I was hired by Wolfgang Richter, the CIO for Whirlpool North-America, through an introduction by Jeff Fettig, then head of Whirlpool Europe, now CEO of the company. I started out in IT, quickly worked myself into the staff of the new global CIE, David Butler, and then transfered over to the product development side. There I got a rather broad experience of product, technology, finance and people management. The typical American management exposure.

In the end, my wife and I had to make a tough choice to leave the company that we loved to work in. Our reality was one of constant international travel, and that took its toll. We wanted kids, and we needed to take a break to do so. The decision to return to Europe was a lengthy and hard one, but in the end I have not regretted it.