Get to know our Sounding Board
In dialogue with our experts, we open up new insights and application-oriented perspectives for you: from quick wins for new ideas to sustainable impulses and business models, everything is possible.
Here, you will find the right expert to help you move forward:
Julia Arbery has more than 15 years of experience in internal management consulting and has worked on high–profile US compliance monitoring and cross-border compliance assessments. You will benefit from Julia’s extensive expertise in conducting risk assessments, testing compliance controls, and assisting clients in remediating systemic compliance failures.
Julia holds a Master of Laws in Industrial and Commercial Law from the University of the West of England in Bristol.
Compliance:
Sparring setting up a compliance management system
Sparring US compliance monitoring
Katrin Böhme is a passionate brand expert and has been combining in-depth experience in building and managing brands with the latest findings from behavioural research and neuroscience for over 25 years.
She learnt the craft of brand management in traditional German manufactories and was involved in the successful transformation of a state-owned company (made up of multiple brands nationalised into one company) into a luxury watch brand during the period of reunification. Today, she is the owner of a brand consultancy for SMEs and knows the challenges of change, especially for technology and B2B brands.
Pro bono, Katrin Böhme heads the Competence Circle Brand Management at DMV and communicates the power of the brand as a speaker, at panel discussions, and as an author under the motto “Branding for the Better”. As a mentor in the FutureSAX network, she also looks after the next generation of entrepreneurs on their way to becoming successful brands.
Sustainability:
- Stakeholder analysis
- Brand communication
Personal Branding:
- Positioning
- Implementation
- Support
Gabriele Bornemann began her professional career in the banking sector, where she was most recently responsible for corporate restructuring for 10 years.
When she moved to industry, Gabriele Bornemann also headed the Investor Relations, Mergers & Acquisitions, and Strategic Planning departments of an SDAX-listed holding company. In this role, she also set up their international risk management and compliance management system.
In addition to her operational duties, Gabriele Bornemann also managed the Supervisory Board office. Based on this experience, she is a member of the Supervisory Board Office Specialist Committee at AdAR.
In 2016, she took the step into self-employment with the founding of Management Alliance. Gabriele Bornemann is also active in her own consultancy practice in the areas of risk management, M&A, and ESG.
Governance:
- Sparring: Organisation of supervisory board work / DCGK
- Sparring: Development of the supervisory board office
ESG:
- Sparring: Project planning CSRD
Risk Management:
- Sparring: Success factors: Risk management
Dr. Sabine Dembkowski is a trusted advisor to the top boards of FTSE and DAX companies, global organisations and private equity and service companies. She has carried out extensive research into the effectiveness of executive boards, supervisory boards, and management boards, had the results independently peer-reviewed, and then published internationally.
Born in Kassel, Dr. Dembkowski holds a doctorate in business administration and has founded two successful companies: The Coaching Centre and Better Boards. She has also trained as an executive coach and is certified for a variety of psychometric tests.
Governance:
- Digital platform for efficiency testing
Maike Kielhorn has many years of international management experience in various contexts. Her expertise ranges from large SMEs and DAX-listed companies to the private equity environment, where she has driven forward the standardisation and digitalisation of processes in (group) accounting as well as the reorganisation and development of teams, including in shared services.
As a freelancer, Maike Kielhorn advises supervisory boards and companies, e.g. on the introduction of financial management and consolidated financial statement software for efficient and meaningful reporting, as well as on cross-departmental restructuring and optimisation in commercial contexts. She also works as a speaker, explaining complex accounting and organisational issues (HGB and IFRS) in a clear and concise manner.
Finance Management:
- Internal and external accounting (accounting & controlling)
- Consolidated financial statements
- Optimisation and digitalisation of end-to-end processes
Reporting and auditing:
- Financial reporting
- KPIs and dashboard
- Organisation of (consolidated) financial statements, including auditing
Dr. Kathrin J. Niewiarra is a lawyer and attorney-at-law (NY). After working as a lawyer in the US and Germany and 13 years of top management and committee functions in corporations, she has been pursuing her business idea of holistic corporate compliance consulting with an interdisciplinary approach under her brand bleu&orange® since September 2012, including 9 years as an ombudswoman.
Dr Kathrin J. Niewiarra is also the co-founder of and a partner at ESG Powerhouse, a consulting firm specialising in practice-oriented consulting approaches to the issue of sustainability.
Compliance
- Sparring: Success factors: Compliance
- Sparring: Success factors: Compliance
- Sparring: Setting up a compliance management system
- Sparring: Whistleblower system
Manager liability*:
- Sparring / Training Manager liability
*No legal advice
Diederik Sutorius is a managing partner at Sutorius Insurance Consultancy GmbH and advises international investors in their search for suitable investments in the insurance industry as well as managers and supervisory boards on all aspects of manager liability and risk minimisation.
Diederik Sutorius, a lawyer (LLM/Leiden, Netherlands) and business mediator (CVM), began his professional career in 1996 at the Dutch Bloemers Nassau Group, which provided insurance coverage and other services as Managing General Agent (MGA) in the name of and for the account of several insurers. In 1996, it was partly thanks to his initiative that the D&O specialist VOV GmbH was founded in Cologne as a new MGA for various insurance companies. He continued to successfully develop the company as Managing Director until 2020.
D&O-Insurance:
- Sparring: Structural components of D&O
Manager liability*:
- Sparring/training manager liability
*No legal advice
Janet Winkler is Managing Director of FAE Consulting GmbH. Supporting and implementing complex projects in the areas of finance, accounting, and ICS has always been part of her professional career. She has a degree in business administration and is also both a qualified tax clerk and a certified business mediator.
At Accenture and Protiviti GmbH, she gained extensive experience in the areas of finance optimisation, transformation, and controlling. She has supported several local and international acquisitions with a focus on SAP FI/CO conversion.
As a consultant and interim manager, she has in-depth knowledge of the optimisation and restructuring of accounting processes (accounts payable, accounts receivable, finance, FSSC) and is very familiar with national and international accounting standards.
HGB-Accounting*:
- Sparring: Structure of the HGB balance sheet
- Training on the basics of HGB accounting
*No auditing or tax consultancy
Internal control systems (ICS):
- Sparring/training on the structure of the ICS