Christian Brickenstein

Christian Brickenstein is a leading practitioner in automotive corporate and product portfolio strategy, transformation, and performance improvement. He is a Partner at Strategy& Germany, operating from the Düsseldorf office, and brings over two decades of international management and consulting experience. Christian co-leads PwC's global software-defined vehicle initiatives and serves as the responsible partner for fostering collaboration between Chinese and European OEMs and suppliers. Additionally, he is a key leader in automotive circularity projects for Strategy& Europe.

His key areas of expertise include:

• Corporate and product portfolio strategy
• Value creation in deals
• Performance improvement, transformation, and turnaround
• Operating model transformation including governance, organizational design, and process realignment
• Ecosystem and partnering strategies for automotive players
• Winning strategies for circularity in the automotive industry

Examples of his assignments include:

• Refinement of the EV portfolio strategy and business case for a leading Asian OEM
• Strategic pricing of vehicles to balance profitability and CO2 compliance for an automotive OEM
• Optimization and digitization of strategic business planning for an automotive OEM
• Transformation and performance improvement of a major roof systems supplier
• Implementation of planning and optimization systems for planning processes
• Multiple operating model transformation programs for automotive suppliers
• Multiple performance improvement programs in automotive industry and for industrial goods clients
• Development of a circularity strategy for an automotive OEM
• Implementation of a partnering strategy for a truck OEM
• Target identification and deal strategy for European OEM to acquire an innovative Chinese OEM challenger

Christian holds a diploma with majors in accounting and controlling, strategy and organizational development from the University of Passau.