Master in Global Management

Gilles, born and raised in Amsterdam, is a Master in Management 2016 alumni that started his career at Roland Berger in 2018. In 2023, he joined Mentha Capital (a Dutch private equity firm focused on SME in the Benelux) to help set up their new Impact Fund. 

This Fund was successfully raised in the summer of 2024 and aims to invest in companies that have a positive impact on the environment whilst making a financial return. He happily lives in Amsterdam, with his partner and newborn daughter. 

Michael Szadurski is a seasoned professional with over 15 years of experience in corporate finance, valuation, and mergers & acquisitions (M&A), particularly within the renewable energy and infrastructure sectors. 

He has led numerous international M&A transactions for a DAX40 company and currently serves as a Partner and Managing Director at IOM Advisory. In this role, he advises entrepreneurs, corporations, and financial investors on medium-sized M&A transactions. Michael's expertise extends to corporate valuations and financing. 

Michael holds a Master of Business Administration from the ESMT Berlin. He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).

Nicole is an ESMT Berlin Master in Management alumna and the Director of Product & Engineering at McKinsey & Company, where she is responsible for building and scaling new businesses across multiple markets, with a particular focus on the consumer sector. 

Her core areas of expertise include defining and launching end-to-end customer-centric experiences (releasing MVPs within three months), scaling digital products through continuous data-driven delivery, and building high-performance, cross-functional agile teams. 

Oliver Engels is an Alumni of ESMT and successfully graduated in 2006 in the first MBA class with honors and as one of two winners of the Leadership Award. His academic background is Physics, where he graduated as PhD in 1998. 

Oliver held executive positions with KPMG, Fresenius and since 2014 with Deutsche Börse. In addition, Oliver had various Non-Executive Director assignments, currently on the Supervisory Board of Clearstream Fund Center Holding S.A.  

Sapthagiri Chapalapalli is Head of TCS in Europe, based in Frankfurt, Germany. Since 2020, he has overseen IT services, consulting, and business solutions across 22 countries, serving over 300 clients.

He led the launch of TCS Pace Ports in Amsterdam and Paris, expanded the European Delivery Network, and guided the organization to carbon neutrality in 2022. Previously, he was Vice President and Managing Director for TCS in Germany and Austria, and held leadership roles in the UK and US. He holds an MBA in Finance, HR, and Marketing from the T.A. Pai Management Institute and a BBM from GITAM (Andhra University).

Sarena Lin is a global executive and board director with 25 years of experience in life sciences and technology. She serves on the supervisory boards of Siemens Healthineers AG and Bergman Clinics.

From 2021 to 2023, she was Chief Transformation and Talent Officer and a member of the Board of Management at Bayer AG. Prior to that, she was President of Elanco Animal Health and of Cargill’s global animal nutrition business, following her role as Corporate Vice President for strategy and M&A. Sarena started her career at McKinsey, where she was managing partner for McKinsey‘s Taipei office  

Sarena holds an MBA in Strategy and an MA in International Relations from Yale, and a BA in Computer Science from Harvard.

Torsten Kurth is a Senior Partner and Managing Director at The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in Berlin, which he joined in 2000. He is a core member of its Health Care and Industrial Goods practices as well as its global scientists' network, and the Global Topic Leader for Nature, focusing on biodiversity, water, and regenerative land use. 

He previously led the Berlin office for seven years, contributes to BCG’s Social Impact network, and serves on ESMT’s advisory council.

Before BCG, he was a research scientist at BASF AG, specializing in pharma, agro, and fine chemicals. Torsten holds a degree in economics and earned his master’s and PhD in biochemistry in Leipzig and at Brandeis University.