Roland Berger Strategy Consultants elects new partners

• Six new Partners elected
• Four external experts appointed Partners
• Six Partners promoted to the next level

Roland Berger Strategy Consultants now has ten new Partners, and six Partners have been promoted to the next level. The new Partners are from all over the world, from Madrid to Prague, Tokyo to São Paulo. With the new appointments, made at Roland Berger's International Partner Meeting in Moscow at the end of July, the strategy consultancy increased its number of Partners and strengthened its global presence.

The following Principals were promoted to Partners:

Takashi Hirai (41) joined Roland Berger's Tokyo office in 2003. His work focuses on consumer goods, the high tech industry and restructuring practice. After studying applied physics and completing an MBA, he held several positions in the consumer goods industry, including Marketing Director at Dell and Corporate Planning Officer at Starbucks Coffee Japan.

Dr. Alexander Keller (42) is a member of the Energy & Chemicals Competence Center in Düsseldorf. In his new position, he will focus on regional issues in CEE and Russia. He holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry. He has been with Roland Berger for nine years, and previously worked for consultancies such as KPMG.

Artur Pielech (34) has headed Roland Berger's Warsaw office since 2002. Before joining the firm in 2001, the business graduate worked for the Center of Technology in Danzig and most recently as Managing Director for ExperConsult Poland.

Hartmut Schnabel (40) focuses on telecom in the Beijing office. He studied business administration and Chinese prior to beginning his career at KPMG and Treuhand. He also worked as a senior manager with Management Partner for Industry before joining Roland Berger in 1999.

Dr. Markus Strietzel (36) studied business after training to be a banker. He completed his doctorate in strategic and international management at the European Business School. In 1998, he began working for Roland Berger Strategy Consultants as a Junior Consultant in the Financial Services Competence Center. His consulting specialties include restructuring, turnaround management and strategic realignment.

Hisaji Yoneda (37) has worked at Roland Berger's Tokyo office for one year, where he focuses on finance, telecommunications and utilities. Previously, he worked as a loan officer and venture capitalist for Nippon Credit Bank and was a project leader with Boston Consulting Group.

The following external experts have been appointed Partners:

Klaus Baumann (46) is now Partner in the Consumer Goods & Retail Competence Center in Munich. From 1995 to 1998, he was Head of Consumer Goods & Retail at Gemini Consulting, and afterward served as Head of Gemini Central Europe until 2000. The following year he moved to BlueChipBusiness Laboratories, where he was both Managing Partner and CEO. Baumann has a degree in sociology, and has headed international consulting projects in various industries, including retail and information technology.

George E. Freund (57) is joining Roland Berger's São Paulo office as Partner. He started his career in IT and was a professor at the Engineering School of the University of São Paulo until 1984. At this time he joined Arthur D. Little, where he later became Vice-President and Managing Director for Brazil. In 1999, he became Vice-President at A.T. Kearney. His consulting work focuses mostly on strategy, organization and change management.

Constantin Kinský (45) has joined the Prague office as a finance specialist. After completing studies in literature, political science, economics and finance, he held positions at ABN AMRO, Chase Manhattan Bank and Merrill Lynch. He has been in Prague since 1997. Most recently, he headed the Bank of America's CEE business.

Ricardo Wehrhahn (43) is now working in the Madrid office, where he is responsible for finance and insurance issues in Spain and Portugal. Wehrhahn has extensive consulting experience, due to his work as a top executive at Booz Allen Hamilton and as a managing partner at Intral Strategy Execution.

Promotions to the next Partner level:

Arndt Dombert (42, Financial Services, Frankfurt), Max Gu (38, Shanghai), Nils von Kuhlwein (37, Restructuring & Corporate Finance, Düsseldorf), Björn Reineke (35, Marketing & Sales, Munich), Michael Wette (35, Manama/Bahrain) and Vivian Zheng (38, Shanghai) have been promoted to the next Partner level.