About me
As founder and managing director of Consolvi, I bring with me over 28 years of professional experience – including 16 years in the management of non-profit organizations and 12 years in international consulting firms.
And this is my story...
My story
If someone had told me 30 years ago that I would one day help give a billion people access to eyeglasses or create the world's most innovative Wikipedia project, I probably would have stared in disbelief. Today, after a journey through international corporate consulting, the nonprofit sector, and back to entrepreneurial independence, I know: The most exciting projects arise where strategic thinking combines with the desire to make the world a better place.
From historian to consultant
I actually wanted to become a historian. After completing my master's degree in Freiburg and Ottawa, I even began a doctoral thesis on the extra-parliamentary opposition of the 1960s. But then life got in the way—or rather, my fascination with complex systems and the question of how to change them for the better.
I spent my first twelve years of professional life in international consulting, from Frankfurt to Melbourne to London. At IBM, I led teams of 30 consultants on what was then the world's largest SAP risk management implementation. This time taught me two things: first, how to maintain a clear overview even in the most complex situations, and second, that you have a talent for mediating and translating between disparate groups of people.
Wikimedia and the power of the nonprofit
In 2009, I took the leap into a completely different world: I became Managing Director of Wikimedia Germany. What began as a small organization with four employees and a budget of €400,000 developed into one of the most exciting challenges of my life. Six years later, we were 75 people with a budget of €12 million – and along the way, we had created Wikidata, today the most innovative and fastest-growing Wikimedia project in the world.
But the most important realization was something else: The nonprofit sector isn't just about efficiency and profit, it's about impact. Every euro we raised, every structure we built, every strategy we developed had a clear goal: to make free knowledge accessible to everyone. This clarity of purpose fundamentally changed the way I work.
From local to global
When Rufus Pollock, the founder of Open Knowledge International, asked me in 2015 if I would take over responsibility for his organization, I didn't hesitate for a second. Here was an opportunity to think and act globally. The challenge was considerable: to stabilize, focus, and strategically realign an international organization with 35 employees.
What followed were intensive years of learning about cultural differences, global partnerships, and the art of leading remote teams. When we raised $1.2 million from the Hewlett Foundation and $1.5 million from the Omidyar Network, I knew: International collaboration works when you create the right structures and people share a common vision.
Germany and the digital transformation
In 2018, I returned to Germany with a backpack full of international experience and the task of supporting 4,400 German foundations in their digital transformation. At the Association of German Foundations, I developed strategies that demonstrated that even traditional organizations can transform successfully if they are properly supported and supported.
The "stiftung.digital" program and the "Digital Pioneers" were created during this time – projects that still have an impact today and demonstrate how sustainable transformation can be achieved.
Let a billion people see
Then, in 2021, a request immediately electrified me: Would I build a global coalition to give 1 billion people access to glasses? I hadn't been aware of the problem until then, but the scale was overwhelming: 1 billion people can't see properly because they don't have access to glasses. This severely limits their education, social participation, and economic success.
I found building the Coalition for Clear Vision particularly fulfilling: creating a global alliance of 21 nonprofit and for-profit organizations and companies to address this problem. Together with the Steering Committee, I developed an evidence-based strategy that identified systemic barriers and empowered members to address them in their respective countries of operation. Through intensive committee work and continuous communication with all stakeholders, I was able to secure the ongoing support of all member organizations. It was particularly important to me to design an organizational structure that was consistently focused on representing the people we wanted to serve.
When I successfully integrated the Coalition 2023 into WHO, it was one of the proudest moments of my career.
Consolvi and wikiSherpa
All of these experiences now flow into my own consulting work. With Consolvi, I do what I do best: help organizations realize their full potential. Not with ready-made solutions, but as a true thought partner who works with clients to develop the answers that already lie dormant within every organization.
With wikiSherpa, I also offer something unique: strategic Wikipedia consulting from someone who knows the system inside and how to work with it successfully and in compliance with the rules.
You can find out more about wikiSherpa at wikisherpa.de