Part­ners and Senior Advisors

Kathrin Arbeiter has extensive exper­i­ence in Exec­utive Search, Man­age­ment Appraisal and Exec­utive Coaching. She advises com­panies in the Fin­an­cial Services and Pro­fes­sional Services sec­tors on filling their exec­utive and super­visory board pos­i­tions. She coun­sels firms on their first to third man­age­ment level exec­ut­ives; cross-sec­toral place­ment of com­mer­cial, fin­an­cial and legal man­age­ment pos­i­tions is another area of her expertise. Kathrin also advoc­ates for the appoint­ment of female exec­ut­ives and is highly spe­cial­ized in the field of digitalisation.

She is a Partner of INNER CIRCLE CON­SULT­ANTS and has worked within the exec­utive search pro­fes­sion for over 25 years. She started her con­sultancy career in 1996 at Civ­itas Inter­na­tional as a member of the Fin­an­cial Services Prac­tice. Kathrin sub­sequently worked at Board Con­sult­ants Inter­na­tional from 2004. She joined ICC as a Partner in 2009.

Kathrin com­pleted her Com­mer­cial Training and Busi­ness Studies at a Soft­ware Devel­op­ment Firm in the pub­lishing industry.

Dr. Susanne Bixner-Mendel holds extensive expertise in Exec­utive Search, Man­age­ment Appraisal and Exec­utive Coaching. Her focus lies in Fin­ance and Private Equity and cross-industry appoint­ments of man­age­ment pos­i­tions in key areas such as Fin­ance, IR or Mar­keting in Aus­tria, Central and South Eastern Europe.
Susanne is a Man­aging Partner at INNER CIRCLE CON­SULT­ANTS and has been working in Exec­utive Search for 12 years. Her pro­fes­sional career started in Invest­ment Banking, where she worked for Cred­it­an­stalt, Deutsche Bank and Raif­feis­en­bank Inter­na­tional for a com­bined total of 20 years.

Susanne holds an LLM and a Doc­torate in Law from the Uni­ver­sity of the Pacific in Sac­ra­mento, USA. She is a cer­ti­fied ICF coach, Medi­ator and Super­visory Board Expert.

Nicola Sievers advises and coun­sels com­panies in the fin­an­cial services industry, spe­cific­ally focused on Man­age­ment and Super­visory issues as well as Senior-Man­age­ment appoint­ments. She main­tains a strong cross-industry net­work with senior exec­ut­ives and estab­lished leaders within their industries.

Nicola is a Founder and Man­aging Partner of INNER CIRCLE CON­SULT­ANTS and has worked within the exec­utive search pro­fes­sion for over 25 years. Prior to ICC, she served as Founding Partner and Man­aging Dir­ector at Board Con­sult­ants Inter­na­tional, and as Senior Partner and Head of the Fin­an­cial Services Prac­tice at Civ­itas International.

Nicola has over 10 years’ exper­i­ence in Invest­ment Banking, working for Société Gen­erale as well as Deutsche Bank AG in Paris and Frankfurt.
Born and edu­cated in the U.K., Nicola holds a Master of Arts in Law from the Uni­ver­sity of Oxford. She is also active in FinTech sector investments.

Thomas Wylenzek focuses on Exec­utive Search and Man­age­ment Appraisal at board and super­visory board level, espe­cially for medium-sized com­panies and family businesses.

He main­tains a strong cross-industry net­work with estab­lished leading man­age­ment exec­ut­ives. He is a par­tic­ular authority on the devel­op­ment and imple­ment­a­tion of Man­age­ment Appraisal pro­ced­ures and Organ­isa­tional Devel­op­ment processes.

Thomas is a Founding and Man­aging Partner of INNER CIRCLE CON­SULT­ANTS. He was formerly Senior Partner at Heid­rick & Struggles. Prior to that, Thomas worked as Dir­ector for Per­sonnel and Organi­sation of the Otto Group and Man­aging Dir­ector of Metro Cash & Carry Deutsch­land GmbH.

He holds two degrees from West­phalian Wil­helm Uni­ver­sity in Münster.

Stephan Stamm is a Senior Advisor at INNER CIRCLE CON­SULT­ANTS. He has numerous years of exper­i­ence as a Senior Exec­utive in Inter­na­tional Banking and Man­age­ment Con­sulting. As a member of the Man­age­ment of MUFG Bank in Ger­many, he was respons­ible for Risk Man­age­ment, Oper­a­tions, Com­pli­ance, Legal, HR, Anti-money Laun­dering and Fin­an­cial Governance.

Pre­vi­ously, Stephan was Dir­ector at Mercer Oliver Wyman for 19 years as well as Man­aging Dir­ector and Head of the St. Gallen Con­sulting Group in Ger­many. Prior to this, Stephan worked in Invest­ment Banking at Deutsche Bank and West­deutsche Landesbank.

Stephan holds a Mas­ters in Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion from Johann Wolfgang Goethe Uni­ver­sity, Frankfurt.

Hans-Joachim Strueder is a Senior Advisor at INNER CIRCLE CON­SULT­ANTS. He holds extensive exper­i­ence in the areas of Cap­ital Mar­kets, Asset Man­age­ment and Treasury as well as in Stock Exchanges and Insurance.

Hans-Joachim held Senior Man­age­ment pos­i­tions at Deutsche Bank AG, Com­merzbank and Ham­burg Com­mer­cial Bank. He was also a Board Member at Landes­bank Baden-Württem­berg for eight years. During this time, he was also a Member of numerous Super­visory Boards.

Among the various com­mit­tees Hans-Joachim is involved in, he also volun­teers as a Debt Coun­sellor for church insti­tu­tions and coaches start-up com­panies in the MedTech sector.

Hans-Joachim holds a Mas­ters in Agri­cul­tural Engin­eering from the Uni­ver­sity of Bonn.