sites worldwide.
- Developing the change strategy and crafting the change story as the centerpiece of the interdisciplinary communication strategy.
- Designing, preparing, and facilitating leadership change workshops in the form of a change roadshow to educate on the digitization program, changes, and new ways of working at both leadership and operational levels in all affected sites.
- Implementing comprehensive training, communication, and engagement measures focused on operational execution and KPI-based success measurement.
- Achieving a 100% acceptance rate through numerous personalized one-on-one stakeholder engagement meetings.
- Sustaining the new target operating model while improving internal communication and overcoming existing silos, especially in the plants.
- Building an agile mindset and a community-oriented, cross-silo work environment to avoid new silo creation.
Change Manager / Digital Transformation & Scale-Up
RTBE
- Agile transformation of globally distributed business units along with digital transformation of the core business model for frictionless scaling across three continents and establishing a new target operating model while maintaining operations.
- Full digitalization of the core business model by building a digital twin of the entire process landscape, facilities, and building technology, including designing, setting up, and deploying an IoT for sensor data generation as a proof of concept for an MVP that became the flagship product (AR headset support for early corrective actions and predictive scenarios).
- Preparing global expansion (EU → US → APAC) with rapid scaling to about 700% of company size; ensuring controlled, healthy growth despite pandemic-related staff shortages and resistance to change, including securing strategic, administrative, regulatory, and operational aspects.
- Agile transformation of all business units based on DevOps to harmonize heterogeneous development processes and bridge existing silos and cultural divides, especially between physicists, technicians, and software engineers.
- Sustainable establishment of the new target operating model with significantly improved internal communication after overcoming manifest silos.
- Significant increase in EBITDA despite early scaling phase and high expansion costs.
- Creating an agile, efficiency-driven sense of community and mindset as a critical success factor.
Change Manager / Digital Transformation
WRW
- Operational setup of a digital office as the central control platform for all digitization projects in the corporate group, and consolidation of continental market leadership by introducing a Scrum-based digital innovation hub.
- Defining a comprehensive, clear, and unambiguous digital governance affecting decision-making authority, processes, and procurement transparency (e.g., in PPPs), based on analysis of digital maturity, overlapping competencies, process flow delays, and digital bottlenecks at interfaces with municipal network partners.
- Setting up the digital office on a personnel, physical, educational, and organizational level including recruiting, team composition, role distribution, infrastructure, workshops on change, innovation, Scrum, crisis communication and de-escalation, embedding at the executive level, and creating a digital roadmap.
- Introducing a digital innovation hub to generate, execute, and manage disruptive innovation initiatives, for example by greatly reducing disposition and administrative effort through automated interaction with nearshoring partners via a digital contractor platform.
- Integrating mission-critical legacy systems together with group IT, including reviewing non-functional components and planning and managing suitable interfaces to support a market designed for private sector conditions.
- Designing and implementing 27 projects and subprojects in preparation for the turnkey handover to the CDO, ensuring up to nine months of leaderless self-maintenance of the digital office to minimize PR risks.
- Massively reducing project lead times to a fraction of the original values, with corresponding savings at the municipal level.
- Establishing the digital office, and especially the innovation hub, as the central innovation driver and point of contact for digitization matters.
- Setting up the digital office in a fail-safe way by creating buffers to require no immediate leadership in case of CDO absence.
Change Manager / Digital Transformation
Esperta
- Strategic realignment to improve the competitiveness of an outdated business model through deep operational changes, organizational development, and project management for system integration and upgrade of core applications and technology platforms (Secure Translation Brokerage Platform).
- Conducting comprehensive fundamental analyses of the organizational structure, workflows, standards, critical processes, strategic partnerships (triage of a globally distributed, heterogeneous network of experts), internal and external communication, go-to-market strategy, diversification efforts, competitive environment, market regulations, industry-specific standards, sourcing aspects, and legacy systems in use.
- Designing and implementing business process re-engineering measures, including repositioning from a translation service provider to a full-service translation agency with a focus on project management for more efficient use of onshore resources.
- Building a strategic competitive advantage by introducing disruptive innovations, especially by radically reducing effort through efficient use of the global offshore contractor network across all time zones.
- Conducting a thorough technology analysis, redesign, and implementation of the entire ICT area with a multi-stage, incremental, cross-platform migration of the legacy enterprise software environment using agile methods (Scrum, Kanban).
- System integration and upgrade of all operating systems for internal ICT components (notebooks, servers, backup systems, external data storage, cloud storage integration, audio and video conferencing systems, mobile devices) while maintaining ongoing operations.
- Significantly reducing internal process complexity and shortening go-to-market intervals.
- Decreasing qualitative and organizational heterogeneity to prevent further critical HR situations.
- Reducing project cycle times by approximately 80%.
Founder; Change Manager
Embrace
- Establishing a small, effective, highly flexible, globally operating consulting firm specializing in change management.
- Focusing on digital transformation, strategic change management, innovation management, as well as crisis prevention, intervention, and business stabilization.
- Developing and executing projects in the core areas of business transformation, innovation think tanks, and business transfer.
Change Manager; Senior Project- & Program Manager
Global Blue
- Crisis intervention, stabilization, and coordination of a large, intercontinentally distributed expert team, as well as project and program management, system integration, and upgrade of the core big data applications and technology platforms (Tax-Free Shopping Processing & Real-Time Currency Conversion).
- Immediate triage and intervention in a repeatedly failed, historically grown project closely tied to the core business, involving multiple onshore, nearshore, and offshore teams totaling around 2,000 experts.
- Restabilization of massive turnover effects caused by leadership weaknesses and psychological attachment complications, and uniting fragmented teams to restore fast, efficient decision-making processes.
- Integration of legacy systems and data warehouse-capable preparation of data from end-of-life-cycle systems, along with substitution and homogenization of divergent technology stacks (e.g., Microsoft .NET and IBM BPM).
- Defining an approach for seamless integration of the newly created IBM BPM–based processes into the organization and continuous progress reporting at the executive board level.
- Program management in a highly dynamic, hybrid development environment (Scrum, Kanban, Waterfall) with constantly changing business requirements and serving as a bridge between business units and IT.
- Mediating between team leads, eliminating toxic behaviors, dismantling bullying structures, and reducing silo thinking to restore interdisciplinary collaboration vertically, horizontally, and intercontinentally.
- Full responsibility for designing and sustainably implementing a change management program while meeting cost, time, and quality requirements.
Senior Consultant
IBM
- Project management, business analysis, presales, and use-case design in the big data domain, specializing in data warehousing, business intelligence, content analytics, and business process re-engineering.
- Multi-project management for an average of 17 clients from industries such as banking/finance, oil & gas/energy, transportation & logistics/forwarding, and electronic engineering across all project phases from initiation to rollout and stabilization, serving as a bridge between business units and IT.
- Leading a ten-member development team, coaching and mentoring a junior project manager, and managing external implementation partners.
- Acting as senior business analyst and technical DWH/BI solution architect for Raiffeisen Bank International, including analysis, re-engineering, transformation, integration, and migration of the cDWH-based core banking system to an eDWH-based overall solution, as well as designing a master test plan for all banking divisions.
- Executing a digital transformation project for a leading European machinery manufacturer (automotive, robotics) by introducing real-time streaming sensor data analysis via a big data–ready DWH and predictive analytics for machine failure forecasting and plant monitoring, including AR-based mobile monitoring.
- Analyzing, planning, and implementing management dashboards/cockpits in IBM Cognos to simplify the presentation of complex relationships, trends, and patterns in heterogeneous information architectures.
- Providing presales support through use-case design, including analysis of existing business processes of potential clients and on-site presentation of specific BI solutions.
- Additional specialization in BI areas such as customer insight, market analytics, supply chain, and human resources.
Change Manager; Council Consultant
Gerson Lehrman Group
- Conducting numerous consulting projects in the areas of contactless/wireless/mobile payments, mobile banking, AML, KYC, and CRM with, for, and on behalf of companies in strategy, packaging, and investment banking.
- Advising strategy firms such as Bain & Company, Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey, and Ernst & Young.
- Supporting packaging companies such as MeadWestvaco.
- Advising investment banks and financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs, MFC Global Investment Management, Fir Tree Partners, and La Financière de l'Echiquier.
Head of Treasury BackOffice
DenizBank Financial Services, Dexia Group
- Restructuring of the entire Treasury BackOffice, including the securities settlement, foreign payments and domestic payments departments.
- Planning and running treasury trading tests, usability reviews and expert assessments as the final step before the full migration from the AS/400-based core banking system to a new Windows-based system.
- Self-initiated analysis, design, planning and execution of the integration of separately run banking applications (SWIFT, SEPA, Reuters, Bloomberg, Svenson etc.) into the core banking system.
- Creation of a multi-part, fully illustrated manual for setting up and running Treasury and Treasury BackOffice, including special cases, worst-case scenarios and troubleshooting, specifically for quick onboarding of newcomers.
Strategic Consultant
Petroleum, Oil and Gas Corporation of South Africa
- Implementation of a risk management system for the company.
- Conducting intensive, multi-stage training for all employees in the trading department and the supply & logistics department on the new risk management approach.
- Creation of a manual on functionality, use cases, special variants and edge cases in commodity trading and supply & logistics, including troubleshooting.
Strategic Consultant
HPCL - Hindustan Petroleum Corporation
- Implementation of a risk management system for the company.
- Conducting intensive, multi-stage training for all employees in the trading department and the refineries department.
- Creation of a manual on the functionality, special variants and edge cases of commodity trading in the refinery environment, including troubleshooting.
Strategic Consultant
Essar Oil Ltd, Hutchison Group
- Co-implementation of a risk management system for oil and gas activities.
- Extensive training of the risk management team on hedging strategies to protect against cargo or freight losses on large oil tankers and offshore oil and gas platforms in the Indian Ocean.
- Creation of a manual on functionality, possibilities, special variants and edge cases of risk management, including troubleshooting.
Change Manager
Galenika Fitofarmacija Serbia
- Introduction of extensive organizational development initiatives after reviewing all areas of the company, using greenfield and blue ocean approaches to transform into an international player without internal friction.
- Company-wide establishment of innovation teams (internal micro think-tanks), including process support with selected internal experts, mid-level managers and plant staff; goal: rebranding as the innovation leader in the SEE region rather than low-cost differentiator.
- Restructuring, forming, coaching, mentoring and training the sales executive team, including the General Sales Director and 14 regional sales directors, to improve negotiation outcomes with international, mainly Western European, business partners.
- Designing, planning and conducting a multi-part intercultural training for the entire executive team to secure competitive market advantages against international competitors.
- Introduction of an open, less restrictive, less patriarchal communication culture to promote internal knowledge transfer based on partnership and mutual trust building in top management (inspired by Nash Equilibrium).
Online & Wireless Marketing Manager
Universal Communication Platform Group
- Transformed all market communication into a permission-marketing based communication landscape, including introducing a multiple opt-in for electronic newsletters and mobile versions.
- Built a highly granular customer master data segmentation, enabling targeted direct marketing based on customer preferences instead of mass communication.
- Achieved high click-through rates and outstanding ROIs for clients by using enriched existing data after cleaning up communication processes.
Project Manager Digital Transformation
Zurich Insurance Group
- Held sole responsibility for digitizing all internal and external forms across the group.
- Completely eliminated the previously costly manual data entry.
- Enabled automatic transfer of form data into internal ERP systems.
Senior Product Marketing Manager
Goldbach Media Group
- Introduced permission marketing in a context where spam was still a common way to increase reach.
- Prepared for the merger with Goldbach Media, including marketing strategy and product-related groundwork.
Co-Founder; Head of Sales & Media Planning
Buongiorno Digital
- Co-founded the first company branch outside Italy.
- Planned and prepared the expansion into other European countries with strong interest in newsletter marketing.
- Executed the corporate roll-out in the UK, Switzerland, Austria, and Germany.
- Assessed the US market in preparation for the later merger with Vitaminic into Buongiorno Vitaminic (USA).
Project Manager Custody & Reconciliation/Treasury
Raiffeisen Service Center
- Developed and implemented a fast, precise, software-based automated method for securities account reconciliation.
- Enhanced efficiency and accuracy in the custody and reconciliation functions of the treasury.
Project Manager; Trade Fair Coordinator
Wiener Messen & Kongresszentrum
- Concept, planning and execution of a multi-day music trade show that attracted 26,000 paying visitors despite a limited advertising budget and tight deadlines.
- Repositioned and reactivated the heavily strained IFABO, the largest IT trade fair in Austria at the time, which was threatened by competition.
Project Manager; Smart Grid Process Manager
One / Hutchison
- Conducted comprehensive analysis of internal processes, focusing on network optimization and integrative migration, as well as homogenizing decentralized existing data into a central database.
- Digitized and formatted all planning data from legacy systems to visualize network architecture and topology for all of Austria using Microsoft Visio.
- Designed a smart grid, considering regional regulatory requirements, by optimizing base transceiver station positioning and required transmission power.
- Supported the first experimental prototype UMTS tests in Austria (laboratory/indoor) as a basis for licensing decisions and grid upgrades.
Marketing Manager / IoT
Evtacon Limited
- Solely responsible for analyzing, planning, developing, and implementing the market communication strategy for the EU and US markets to promote sales of a modular microprocessor (Universal Emulator) as a precursor to an IoT solution.
- Programmed the company's first website, establishing Evtacon as one of the first microelectronics companies with an online presence.
- Developed a unified corporate identity and design, consistently applied across print materials, website, press releases, giveaways, and trade show booths.
Jr Project Manager / Telemarketing Coordinator
BP
- Introduced the Routex Billing & Fleet Management System to the Austrian B2B market.
- Expanded the telemarketing team by 250% to support the product launch.
- Reduced target costs to 33% by redefining and consolidating the target audience (fleet and truck operators, transport and logistics, later SMEs via industry associations).
Industries Experience
See where this freelancer has spent most of their professional time. Longer bars indicate deeper hands-on experience, while shorter ones reflect targeted or project-based work.
Experienced in Professional Services (16 years), Information Technology (10 years), Banking and Finance (10 years), Manufacturing (6 years), Energy (5 years), and Transportation (3 years).
Business Areas Experience
The graph below provides a cumulative view of the freelancer's experience across multiple business areas, calculated from completed and active engagements. It highlights the areas where the freelancer has most frequently contributed to planning, execution, and delivery of business outcomes.
Experienced in Strategy (21 years), Information Technology (21 years), Product Development (14 years), Project Management (13.5 years), Marketing (11 years), and Operations (8 years).
Summary
Thomas Pacal is an experienced change manager specializing in digital transformation, strategic change management, innovation management and crisis prevention, intervention, as well as corporate restabilization. With over 20 years of relevant professional experience in this field, he founded EMBRACE in 2014 - a small, effective, highly flexible global consultancy specializing in change management. Core business areas: business transformation, innovation think tanks, and business transfer.
VIDEO INTRO: youtube.com/watch?v=roCSEs-cZxk
Skills
Erp, Bpm/bpre, Pm, Bi, Dwh, Iot
- Epicor Iscala
- Sap Business Objects / Crystal Reports
- Microstrategy Analytics
- Ibm Cognos, Infosphere, Websphere
- Planview Enterprise One, Innotas, Projectplace, Leankit
- Microsoft Project, Crm, Sharepoint, Power Bi
- Atlassian Jira, Confluence
- Workday
- Aris
- Adonis
- Agile Methodologies: Scrum, Kanban, Devops, Dad (Disciplined Agile Delivery)
Financial
- Reuters
- Bloomberg
- Swift Alliance Server, Workstation, Web Platform Se
- Geos
- Internext
- Svenson
- Aml / Kyc / Crm Applications
Productivity
- Ms Office 365 (Word, Powerpoint, Excel, Outlook)
- Openoffice (Writer, Impress, Calc, Base, Etc.)
- Adobe Cc (Photoshop, Premiere, Indesign, After Effects, Audition)
- Conferencing: Cisco Webex, Zoom Video Communications, Google Meet, Ms Teams, Skype
- At&t Mobile Network Ops Suite
- Autocad
Coding / Languages
- Html5
- Xml
- Json
- Xhtml (Shtml/mhtml/dhtml Etc.)
- Wml
- Asp
- Css
- Cl For Ibm As/400
- Sql
- Sgml
Systems & Cloud Services
- Microsoft Windows 11, Microsoft Azure
- Apple Macos
- Unix, Linux, Aix, Solaris, Hp-ux
- Google Android, Google Cloud Platform
- Ibm Os/400
Languages
Education
Hult Business School
MBA
Open University Business School
BSc, focus on Change Management
Certifications & licenses
ICF-accredited Diploma in Systemic Coaching
ISO/IEC 17024 Certification
Harvard University
ISO/PRF 20700 Certification
Profile
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