MANAGEMENT TEAM
Christian Mertin
Managing DirectorChristian is an experienced Global Executive and Business Advisor and spent 20 years with Ernst & Young in Germany, Europe and India as well as with IBM Consulting in senior positions. Currently he is an independent advisor in his role as the owner and Managing Director of ConAxia. As an expert in optimising CFO and Global Business Services organisations, he will bring his deep and broad global expertise and innovation. Christian has gained global and practical experience in building SSC and GBS organisations that will generate immediate high and long-term value for you as ABSL DACH members. He is one of the initiators of the former "GBS Leader's Club" and will lead the entire ABSL DACH unit and group with his exceptional interpersonal, communication and cooperation skills
Tom Bangemann
Managing DirectorTom Olavi Bangemann is an experienced manager, coach, mentor and board member with proven content and managerial track record. Currently he is an independent advisor in his role as the owner and Managing Director of ConAxia. He is also Head of Data Development & Research as well as Advisory Board member for SSON Analytics, Senior Advisor to Callisto Grand, and Advisor to DCG Global. Tom is also the founder of several GBS communities, e.g. Hungarian Shared Service Community and Baltic Shared Service Community. He supported and advised several ABSL chapters and the UK Shared Service Forum. Tom has extensive coaching and mentoring experience over the past 10+ years, including mentoring the CHRO of a 1bn revenue listed consumer goods company. He has been on the Board of Directors for 2 years in Basware, a listed software company. Previuously Tom was Senior Vice President Business Transformation at The Hackett Group until end of June 2021. He had been with The Hackett Group for 19 years in various regional and practice leadership roles. Before that Tom was with Arthur Andersen in auditing and consulting. Tom is a recognized speaker on hundreds of conferences/events on 4 continents, Chairman of numerous events e.g. in UK, Germany, Hungary, UAE, China, as well as author of the Hackett Institute's Advanced Diploma in GBS Professionals Program, and the book „Shared Services in Finance and Accounting“.
Jacek Levernes
Managing DirectorJacek Levernes is a senior executive with +20 years of leadership experience working across CEE, Europe and globally. His specialties include business development, operations, digital transformation, investment growth, as well as strategy and public affairs, while his track record spans multiple industries. Currently he is a Senior Advisor at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Chairman at ICTSI Poland, and a non-executive Board Member of Globalworth Holding B.V., the investment fund behind the largest institutional real estate asset manager in the office segment across CEE. He is also the co-founder and now the Honorary President of the Association of Business Service Leaders (ABSL) an organization representing 300.000 sector jobs and 200 large investors in Poland including IBM, HP, Google, McKinsey, Infosys, Sony, Shell, Thomson Reuters, UBS, Credit Suisse, Citi, Bertelsmann, Cap Gemini, JP Morgan, State Street, Accenture and Goldman Sachs. ABSL is growing across Europe and also has organizations in the Czech Republic, Romania, Balkans, Baltics and Switzerland. He has studied, lived and worked in Norway, Poland, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, Singapore and the USA.
Derek Smith
Managing DirectorDerek Smith is a senior leader with extensive financial services experience through roles such as Head third party risk management, CEO of a Poland shared service centre and Private Equity CFO and M&A. He has set up and run large multi-location teams, managing all operations and wind-downs, across India, Poland and Switzerland. Experienced in change management, technology, process implementation and improvement via outsourcing, automation and innovation. Strong corporate governance experience, including entity formation and liquidation, and numerous board and risk committee leadership roles. Derek currently supports an Innovation Services Centre in Accra Ghana, providing business services in artificial intelligence and data science and is head of an SAP technology team based in Poland servicing global clients. He is a co-founder and long-term board member ABSL in Poland and was the chapter lead for Krakow, Switzerland and the Financial Services club. He has a strong focus on diversity, equity and inclusion and was the founder of the Women’s Business Network in Krakow. Derek has British and Swiss nationalities and has lived / worked in South Africa, Switzerland, Poland, India and the UK.
PaweŁ Panczyj
Managing DirectorPawel is an expert in the field of business services sectors with experience from both sides of the investment process. In the years 2002 – 2007 Pawel has worked very closely with the Mayor of Wroclaw in the field of supporting investors opening new factories and business service centers. Between 2008 and 2012 Pawel worked as the Manager in the Business Advisory Services department of EY, conducting negotiations with investors choosing the location or looking for support in early stages of the projects. In 2009, together with the ABSL Founding Members, he supported creation of ABSL and served as Advisor to the Management Board. Since 2012 Pawel has been working full time as the ABSL Managing Director. In the last 5 years he, among others, defined and created the 7 ABSL local chapters, supervised cooperation with ABSL strategic Partners in key fields of sector’s growth, supervised business development activities supporting ABSL projects including Annual and International Conferences and recently enlarged the organization with one more local chapter in Szczecin.