Dirk Machule

Dirk Machule

Interim Management Focus

  • CHRO, CRO and COO roles in international corporations, group subsidiaries and family-owned businesses
  • Transformation, restructuring, turnaround and organizational repositioning
  • Turnarounds, workforce restructuring and business transfers
  • Mergers & Acquisitions, carve-outs and post-merger integrations
  • Cost reduction and operational efficiency improvement
  • Strategic and operational HR leadership

Dirk Machule is a Partner at Executive Interim Partners and has more than 25 years of international leadership, transformation, and P&L experience in corporations, mid-sized companies, and private equity portfolio companies.

As an interim manager, he assumes full operational responsibility in complex special situations, particularly as CHRO, CRO, or COO. He leads companies, business units, and transformation programs with clear accountability for results and a strong focus on execution. His expertise includes reorganizations, restructurings, post-merger integrations, as well as strategic and operational realignments. He is responsible for site closures and relocations, performance and efficiency programs, workforce reduction and expansion initiatives, and the sustainable safeguarding of operational performance. In doing so, he combines analytical clarity with pragmatic assertiveness and a high speed of execution.

Mr. Machule has extensive industry experience, including in the energy, automotive, mechanical and plant engineering, industrial, pharmaceutical, and services sectors. In executive management and board positions, he held full responsibility for international organizations and led their development, transformation, and sustainable stabilization.

He began his career in executive search, followed by leadership roles in the energy and industrial sectors as well as international management positions in IT distribution and mechanical engineering. For several years now, he has been supporting corporations, larger mid-sized companies, and private equity investors as an interim manager in complex transformation and crisis situations.

Mr. Machule holds a degree in Economics (Diplom-Volkswirt) from the University of Cologne.

Selected Management References

  • Project Lead and PMO for the design and planning of a post-merger integration (PMI) project involving over 30,000 employees of an electrical and energy technology manufacturer; objective: define the organizational structure for a company with more than 90,000 employees
  • CHRO/CRO for a transformation project during the relocation of ~2,000 employees, including a reduction of 790 employees, at a leading machinery and plant manufacturer for plastics and rubber (16 sites, 30 subsidiaries, 570 sales and service partners, €1B revenue, 4,700 employees); cost-saving target: >€50M
  • Senior Advisor & CRO for the closure of a production site (€120M revenue, 260 employees) of an automotive supplier with 330 production facilities and 96 R&D centers worldwide; ensured site closure in accordance with IDW S6 standards and managed continuity/relocation of production (€49B revenue, 169,000 employees)
  • Managing Director & CIO/CRO for the integration of an international specialty pharma company into a global pharmaceutical group in Barcelona; responsibilities included site closure, product portfolio adjustments, and sales expansion (revenue €100M, 450 employees, project budget €30M)
  • Senior Advisor & Executive Transformation Lead at a global automotive manufacturer (>€250B revenue, >600,000 employees), driving transformation and cultural change by implementing a company-wide integrity and compliance program and optimizing processes to secure production (project budget €28M).
  • Project Lead for the rollout of standardized SAP software at an international machinery manufacturer with over 4,500 licenses (project budget €28M, 200 project staff)
  • Executive Leader for cultural change and transformation at an international power plant construction company (€14B revenue, 50,000 employees); strengthened employer branding, facilitated knowledge transfer, and secured market share in Power Services Europe/Asia (project budget €15M)
  • Executive Leader for cultural change and transformation at an international power plant construction company (€14B revenue, 50,000 employees); strengthened employer branding, facilitated knowledge transfer, and secured market share in Power Services Europe/Asia (project budget €28M).
  • Overall Project Lead for restructuring, workforce reductions, and carve-outs of 4,500 employees at an energy engineering company (€14B revenue, 55,000 employees); led negotiations with unions (IG Metall & Verdi) and works councils across Central Europe (50% of workforce), achieving savings of ~€400M.
  • Project Lead / Negotiation Lead at a major IT/electronics distributor (€25B revenue, 12,000 employees) for the carve-out and closure of a logistics site with >450 employees, realizing savings of ~€40M.
  • Executive HR Lead / CRO for the closure and liquidation of 10 European sales locations (~500 employees) of an international energy producer in accordance with IDW S6; managed negotiations with works councils and unions (€23B revenue, 33,000 employees), achieving savings of ~€48M.

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