Fabian, Partner
CV
- MSc from WHU
- MBA at Insead
- First joined Roland Berger as an intern in 2003 and returned in 2019 as a Partner, focusing on consulting projects in digital business building
- Former Managing Director of a leading PE-owned sports aggregator platform
- Co-Founder & Advisor of various startups e.g. in the publishing space, mobility segment, pet industry and -as of late- in the broader healthcare / wellbeing & family sector
- Interests and hobbies: Family, traveling and sports
"I have the opportunity to really be part of my children's lives. And that is meaningful and precious!"
How many kids do you have and how old are they?
We have four kids - two girls and two boys. They are between 2 and 10 years old. As you can guess: It doesn’t get boring… :)
How do you and your family organize childcare?
As my wife Julia is scaling her own startup “peaches” (which is basically kid number five), we indeed need to organize ourselves quite a bit!
Luckily, we are not alone in our journey of raising our kids – as my father in law lives nearby and comes to our home almost every day. Actually, this was one of the reasons for leaving our city-center appartment in Munich and moving onto the country-side in the North. In addition, we have an Au Pair lady from Italy, who is supporting us tremendously. As a side effect, the kids are catching up some English and Italian sayings…
Despite that great support, our aspiration is that one of us (my wife or myself) is always around, which obviously makes travel planning a challenge from time to time. On that note: Thanks a lot to my PA Andrea, who is managing my Roland Berger calendar in such a formidable way…
How has working remotely affected you as a working parent?
As we are living on the country-side and the next Roland Berger office is about 1.5 hours away, remote working has been a blessing for us. Whilst it definitely comes at a price of not seeing each other in person and benefiting from the information flow that naturally happens, when walking around in the office, it is a huge relieve for us and our kids.
When at home, I now have the chance to see the kids, when preparing breakfast, during lunch & dinner, but also in the evening, even if it is “just” about reading out loud a good night-story for them…
Unlike earlier times, when travelling the entire week, being away from home for 5 or sometimes even 6 days, I have now the opportunity to really be part of my childrens’ lives. And that is meaningful and precious!
Do you have any advice for successfully combining parenthood and working at Roland Berger?
I know it is not possible for everyone, but in case you see the chance to do so: build up a support system with trusted people and loved ones around you - like in our case being close to the grandparents. That makes life so much easier for you and your kids, at the same time, it is wonderful to see the love building up across generations… And as I can observe for most families, it also rejuvenates the grandparents and their relations to you.
Besides, there are quite a few hacks that helped me, such as:
· Indicating in your work calendar that you are “out of office” for a certain time, e.g. when you bring your kids to school / kindergarden / bed or you know there is a doctoral appointment coming up
· Make it a rule to take a day off, when it’s your kid’s birthday (and communicate it early enough) – and not be stuck on calls during that special day… I don’t know anyone, who would not understand that!
· If on the road, make it a habit to “facetime / video call” your kids once a day to still be close to them. For them, this is much more emotional than a normal audio phone call
How does Roland Berger support you as a parent beyond the legal provisions in your country?
Roland Berger has enabled me to re-join on a part-time basis (80%). We have agreed to time-box my workdays, i.e. focusing on the work from Monday to Thursday and then being out of office on Fridays. I am very grateful for my Platform Head, but also for all the other colleagues making this possible. Fortunately, most clients show some understanding for this and respect these availabilities. In addition to that, I have the opportunity to work out of my home office on a regular basis, which allows me to be there for my wife and the kids.
Which games do you like to play with your kids the most?
I absolutely love to play boardgames and outdoor games with our kids. As there is a wide age gap (eight years) between them, however, we need to balance which games we are playing. Especially during summertime, we are outside in our garden, jump on the trampoline or play badminton and handball. When it is cold or rainy outside, we tend to make it cozy inside and switch to games like Catan, Uno or Kingdomino.
