Profile
I was born as a Baby Boomer and guest worker child in Germany. My childhood and youth, alternating between southern Germany and southern Italy, were characterized by discipline, hard work, and the hope for a better future.
This hope has been fulfilled through a combination of hard work and talent, and fortunate timing after both good and bad decisions in life. I am a family man with heart and conviction, who has come to terms with what is essential. In my professional career, I have served many facets. In almost 25 years, I have built Europe’s largest privately owned hospital group from small to large. I am driven by the idea of making healthcare better for everyone through innovation. To some, I am a fascinating personality; to others, an enfant terrible who demands a lot from the establishment.
As a person, I stay close to people. At work and in my family. I help with reorganization and the development of business ideas and products. I accompany the transformation of healthcare systems and am a doer in the establishment of digitally connected healthcare solutions. I write blogs and books, guided by the eight facets of my personality.
I began my professional career as a lawyer with a doctorate. In 2000, I joined Helios. With my team’s innovative, start-up mentality, I grew the company within two decades into the largest private and profitable healthcare group in Europe with over 130,000 employees, currently treating over 20 million patients annually. I spent almost 25 years in the healthcare industry, including 15 as CEO of Helios and a DAX-listed member of the board at Fresenius. I left the company at 60.
I am considered a trendsetter, innovator, and networker in the healthcare sector. In 2005, I was named Knowledge Manager of the Year in Germany for the healthcare sector. I developed an intellectual property report for healthcare corporations and established innovative personnel development strategies for all relevant professional profiles in the German healthcare system. I established a corporate culture of “Sorry Work” and made medical errors and quality results transparent online.
I joined Transparency International with Helios as a hospital group, establishing the foundation for ESG and sustainability reporting. In 2008, I founded the IQM quality initiative with colleagues from my German healthcare network, whose indicators were adapted into statutory quality systems in Switzerland and Austria.
Innovator: During the development of Helios, I and my acquisition and restructuring team analyzed, reorganized, and made hundreds of hospitals and healthcare centers in Europe profitable. I co-founded the restructuring plan, which enables insolvent hospitals to be reorganized to an EBIT margin of 12% to 15% within six years. I was dubbed “tough but easygoing” in the media for my complete transparency, clarity of language, and assertiveness. I was the “godfather” to the chief physicians, and I was the face and heart of the success of countless integration projects.
Renovators: I founded the IQM, the largest voluntary quality network in Germany, covering over a third of all hospital services. With the New European Surgical Academy (NESA) and the Helios Health Institute, I set new trends in health services research. I promoted the quality-oriented addition of the DRG reimbursement system, formed innovative care clusters, and developed the digital CUBE, a globally networked container solution for healthcare services that enables outpatient healthcare across the country, a kind of doctor’s office without a physician. I established prevention centers, occupational medicine, and fertility clinics, and shaped the German healthcare system through digitalization and AI. My network includes thought leaders, the press, politics, and institutions across Europe.
Networker: I am in demand in healthcare markets as a consultant to healthcare companies, on mandates with financial investors, and on political healthcare projects. With BE FASTER, I have developed a method for transforming systems. I hold selected mandates on advisory boards, supervisory boards, and think tanks at healthcare companies and healthcare investors.
Advisor: I have been active as an investor in healthcare companies since 2024, focusing on companies with innovative products, currently for immunotherapy in cancer, ensuring the uniform, data protection-compliant and cyber-secure exchange of health data, and using AI with language models to improve the quality of care across the country.
Investor: During my time as CEO of Helios and DAX-listed manager of Fresenius, I appeared at selected lectures, conference panels, and media events. Since retiring as a DAX-listed manager, I have focused on selectively appearing at events that address issues of efficiency, effectiveness, digitalization, innovation, and transformation in the healthcare sector. My goal is to make the truth heard about where the healthcare system isn’t functioning well. Freed from role constraints, I speak frankly about dysfunctional system flaws, call for honesty, and clearly demonstrate how things can be improved.
Speaker: During the coronavirus pandemic, I began writing my first blogs out of concern about the impact of COVID-19 policies on our society. This led to me becoming a content blogger on LinkedIn. The desire for better healthcare continues to drive me.
Author: I have published a book with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Verlag that addresses the systemic flaws in the German healthcare system and presents better alternatives.
