Stefan specializes in providing hands-on operational consulting to clients in particular in the automotive, assembly, and high-tech industries. With more than 13 years of global business experience, he has particular expertise in all areas of efficiency improvement (e.g., overhead, manufacturing) and cost management, as well as in product development, purchasing, and supply chain management.

Prior to joining AlixPartners, Stefan was most recently an Associate Principal with McKinsey & Co. in Hamburg, Cleveland, and Detroit, where he co-led its Automotive & Assembly practice as well as its Operations Effectiveness practice (including purchasing, supply chain, manufacturing, and product development). Prior to that, he worked with DaimlerChrysler.

Some examples of Stefan’s recent experience include:

• Automotive and assembly industry
• Serving a major automotive OEM in cross-Atlantic product launch of two new vehicle lines, improving overall cost position (overhead, purchasing, product design, supply chain, manufacturing) as well as product quality and maturity
• Developing a manufacturing strategy for a major automotive OEM, resulting in an optimized mfg/sourcing footprint
• Supporting a leading tier-1 supplier in a holistic turnaround and restructuring program (overhead, purchasing, working capital)
• Serving a leading tier-1 supplier in manufacturing footprint optimization and shop-floor optimization
• Integrated cost reduction effort (purchasing, product design, supply chain) for two vehicle programs in North America
• Serving a tier-1 transmission supplier to reduce total product cost and successfully introduce new product generation in a cross-Atlantic effort, including organizational transformation and building client’s cost management capabilities
• Serving a tier-1 supplier in its Mexico-based operations to improve total cost position
• Serving the agricultural/construction equipment industry leader in reducing total product cost in its first global common platform product program and institutionalizing a best-practice cost management process in other product divisions
• Serving the leading player in the railway industry, optimizing the total cost of new product generation (purchasing, product development, supply chain, manufacturing) and supporting client to win a specific bidding situation for a major application
• High tech industry
• Supporting a leading semiconductor client in its global supply chain and manufacturing network optimization
• Serving a leading consumer electronics client in overhead optimization and plant/organizational restructuring initiative 
• Serving a leading data storage client in a holistic operations diagnostics and operations transformation program
• Retail - Supporting a leading department store client in a supply chain and working capital optimization
• Consumer Goods – Serving a leading consumer goods client in a restructuring purchasing organization and processz

Stefan holds a Master of Economic Engineering from the University of Karlsruhe (Germany) and earned his PhD in “Planning and Forecasting in the Automotive Industry.”