Caroline (Charly) Sturm worked at Detecon from 2016 to 2017 and was involved in various projects. Today, she is the Managing Director at Digital Hub Cologne and is primarily involved in consulting services related to ESG. In this short interview, Caroline answers questions about her time at Detecon and which topics are currently on her mind.
From when until when did you work at Detecon and in what role?
I was at Detecon from January 2016 to April 2017. I started as an intern to try out whether the job suited me. It fit very well and I really liked the team. Despite the relatively short time at Detecon, I was able to work with great colleagues, Malte Mertens, Emanuel Eichler, Sophie Müller, Benjamin Weis, Carolin Obernolte, Amira Zayed, and many more. Organizationally, I was a Business Analyst in Roland Keil's team, and later part of Christian Kleinhans in the retail division. In Jörg Borowski's team, I also worked on an E-mobility project, a project with a lot of "Zeitgeist".
What were your most exciting or even most beautiful Detecon moments?
The golf group at Detecon was great, we always had a lot of fun. I still appreciate the invitations from Evangelos to the golf group, greetings at this point. Unfortunately, with a dog and kid and all, I don't make it to the green that often in addition to my current job. What I found quite funny, was that at a Telekom workshop I participated in, a button was created that was named after me in the process for automation. Such workshops are simply good when they are creative and then such moments can arise. There were, of course, many other beautiful moments. From the E-Mobility project, to the support from VP Finance in the context of which we were also once in the T-Center in Vienna, a very special location, called "the ship".
Another highlight was the YCN (Young Consultants Network) trip to Warsaw. We had a great program on site and the team was just great.
Which company do you work for today? What is your main area of responsibility there?
I am the Managing Director at Digital Hub Cologne and take care of business development and positioning. We are a contact point for specialized consulting services in the areas of digitization, strategy, ESG, real estate and AI for medium-sized companies. So you can understand us as a small consulting house focusing on environmental, social and governance, short ESG topics in the spirit of the UN SDGs.
My mission at the moment is primarily to drive the topic of ESG - i.e. sustainability projects, but also social or governance topics. Digitalization is the most promising lever so far. Thanks to our background with PropTech Powerhouse e.v., which is the construction and real estate association for sustainability and digitization that we operate, we are currently also focusing on this sector.
Of course, this reflects my years of experience in the construction and real estate industry, which I gained after my time at Detecon. Here I am regularly on panels and conferences and in trade journals, such as "Beton- und Stahlbau", something I would never have thought of a few years ago.
What did you particularly appreciate at Detecon and what do you miss from the "old days"?
There were a lot of internal trainings, so if you wanted to, you could learn a lot and take it with you. And: you could get involved and be creative everywhere at Detecon, which I still appreciate today. Among other things, I was involved in the founding of a blockchain group with Cem Semtürk, in the course of which we were also able to get to know the Innovation Lab at Telekom in Bonn.
However, the cohesion in the team and the great colleagues are particularly noteworthy. I am still friends with many of them today.
With which three hashtags would you describe Detecon?
#creativity
#zeitgeist
#network
