I obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Heidelberg, Germany and a Master of Science in Management accounting and control from the Aarhus School of Business, Denmark. Additionally to this I am also a skilled tax accountant.

Since I’ve completed an exchange-semester in Finance at the Thammasat University in Bangkok in 2011 my long-term goal is to live in Southeastasia.

Additionally to my studies at Thammasat I nearly worked 1 year in Thailand (Chonburi and Samut Prakan). I worked for a German solar company (internship) and for my Master thesis for a Danish Electronics company (GPV).

After my studies I worked nearly 3 years for an international logistics company as a group controller with additional responsibilities in the area of Business Intelligence (BI) and data analytics. My job included business trips to Thailand, Hong Kong, Italy, Spain and Argentina.

I always loved the possibility to see new countries with their unusual cultures, food and life-style.

One of the best experiences I had is to meet my favorite drummer Marco Minnemann by accident in a hotel lobby in Buenos Aires. Marco just came back from a concert to the hotel with his band. I was able to talk with him for around 30 minutes about many topics but especially about his audition at “Dream Theater”, one of my favorite bands.

Since I am a hobby piano player myself playing keyboard in a rock band in Bremen (Caldera) for nearly three years I admire such absolutely talented professional musicians like Marco.

With the band I had multiple concerts in the north of Germany. With great enjoyment I had the possibility to play a few times in the famous “Meisenfrei Blues Club” in Bremen: http://www.meisenfrei.de/

A great experience was to create a few songs in the studio and to present them in music videos like this one:

One of my goals in Bangkok will be to find a rock band, who is in need of a keyboard player.

Besides making music I also enjoy sports like running, tennis or volleyball very much. Especially playing volleyball at beaches in Thailand like Karon beach (Phuket) or Jomtien beach (Pattaya) I can do with great enthusiasm.

When I have to pick three favorite places in Thailand I have to choose Phuket, Krabi and Ko Samui, where Karon/Kata beach on Phuket would be the number one place where I could live for a long time. On Phuket I also had the chance to dive for two days.

All those great experiences I had in Southeast Asia had one thing in common: They ended at a certain point and I had to get back to Germany without knowing when I could come back.

Since I worked for GPV in 2013 I was searching for a possibility to completely live in Southeastasia, most favored in Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur or Singapur.

Additionally to my dream living in Asia I realized that after nearly working three years in Group Controlling and being out of university for four years I missed working scientifically and the academic environment.

At work I felt like coming to a point, where I only was moving numbers from one screen to another without conceptionally overthinking about what I was really doing, without the theoretical background of the usefulness of indicators and their underlying data and assumptions. I came to the point where I felt like being a mechanical working machine and it stressed me. After one day in the office, where I was working alone in the office building quite late again I decided to quit my job.

Together with my Prof. I’ve decided to apply for a Ph.D. in Management Accouning. Since the Business Intelligence and data-related area of my job have been those I liked the most, my goal was to better understand all data-related topics, especially what people now call Big Data.