Michael, Partner

CV

• Business Degree from University of Cologne (Germany) and HEC Paris (France)
• Ph.D. in Innovation Management from WHU Vallendar (Germany)
• Joined Roland Berger in 2007 and currently operates from the Roland Berger Brussels office
• Works with pharma/medtech and consumer healthcare clients around the globe
• Interests and hobbies: Travel, surfing – and of course everything around "Frozen" :-)

How many kids do you have and how old are they?
I have two girls aged 2 and 5 years.

How do you (and your family) organize childcare?
On my three workdays per week, this depends on my traveling schedule. If I can work remotely, my wife and I get the kids ready for childcare/kindergarten and one of us takes them there. In the evenings, I make an effort to take part in dinner and putting them to bed.

Although my wife is working full-time, she is able to cover the basics on those days, while I am in charge the other two days. On my days off, I take care of everything that's kids-related, while my wife puts in the extra-hours also needed in her job.

How has working remotely affected you as a working parent?
Working remotely during the pandemic has made my working days much more flexible. I work the same number of hours, but I'm better able to organize them in a meaningful way, as it means not sitting in a hotel room somewhere but being at home – or close to home in our Roland Berger office.

Do you have any advice for successfully combining parenthood and working at Roland Berger?
Having done this since 2018, my advice would be the following:

• First of all, truly appreciate the fact that you are a parent – this is great and not a problem! Even though it can be challenging and you will need to invest some more energy into this, try to remain happy and pragmatic :-)
• Ask yourself what role you want to play within your family and clearly align this with the other parent (where applicable)
• Talk to your mentor to jointly define the model that works best for yourself to fulfill both your parenting and work roles and to meet the expectations of everybody involved. Be solution-oriented and creative
• Talk to other parents within your company. I've found that they have valuable advice on how to manage the double role and especially on how to organize fallback options.

How does our firm support you as a parent beyond the legal provisions in Germany?
There is full mutual commitment to make my part-time arrangement work. I see myself as living proof that such arrangements can be a win-win-win situation for our company and our employees and their families.

I especially appreciate that there has always been clear and open communication with my mentors, teams and HR about needs, options and expectations.

What has been your most precious parent-child moment recently?
Doing laundry with my daughters’ "helping hands" and making it a very fun game – clothespins can be great toys... :-)