Approximately 15 years ago, I first got to know additive manufacturing or 3D-printing. The manufacturing technology that makes engineers' hearts beat faster… from an idea to a real part within a couple of hours. It was this passion that made me pursue a PhD at the RWTH-Aachen University after my degree in mechanical engineering and business administration.

Born and raised in Cologne, I was one of the kids that took over my father's basement workshop and learned how to repair and build stuff. Therefore, it seemed natural to follow my father's path and study mechanical engineering and learn what forces and moment arms are before 3D-printing put my interest to a new level.

During my Ph.D., I could professionally bring ideas to parts after I brought a polymer 3D-printer to my institute. While exploring and developing new 3D-printing materials and creating new fluid devices in Aachen and during a visiting Ph.D. time in Harvard, another question raised my interest: How to make money with 3D-printing?

Before answering this question, I had to answer a more urgent one… how should I cover my living expenses after my time at the university? While exploring the world already a little during my internships in Singapore and Asia, my thirst to see the world matched a job offer from a multinational pharma&healthcare cooperation perfectly. Three countries in three years followed with stations in Belgium, Switzerland, and a global role where location did not matter. However, end of 2018 the business needs and the needs from my newborn daughter gave me the jump-start to a full new chapter of my life and back to my initial question: How to make money with 3D-printing?

When joining the operations platform and the production cluster of Roland Berger in 2019, I made it clear. Whenever a client is asking about 3D-printing, I would make myself available to answer this question. Several publications about 3D-printing and numerous projects have followed. With clients in all areas from 3D-printing to materials, machines, services and software and I can now hold endless discussions on how to make money with 3D-printing.

Roland Berger has offered me the chance to accelerate quickly from a subject matter expert to a trusted project manager in a short timeframe. The combination of topics that I like and exciting projects make a difference for me. In addition to 3D-printing, another area of interest is production, where I could lead many different projects in several different industries. The variety of projects is huge, and I like the new challenge each project brings with it.

Of course, working in consulting is challenging as well, but with the new flexibility of working, I can often be at home, bring my two daughters to the kindergarten, pick them up and enjoy family dinners as well during the week.

Learn more about Tim's passion in our paper “ Sustainable Additive Manufacturing ”, where we scratch below the surface and examine the reality behind the AM hype.