Finance, data & AI transformation
Former Director, Deloitte Switzerland. I help large and mid-sized companies make finance, data and AI work in everyday operations.
Today I advise clients in Switzerland and Germany independently, and I help brands from outside the EU navigate the European market. As COO and co-owner of GrowTechnology, I put AI to work across the business.
I take on a small number of mandates at a time and work on them personally.
- EY Transaction Advisory Services
- Co-founder, Deloitte Financial Advisory Analytics
- BBA cum laude, The George Washington University
How I work
Four areas. One standard.
I have been making things work since I programmed my model railway at twelve. The standard has not changed: a system is finished when the people who own it use it every day.
- 01
Finance, data & AI transformation
A target picture for finance, data and AI, then the initiatives that matter most: finance data architecture, AI-ready data, the first AI use cases in finance. Built to survive month-end.
- 02
Turning AI from a slide into daily operations
My advice on AI comes from using it every day at GrowTechnology, the company I co-own. The hard part is rarely the AI. It is the data underneath, and agreeing who checks the output.
- 03
Project governance
Scope, steering and accountability for data, IT and AI programmes. I have sat on both sides of the table: as a Big Four advisor and as the operator who has to make it work.
- 04
Navigating the European market
For manufacturers and brands from the US, China and elsewhere, in any category. What they learn fast: the EU is not one market. Through GrowTechnology I see first-hand what it takes to enter it, and I help brands navigate the EU and get their products sold and distributed across Europe. If GrowTechnology could be your distributor, I say so at the start.
Ways of working
Directly for clients, or as a senior expert within existing consulting teams.
Projects
- Fixed-scope diagnostic: where you stand and what to do first.
- Roadmap: the target picture and the initiatives in order of priority.
- Steering or governance role in a data, IT or AI programme.
- Finance and data due diligence, and the first months after closing.
Roles
- Interim or fractional Chief Data Officer (CDO).
- Interim COO.
- Non-executive or advisory-board mandate.
For brands entering Europe
- Fixed-scope market-entry review: compliance, logistics and partners, and what to do first.
- Commercial strategy, route to market and distribution, country by country.
Track record
Advisor and operator.
More than twelve years of M&A, finance and data at EY and Deloitte.
Sectors
- Banking & insurance
- Life sciences & pharma
- Energy, utilities & industrials
- Logistics, consumer & retail
At EY and Deloitte
- Interim head of a nine-figure European expense budget at a global insurer, kept under control through the post-merger integration.
- Finance data from several dozen ERP systems harmonised into one drill-down view, which became the financial basis for setting up an industrial joint venture.
- Business-case workstream lead on a CHF 1bn+ banking outsourcing deal.
- Financial due diligence, valuation and modelling on buy-side, sell-side and refinancing deals, including a private-equity LBO model.
- Built the valuation model for a German media acquisition; the purchase price was based on my model.
Independent work since 2025
- Co-led the design of a strategy management system for a German municipal utility, presented to its supervisory board in 2025. Adopted, rolled out across all units and in quarterly use.
- Got a professional services firm’s M&A project-management tool across the finish line; it is now used on all of its M&A deals in Switzerland.
At GrowTechnology
GrowTechnology is a full-service distributor for indoor-growing technology that takes over the complete European market entry for manufacturers and supplies specialist retailers from its warehouse in Germany. As its COO and co-owner, I run operations, with AI in daily use from the books to the warehouse.
- Finance. Books reconciled to the cent, online payments matched to orders daily, and purchasing based on AI demand and cash forecasts, not gut feel.
- Operations. AI pallet planning and a bespoke operations portal I built in-house, from warehouse picking and packing to freight booking and stock, hardened with AI-assisted security testing.
- Supply chain. A warehouse built from scratch, an ERP I know down to the postings, and direct work with freight forwarders, customs and Chinese manufacturers.
References available on request.
Full career and educationWorlds
From Aachen to Lake Zurich, the long way round.
I grew up on the German–Belgian border. Boarding school in St. Gallen, studies in Washington DC, Hong Kong and Beijing, work in Düsseldorf, London and Zurich.
Those years have left me with friends and former colleagues in senior roles across industries and continents. Some now hold CFO, CDO and partner roles, and my network reaches board and executive level in Swiss insurance, banking, industrials and life sciences. At Deloitte I sourced substantial work through personal relationships.
When a question goes beyond my own expertise, I usually know someone who has been through it, and I make the introduction if both sides want it. I take no referral fees or vendor commissions in my consulting work, and where my own company could benefit, I say so first.
About
Still keeping the machines running.
At school I ran the LAN parties and kept everyone else’s computers going; at boarding school I rigged a camera alarm to warn me when the night watchman was coming. Making technology behave for the people who use it is still what I enjoy most.
Off the clock: travel (China at least once a year) and hunting for the best sushi in every city I visit. Recommendations welcome.
The longer storyContact
Let’s talk.
If you run a company, lead its finance, data or operations, or want to sell your products in Europe, write to me in German or English. I answer personally.
- Emailingmar@waterloh.de
- LinkedInlinkedin.com/in/ingmarwaterloh