Kolja A. Rafferty
MBA, IDP-C, CTP, MScR
senior executive – advisor – certified board member
Areas of Expertise
Corporate Strategy · Turnaround · Transformation · Distress Situations · Growth Delivery · Start-Up · Scale-Up · M&A · TIMES industries · Due Diligence · Equity Performance Assessment · Private Equity · Internationalisation · Greenfield · Corporate Finance · Business Model Innovation · Valuation · Leadership · Business Transformation
Executive Profile
“Better means different.”
Extensive experience in corporate & business strategy, with a hands-on approach for implementation. Expert knowledge in turnaround, leading change & transformation, corporate finance, and digital transition. Proven success in special investment situations.
“The Digital Transformation is the greatest industrial,
challenge since the steam-engine.”
Focussing on Business Model Innovation and growth delivery in the European and Middle Eastern TIMES sectors. Strongly focused on success factors and measurable results, driven by pace, flexibility, and aspiration for performance.
Operative Engagements
2022 – 2023
- Chief Strategy Officer / Chief Marketing Officer, Dubai Integrated Economic Zones (DIEZ), Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Concluding the PMI strategy after the merger of three freezones, forming the second largest freezone in Dubai.
2020 – 2022
- Investment Department (MD), Qatar Development Bank, Doha, Qatar
Leading QDB’s Direct and Special investment portfolio / PE investments. Concluding from different asset classes, geographies, and sector investments.
2012 – current
- Practice lead strategy, Leverage Experts AG, Zurich; 2023 – current Leverage Experts (Middle East) LLC, Dubai
Consulting practice for Business- & Corporate Strategy, focusing on equity performance. Assigned for strategy, M&A, exit and digital transformation challenges.
- 2016 – 2019 CEO (mandated), eHealth platform provider, Basel / Madrid
Pioneer in the European e-Health industry, IoT platform provider. - 2012 – 2016 CEO (mandated), OTT TV provider, Zurich, Switzerland
OTT TV service provider, challenging quadruple-play business models in the telecommunication industry.
2007 – 2012
- Head of Consulting/deputy CMO, Financial Services / BPO provider, Zurich, Switzerland
Swiss consumer finance provider, the national market leader for customer loyalty programs.
2002 – 2007
- Managing Partner, boutique strategy consulting firm, Hamburg, Germany.
Boutique strategy consulting firm, fostering digital transformation, Big Data analytics, and customer insights; exclusive service provider for top4 consulting firm.
Board & Non-executive Assignments
2018 – 2022
- Member of the global certification oversight committee, Turnaround Management Association (TMA), Chicago, Illinois, USA.
2016 – 2018
- Non-executive-director, member of the board, Sicap Switzerland AG, Baar, Switzerland
Global software and IT services provider in the telecommunication industry with offices in Baar (CH), Lyon (France) and Calcutta (India). Successful exit to global investors concluded in 2018.
2016 – 2021
- INSEAD, International Directors Program; ambassador to Switzerland
2016 – current
- Member of the advisory board of EquityPitcher (PE investment firm)
2015 – 2017
- Mentor at the Rochester-Berne Executive MBA Mentoring Program
2012 – 2017
- Member of the Board at Simonites – The Rochester Bern Alumni Association, strategic officer; alliance officer to the Board of the Swiss Association of MBAs (SAMBA)
2010 – 2012
- Member of the Advisory Board, Swiss CRM Forum
Management Education
- DBA Student, Economics, Doctorate in Business Administration on the faculty of Finance (ongoing), ie University, Madrid, Spain.
- Leadership in Crisis, INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France.
- Game Theory, Stanford / University of British Columbia
- Certified Turnaround Professional (CTP), Turnaround Management Association (TMA), Chicago, Illinois, USA.
- Blockchain Technologies: Business Innovation and Application, MIT: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- Certificate in Corporate Governance, International Directors Programme, certified non-executive director, INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France.
- Executive Certificate in Global Management, INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France.
- Executive MBA, Institute for Financial Management, University of Berne.
- MBA, Simon Graduate School of Business, University of Rochester, USA.
