Fresenius Kabi : Graduate Programme : Global Finance Trainee Program

UPDATE

Our screening process for the next intake will be open in autumn 2012.

With a university degree in business administration and organizational engineering, I joined Fresenius Kabi right after completing my studies at Fresenius Kabi’s headquarters in Germany to pursue the 18-month Finance Trainee Program (Graduate Development Program). This step was a perfect start and the right decision for me.

The support given to me during the Trainee Program was perfect. My boss, who also was my mentor, organized three major cycles for me: at headquarters in Germany, at a market unit in the UK, and at a production unit back in Germany. I have always wanted to work overseas to broaden my horizon with regard to various styles of working different languages, and diverse cultures. Therefore, this was the perfect platform for me to start from. During these 18 months, I had a wonderful opportunity to see different facets of controlling within a short period of time, such as the controlling of a global product division, market unit controlling, and production controlling. In all three cycles, I was involved in budgeting/forecasting, monthly closings, cost center controlling or projects, to name just a few examples. This enabled me to see the role of controlling from different angles, and in addition, gave me an overview and lots of variety at an early stage of my career.

After I completed my Trainee Program, Fresenius Kabi was re-structured from a global structure based on product divisions into a regional structure, and I relocated to our regional head office in Paris to help building up a regional controlling from scratch. During this phase, I had the opportunity to do work of a real “pioneer” character in the unique and rare situation of building something new. This period in my career was extremely important; it sharpened my skills and prepared me for the next career step.

After two years in Paris, I received a call from our Asia Pacific office in Hong Kong. I started there as regional controller, with responsibility for a small team, and reported directly to the CFO of the Asia Pacific Region. What a great experience! Being able to live in such an exciting place, namely Hong Kong, while gaining hands-on work experience in Asia Pacific, a booming and growing business environment! Only one and a half years later, I took over the role as CFO for the region and reported to the President of the Asia Pacific Region. At the age of 31, this was a huge responsibility and demonstrates the culture at Fresenius Kabi: The Company is always prepared to offer mobile and flexible young talents great career opportunities.

Having worked and lived in Hong Kong for three and a half years, it was time to move into operations. I relocated to Jakarta to build up our subsidiary in Indonesia as a Managing Director; this was the perfect platform to further augment my experiences. It was a great opportunity for me and I enjoyed being very close to our customers, patients and the doctors. Managing a Fresenius Kabi subsidiary was a great challenge and a big responsibility.

After a long period abroad, it was a time to come back to headquarters. Today, I work for Corporate Controlling and report to the CFO of Fresenius Kabi. The extremes could not have been more profound, coming from a local sales organization in Indonesia to the corporate headquarters. What satisfies me most is being able to apply what I have learned in the fusion of all the experience I have acquired during my day-to-day work.
Looking back and if I had to start my career again after graduating from my university, I would not change a single step.

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