About.
Dr. Christian Fuat J. Ecer, M.A., M.B.A.
Investor and Executive Board Advisor
Adaptive Strategic Leadership
For more than 18 years I have worked at the intersection of strategy, behavioral economics, and corporate finance. As CFO in mid-sized companies and start-ups, Head of Corporate Strategy & M&A in large corporations, and Investment Director in the private equity industry, I have developed and led growth strategies, portfolio transformations, and restructuring programs.
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In parallel, I have focused my academic research on strategic decision-making in volatile markets and Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), complementing my practical leadership experience with insights from behavioral economics, cognitive science, strategy research, and epistemology.
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Across industries and market cycles, a consistent pattern emerges: value creation is driven by the ability to translate uncertainty into decision-ready action through robust leadership and decision systems. Poor decisions arise when intuition turns into unchecked belief or when excessive analysis leads to decision paralysis.
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Based on this experience, I developed the Adaptive Strategy Model—an integrated decision architecture that treats strategic decisions as learning systems and dynamically connects strategy, finance, and operational execution.
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This decision architecture forms the core of my work as an independent strategic advisor, investor, and fractional CFO for corporations, mid-sized companies, and start-ups. Across my engagements in recent years, it has been a pivotal driver of successful growth strategies, restructuring programs, and M&A transactions.​
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Leadership Experience
Dr. Ecer Strategy and M&A
Investor and Executive Board Advisor (2020–present)
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Krannich Solar Group
Group CFO (2024–2026)
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Retail Media Group GmbH (Subsidiary of CECONOMY AG)
CFO and COO (2018–2020)
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CECONOMY AG (former Metro AG)
Head of M&A and Corporate Strategy (2017–2020)
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Mutares AG (Private Equity)
Investment Director (2016–2017)
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BASF SE
Senior Manager Corporate Strategy and M&A (2012–2016)​
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Leadership Education
University of Oxford
Postdoctoral Research Fellow (2022–2023)
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Heidelberg University
Ph.D., Behavioral Economics; Summa Cum Laude (2018–2021)
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Harvard University – Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Ph.D. Scholarship, Visiting Fellowship Program (2020–2021)
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INSEAD
Ph.D. Scholarship, Visiting Fellowship (2019)
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University of Mannheim - Mannheim Business School
Full-time M.B.A.; ranked 2nd in class; Wilhelm-Müller-Foundation Award for Academic Excellence (2010–2011)​​
Public References
"I had the good fortune to advise Fuat during his visiting year at Harvard in 2020. With some guidance from me, he developed an innovative thesis, studying the impact of investment banking advice on offer premiums. Fuat is a clever and creative researcher, a seasoned practitioner, and an all-around pleasure to work with." ​​
- Prof. Malcolm P. Baker, Harvard University
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"Fuat was part of my team in Corporate Strategy at BASF for 2 years. He strongly supported several strategic projects in our company, mainly related to M+A. I fully enjoyed working with Fuat, his very strong commitment to deliver excellent results is outstanding. He is smart, very fast and passionate about what he does and about creating value for the company. And he always has an eye on the "reasons why". He builds strong networks within the company. I wish him all the best for his next step in his career. " ​​
- Thomas Kloster, President Petrochemicals, BASF SE
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"I worked with Fuat during commercial due diligence and strategy projects at PwC. His outstanding strategic thinking, quantitative expertise, can-do attitude and entrepreneurial drive made him an absolute pleasure to work with. Besides providing exceptional work, he demonstrated a lead-by-example type of working style, excellent communication and presentation skills as well as genuine integrity and empathy. Fuat is a unique talent - I fully recommend him as a strategist and manager." ​​
- Matthias Müller, Partner, Deloitte
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"I thoroughly recommend Fuat Ecer as both an outstanding consultant and smart manager. He was one of the highest performing students on the Mannheim Business School MBA programme where he thoroughly displayed his strategic skills. Fuat is one of the outstanding managers of the future." ​​
- Prof. Andrew Kakabadse, Henley Business School
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"I worked with Fuat in Corporate Strategy at BASF. Fuat has the ability to quickly analyze complex, unfamiliar topics and distill them down to the key points with clear recommendations for action. His creativity is evident in not only the solutions he provides, but also in the graphical way he presents them. Fuat is a very captivating presenter with engaging charts and a passionate speaking style. He did an excellent job leading diverse project teams working on key strategic corporate projects. Fuat was able to build teams with the right expertise, listen to the collective input, challenge the teams to refine the ideas, gain buy-in from key stakeholders (including upper management), and consistently deliver results that exceeded expectations on time. He has an incredible work ethic and his optimism make it fun to work with him on teams. " ​​
- Alex Attlesey, Vice President - Global Refinery Catalysts, BASF SE
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"I met Fuat during the "M&A in Practice" program at WHU, in which he was one of the faculty members and lecturers. Fuat’s impact on the program was decisive; his teaching, coaching and insights really made it the best further education program I have attended for years. His courses were cutting-edge, clear and vivid. He did a fantastic job to not only teach practical tools and frameworks, but also elaborate on their value in real cases." ​​
- Georg Boie, Executive VP & Managing Director, PNE AG
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"Fuat’s course at the M&T EMBA was excellent. The balance between theory and application was perfect. The tools were super helpful to use for my work later on strategy implementation. He brings a lot of good examples from the chemical industry, which were super relevant for my work.
I highly recommend his courses and after it you will feel well prepared to design and implement any strategy. " ​​
- Thiago Gomes de Lima, Global Procurement Director Construction, Lonza
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