My story and philosophy

Starting to get curious about the world

I was born and raised in East Germany. Curious about the world and excited about exploring the newly gained freedom after the ‘fall of the wall’, I went on a Fulbright scholarship to the US where I received my Masters in Business Administration. I made new friends from many countries and gained new insights on myself and where I came from.

After returning to Germany, I started to work for the German subsidiary of Pfizer Inc, one of the world’s leading biopharmaceutical companies. There, I gained experience in all the necessary basics in marketing, product management and had the opportunity to interact with colleagues from all over the world.

Living in one of the most cosmopolitan cities

My life changed completely, when I was offered a position at Pfizer’s headquarters in New York City, an exciting and fast-paced city, especially for someone in their twenties and thirties. I was energized by all the new impressions I collected, the people I met and travels. I was working on different worldwide commercialization teams, developing strategies and oversaw the implementation for two global product launches, with a focus on mature markets in Europe, Canada, US.

Getting ‘enlightened’ in India

In 2005 I took up the opportunity to serve as a Pfizer Global Health Fellow in a hospital in Southern India. There I came to the realization that effective health care and prevention requires more than dispensing the appropriate medicines. But working equitable health systems are necessary to ensure access to quality health care services. Hooked on the idea to better understand health systems and to focus more on the development aspect of health care, I pursued a Masters in Global Public Health at NYU after my return new New York City.

My first global health experiences in rural Bangladesh

After the completion of my degree, I accepted an opportunity to move to Bangladesh to apply my new gained theoretical knowledge in the field. So I packed my bags again to move from a city of seven million to one with about 15-17 million (nobody knows for sure) - Dhaka. As an advisor to Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Prof. Yunus’ Grameen Kalyan organisation, I was charged with the task to set up a pilot program for health services for women in rural areas.

Faced with an immense need on all levels (at least from a Westerner’s perspective), the challenge was to define the scope of the pilot which at the end manifested in an ante-natal care (ANC) program. It was thrilling to see that only after 6 months 50% more women would use our ANC services. The work with the local team, the partners and the communities was a truly eye-opening experience where I learned as much from them as they (hopefully) learned from me. I admired people for their flexibility, ability to improvise and resilience.

Merging global health and life science

After this, my interest in global health was definitely triggered. I felt I needed to gain more experience to work for or with different actors from the private, NGO, public and donor community to be able to better understand their role and to ‘connect the dots’ . So I decided to become an independent professional which would allow me to gain the broadest experience working with different type of clients. Over the past years, I continued to acquire lots of first-hand experience in researching, planning, managing, writing and speaking about how to deliver better quality health care and access to medicines to patients in developing and emerging countries, in particular in South and South East Asia as well as some in Africa.

Gaining important insights on the way

My life taught me to be open-minded, agile, flexible and adaptive. Change is a constant in our lives - particularly as the world around us keeps evolving. Every country I’ve lived in and organisation I have worked for has been an unique experience giving me a different perspective and demanding a different skill set - all of which has contributed to who I am today. It is so important to understand and work with different perspectives and acknowledge their relevance if you want to bring out the best from the people around you, especially in the complex world of health care. Therefore, it’s been essential that I continue to listen to the people around me and feel the essence of the challenges at hand, the organisations involved and the goals to be accomplished.

As a global citizen, I built a home base in Berlin, Germany, from where I am available to get enlisted in new projects and roles, locally or globally. I enjoy travelling, yoga, food, the arts as well as engaging and bonding conversations.