AI strategy for institutions that weren't built to change — written from seven years inside one. Former Bundeswehr officer. ML engineer. Lecturer. Currently wiring AI into Germany's largest banking network.
How do you transform institutions that weren't designed to be transformed?
That question has followed me from NATO planning rooms to startup accelerators to banking infrastructure. I still don't have a complete answer. What I have is a working hypothesis: the bottleneck is almost never technical.
Seven years as a Bundeswehr officer taught me how institutions actually make decisions under pressure — not how they claim to, but how they really do. That knowledge is more valuable than any technical skill I've acquired since.
Today I lead innovation at S-Communication Services GmbH, the central technology provider of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe. Before that: two AI startups, Germany's Cyber Innovation Hub, and a software deployment that took two years to navigate through Bundeswehr procurement — and is still running today.
S-Communication Services · Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe · Berlin
AI strategy and innovation at the central tech provider of Germany's largest banking network. Building the AI Hub and the governance to ship inside a regulated bank.
CODE University · Berlin
Weekly course on AI, society and regulation for next-generation founders and technologists.
Defence AI · Industrial AI · Berlin
Two pre-seed ventures: high-assurance AI for defence-adjacent environments, and LLM-based process optimisation for German industrial partners.
Bundeswehr · Berlin
First cohort of the Bundeswehr's internal defence-tech accelerator. Led a security-critical software tool through procurement and certification. Still deployed across the Bundeswehr today.
NATO Operations · Intelligence · Chief of Staff
Seven years inside a 600-person HQ overseeing 20,000+ personnel. Planning across 15 units, NATO joint ops, and how institutions really decide under pressure.