Christian Michel

Biography

Christian Michel is a Managing Director with Alvarez & Marsal in Spain. He has over 20 years of experience in operational turnaround, performance improvement, corporate transformations and crisis management. Mr. Michel has served as CEO, COO and Managing Director in the consumer goods and construction materials industries, as well as advised clients in the telecom, financial, energy and consumer goods sectors. Prior to joining A&M, Mr Michel held various leadership positions in URSA Insulation S.A., a €500mm company of the former Uralita Group and listed building material producer. Most recently, Mr. Michel served as interim-CEO after the takeover by the private equity firm KKR and successfully led an organizational and operational restructuring. Previously, Mr Michel was Managing Director of URSA and crucially involved in securing a €320mm financial restructuring deal of Uralita Group with KKR. Previous to the refinancing, he successfully completed a comprehensive turnaround program covering industrial and commercial efficiency, purchasing, G&A costs and organizational structure. In this role, he successfully carried out numerous turnaround missions and performance improvement programs for URSA. E.g. as CEO of URSA Eurasia and led the turnaround of Uralita’s Russian/CIS business. Mr Michel also led the turnaround or divestment of underperforming business units like Spain, France, Germany, South-East Europe and Turkey. Previously, Mr Michel was General Director for the international business of Campofrio, a €1bn processed meat and prepared food manufacturer. There he led operational improvement, turnaround and divestment programs in countries like France, Russia, Poland and Romania. Mr Michel worked for eight years for The Boston Consulting Group. During that time, he led a multi-year restructuring and transformation project with a leading food producer and a start-up project of a new multichannel bank. He also supported a leading energy company to transform the commercial organization as a preparation for the liberalized market and defined the internet strategy for a global telecom company. Mr Michel earned a Master of Science in Engineering Cybernetics from the University of Stutttgart (Germany). He also earned an MBA with distinction from Rotterdam School of Management and holds an AMP (Advanced Management Program) from INSEAD. Mr. Michel’s native language is German and he speaks Spanish and English fluently.

Research Interest

Christian Michel  has 25 years of experience in operational turnaround, performance improvement, corporate transformations and crisis management and he served as CEO, COO and Managing Director in the consumer goods and construction materials industries; advised clients in the telecom, financial, energy, consumer goods and health care sectors Wide experience with private equity sponsored, family owned and listed companies