Partners elect new Global Executive Committee and Supervisory Board – The new board members

• Partners elect new Global Executive Committee and new Supervisory Board members
• Dr. Martin C. Wittig now global CEO with António Bernardo second in command
• Supervisory Board elects Prof. Dr. Burkhard Schwenker as its new Chairman
• Prof. Dr. h.c. Roland Berger becomes Honorary Chairman of the strategy consultancy he founded

At their meeting in Essen, the Partners of Roland Berger Strategy Consultants cast their votes in the scheduled elections for the global Executive Committee (EC) and Supervisory Board. The Partners, from 26 countries, are aiming for further internationalization and have ushered in a new generation to the multi-member EC set up in 1994 and headed by Prof. Dr. h.c. Roland Berger. Two of the six members of this management committee were in the previous EC: Zurich-based Dr. Martin C. Wittig (46) replaces Hamburg-based Prof. Dr. Burkhard Schwenker (52) as CEO, with 50-year-old António Bernardo from Lisbon as his deputy. New members are the Asia head Charles Edouard Bouée (41, Shanghai), restructuring expert Bernd Brunke (39, Berlin) and automotive expert Ralf Kalmbach (49, Munich). Tijo J.G. Collot d'Escury (43, Amsterdam) moves from the Supervisory Board to the EC. The Partners also elected former CEO Burkhard Schwenker, Vincent Mercier (61, Paris) and Stefan Schaible (42, Hamburg) to the Supervisory Board, which also comprises Veit Schwinkendorf (44, Düsseldorf) and Isao Endo (53, Tokyo). The Supervisory Board then chose Schwenker as Chairman, with Mercier as his deputy. Company founder and former Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Roland Berger, will become Honorary Chairman of Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, the world's only top-five strategy consultancy of European origin.

The new top-level management committee of Roland Berger Strategy Consultants has the following members: Dr. Martin C. Wittig, formerly Chief Financial Officer, has been appointed CEO to start his third term as a member of the EC. He will also be in charge of the Germany and Switzerland region. Wittig has degrees in mining science and Business Administration from RWTH Aachen and a Ph.D. (summa cum laude) from TU Berlin. He joined Roland Berger Strategy Consultants in 1995 and was appointed Partner in 1999. He built up the Swiss office from the humblest beginnings to number three in the market. Wittig first joined the Global Executive Committee in 2003 and has been CFO since 2004. He works primarily for companies in the finance and transportation industries, and has been teaching at the University of St. Gallen since 2007. Martin Wittig and his family have lived in Switzerland for around ten years. In 2009, he was appointed Honorary German Consul in Zurich.

Wittig's deputy António Bernardo (50) joined Roland Berger in 1989 and has been on the EC since 2003, becoming Deputy CEO in 2004. Holder of two engineering degrees and an MBA, Bernardo is a visiting professor at Lisbon University, where he chairs the Corporate Strategy course. He was trained in investment banking and specializes in corporate strategy and organization as well as M&A. Under his leadership, the firm's offices in Portugal, Spain and Brazil enjoyed above-average growth and became major players in their markets. Bernardo also played a significant role in expanding Roland Berger's international management structures. Within the EC, he is now regional head of Latin America, Italy, Portugal and Spain.

Charles-Edouard Bouée (41) is new to the EC. With an MBA from Harvard and a background in law, he has been with Roland Berger since 2001. He is the Chairman of France, Belgium and North Africa and the President of Asia. He also holds the position of President & Managing Partner of Greater China (Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong), based in Shanghai. In this role, he spearheads major assignments for a wide range of companies and organizations, helping them successfully meet their strategic and operational challenges and goals in Europe and China. On the EC, Bouée is in charge of the business in France, Belgium, Morocco, China and Japan, and of tapping new markets in Korea and Southeast Asia.

Another new member is Bernd Brunke (39): An engineer by training, he studied at the Technical University of Berlin and at UCLA in Los Angeles. He manages the Corporate Performance Competence Center, which includes restructuring, corporate finance, organization and corporate excellence. Brunke has experience in restructuring projects worldwide and will be the EC member in charge of the Central and Eastern European region, including Russia, Middle East and Turkey. He has been involved in projects in a large variety of industries, including financial services, retail, engineering, automotive, chemicals, airlines and energy, and has been supporting clients in North and South America, Europe and Asia. He is also general manager and head of the Berlin office.

Ralf Kalmbach (49) holds a Master's degree in mechanical engineering and an MBA from the University of Karlsruhe. He started his professional career in 1986 with Daimler Benz AG in product planning. Later, he turned to consulting for more than a decade. He has assisted major European, US and Asian corporations in various aspects of their strategy and operations in response to globalization and customer-driven value shifts. He joined Roland Berger in 2004 as a Partner and Head of the Global Automotive Competence Center. He has not only authored several books and a large number of articles on automotive issues, but is also frequently quoted by the media, and is recognized as an industry expert. As a newly elected EC member, Kalmbach will be responsible for business in India and the US.

The sixth member is Tijo J.G. Collot d'Escury (43), who joins the EC from the Supervisory Board. A graduate of Harvard Business School and holder of a degree in chemical engineering, Tijo Collot d'Escury began his professional career in 1993 with an American consultancy in the Netherlands. He joined Roland Berger Strategy Consultants in 2002 as Managing Partner of the Amsterdam office, which he built from scratch and made into a top-tier player in the Dutch market. He has extensive experience in corporate strategic planning, M&A, and technology and innovation management. He has been a member of the Supervisory Board of Roland Berger since 2003. On the EC he will be in charge of the UK and Netherlands regions, as well as exploring new markets in Scandinavia.

"I am delighted with the confidence the Partners have shown in the new management," says Martin Wittig, the newly elected CEO. "We will continue with our internationalization, especially in the BRIC countries, and our successful global growth." With its mixture of new and experienced members, the new Global Executive Committee represents both renewal and continuity in the company's strategy.

New Supervisory Board

At their meeting, the Partners of Roland Berger Strategy Consultants also elected the members of the Supervisory Board: former CEO Burkhard Schwenker (52) will be Chairman of this body, succeeding the company's founder Roland Berger (72). Schwenker had been a member of Roland Berger Strategy Consultants' Executive Committee since 1998. He was elected CEO by the Partners in 2003 and was reelected for another term in 2006. Having studied business administration and mathematics, Schwenker started his professional career in the industry before completing his Ph.D. He joined Roland Berger Strategy Consultants in 1989, built up the Hamburg office and was elected Partner in 1992. Schwenker is an expert in strategy, organization and corporate transformation. He regularly lectures at and sits on the boards of several business schools and universities. Furthermore he is active in various sociopolitical institutions, e.g. as Deputy Chairman of Atlantik-Brücke e.V. and as a member of the Roland Berger Foundation's Board of Trustees .

The Partners further elected Vincent Mercier (61). He graduated from the École des Mines, France, and holds a master's degree in economics and an MBA from Cornell's Johnson School, USA. Mercier joined Roland Berger in 2003 as Managing Partner of the Paris office. A year later, he also assumed responsibility for the Belgian office, and his regional responsibilities further included China, Morocco and the Netherlands. Mercier was elected to the EC in 2004. He will be the Vice-Chairman of the Supervisory Board.

The third new Supervisory Board member elected by the Partners is Stefan Schaible (42). After studying chemistry and law, he joined Roland Berger in 1997. He has managed the Civil Economics Competence Center since 2004 and has become a specialist in advising the public sector, the energy and environment industries and cultural institutions. Schaible is well known as an expert on global trends that are highly relevant to both the public and the private sectors, such as demographics, sustainable development, green technologies and renewable energies.

The five-member Supervisory Board is rounded off by existing members Isao Endo (53), of Tokyo, and Veit Schwinkendorf (44), of Düsseldorf. They were not up for election, as their terms of office run until December 2011. Endo, who graduated from Waseda University's School of Commerce and Carroll School of Management in Boston (MBA), joined Roland Berger in 2000 and helped set up the Tokyo office. He has extensive experience in advising Japanese firms that want to compete globally. Since 2004, Isao Endo has taught as a professor of corporate strategy at Waseda Business School in Tokyo. He also teaches at Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business in China and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore as a visiting professor. Isao Endo is a well known author and has written such popular books as "Cultivating Gemba Power" and "Visualization".

Schwinkendorf heads the Energy & Chemicals Competence Center. An economist by background – joining Roland Berger Strategy Consultants in 1991 and becoming a Partner in 1998 – he specializes in post-merger integration, reorganization and restructuring. Schwinkendorf has successfully designed corporate strategies and transformed organizations for electricity, gas and service companies. Major European companies, also in the chemical industry, have relied on his expert advice in large post-merger integration and performance improvement projects.

"I am delighted that the Partners have followed our suggestion for a new generation of managers for our firm," says the former CEO and newly elected Supervisory Board Chairman Burkhard Schwenker. "The new team stands for internationalism, creativity, entrepreneurial drive and a high level of professionalism. These are values that characterize Roland Berger Strategy Consultants and have made us strong. I look forward to working with them in my new role and to the continuation of our successful growth strategy." The complex economic and political situation requires a rethink of the firm's strategy and planning approaches. "Creativity is in demand and competition on quality is getting tougher – for the benefit of clients. We are well-equipped to hold our own," says Schwenker.

Company founder Roland Berger is now stepping down as Chairman of the Supervisory Board and has been elected Honorary Chairman by the Partners. "In my view, the change we have just completed is the logical conclusion of the course I set in the 1990s by changing the company's strategy from that of a founder-managed firm to that of a partnership," says Berger. "When Burkhard Schwenker took my place as CEO in 2003, while I stepped down to Chairman of the Supervisory Board, the path for my succession was defined. Now we have taken the final step. I am delighted with the impressive unity among the Partners in electing the new management team. Congratulations to all the reelected and newly elected EC and Supervisory Board members. I wish them all every success, especially Martin Wittig as the new CEO and Burkhard Schwenker as Chairman."