New Partners at Simon-Kucher

On January 1, 2008, Simon-Kucher & Partners, one of the fastest growing international consulting firms, will add four new partners, bringing the total to 37. With Jens Baumgarten (Financial Services, New York, USA), Dr. Fabian Braun (Chemicals & Construction, Cologne, Germany), Dr. Gerald Schnell (Life Sciences, Bonn, Germany) and André Weber (Travel, Transport & Telecommunications, Boston, USA), Simon-Kucher continues with its global expansion.

Jens Baumgarten (33) is Head of Financial Services in North America and Managing Director of SKP’s newly opened office in New York City. He and his team in New York focus primarily on banks, insurance firms, asset managers, fund companies and private equity firms. The team also supports North American clients with their international business. Mr. Baumgarten’s past project experience includes working with clients from the financial services, automotive and telecommunications industries. He has worked out of SKP’s Bonn, Frankfurt, Zurich and London offices.
Dr. Fabian Braun (35), new partner in the Chemicals & Construction division in the Cologne office, specializes in creating and developing pricing strategies and new pricing systems for products, brands and services. Dr. Braun offers extensive consulting and industry-specific experience. He began his career as a consultant and project manager with McKinsey & Company. He then switched to Degussa AG (today Evonik) where he was responsible for steering company-wide strategy projects. At the start of 2007 he joined Simon-Kucher. Dr. Braun holds a degree in business and a PhD in Physics.

Dr. Gerald Schnell (38) will become a partner in the Life Sciences division in the new Luxemburg office opening in 2008. His consulting expertise focuses mainly on growth strategies and price process optimization, as well as reimbursement and market access strategies for innovative medical devices, equipment and procedures. Dr. Schnell has conducted numerous consulting projects for medical technology companies, starts-ups and companies in the pharmaceutical industry in various European and non-European countries. He studied business administration in Cologne and completed his doctorate on the topic of pharmaceutical reimbursement.

André Weber (35), a new partner in SKP’s Travel/Transport/Telecoms division in Boston, helps clients improve their profitability through the optimization of pricing and sales strategies. He focuses mainly on B2B pricing and discounting, distributor management, pricing for services and supporting negotiations with key accounts. After spending several years in SKP’s Bonn and London offices, he is now based in Boston to further support the company’s strong growth in the North American market.


Simon - Kucher & Partners, Strategy & Marketing Consultants:
“Smart profit growth” is the focus of Simon-Kucher & Partners’ consulting work. Manager Magazine recently ranked Simon-Kucher as the leading consultancy in marketing and sales, based on a survey conducted with the top managers in Germany (August 2007). With over 400 employees, the firm currently has 15 offices worldwide (Bonn, Boston, Cologne, Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Milan, Munich, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo, Warsaw, Vienna and Zurich) and will be opening new offices in Amsterdam, Brussels, Luxemburg, and Moscow in 2008.