SEBASTIAN EHRENSBERGER, Ph.D.
Dr. Sebastian Ehrensberger is a Partner and the Managing Director of Rhodion Advisors GmbH. He works collaboratively with business families to reach consensus on where the family and the business are headed in the long term. In this context, he helps families to prepare their companies strategically, organizationally, financially, and personally so that, when the time comes, the family business can be handed down to the next generation seamlessly. Deepening the emotional bonds between family members, developing the leadership abilities of the next generation, and strengthening effective family governance are other areas of his experience and expertise.
The web of decisions and development processes involved in this work are inherently complex, and Sebastian helps structure and navigate through them, working with families in a deeply interactive way. While focusing on the business problems at hand, he is ever mindful that families of the founding or subsequent generations have radically different needs from international families that have several hundred members and large companies. Aware of the sometimes conflicting interests of the family members involved, he is committed to laying the groundwork for an open and respectful dialogue within the family.
Before specializing in family businesses, Sebastian spent 10 years as a Partner and Managing Director of the Boston Consulting Group. During that time, he supported numerous medium and large businesses, helping them to improve their competitive positions strategically and operationally and to realign their organizations and their management teams.
He has expertise in the fields of product development, brand strategy, marketing and organizational development, and also in the areas of cost optimization and restructuring. He has worked for leading companies in Europe, Asia and North America; often for families, but also for publicly traded companies and for portfolio companies of private equity funds. This not only involved finding optimal, fact-based solutions, but it also required the resolution of conflicts within the management team or at the interface with the shareholders – a challenge he still finds rewarding, given the interaction it involves with people of different cultural backgrounds.
Besides working for Rhodion Advisors, Sebastian is today a non-executive member of the supervisory boards of several European companies. He studied business administration at the University of Cologne and speaks fluent English and French. He is married and is the father of three children with whom he loves to spend time.