About

While working through his entire legal education in law firms, Christian decided to start his career in-house after graduating with his LLM in International IP laws: ‘I would rather have only one client which I know inside out, for the good and the bad’. This attitude, combined with a curiosity for other corporate functions and their needs and interests, accompanied Christian throughout his entire career, and his positive experiences led to the decision to engage in his Executive MBA studies—this combination of a fully-fledged lawyer and a business person with an in-depth understanding of management and leadership.

Christian wrote his master thesis on ‘Strategic Contributions of the Legal Department to Corporate Success’, reflecting – amongst others — on the maturity of the legal departments, the organisational design and support of the organisations, the level of involvement in strategic decisions and education and experience as critical skills. In his business life, he tries to pass on his experiences – wins and failures – to his team members and invests passionately in growing this team.

The investment in himself and this team and his attitude of acting as a servant leader allowed Christian to pursue a great career in various businesses and roles.

When asked about advising younger in-house counsel, Christian responded: You may only be a small cog in the corporate machine – but you are an important one. Act as a part without which the engine would stop running smoothly, but also explain why this cog is so vital: Not only do we take care of legal risks, but we are also there to support the executive management and the organisation with the confidence to ‘do the right thing’. That must not be the legally best solution but also consider other non-legal aspects, such as ethics, compliance and – increasingly – ESG-related matters.