Dr. Eric Bernhard

AI-experienced supervisory and advisory board member with McKinsey and CEO track record as chairman and managing director in listed industrial groups and family corporations.

C-level sparring partner for corporate AI transformation, efficiency improvement, growth strategy and M&A. International board member, financial expert with proficiency in corporate governance and ESG.

Book author on corporate AI transformation by rolling out artificial intelligence and intelligent robotics. 

International management experience in stock-listed corporations:

  • 'AI-experienced Supervisory and Advisory Board Member' C-Level Advisor
  • 'Chief Executive Officer (CEO)' Stock listed industrial corporation - Corporate transformation
  • 'Executive Board Member of Group Division' French stock-listed family corporation - Post-merger integration
  • 'Chairman of the Executive Board / CEO' Industrial corporation - Group-wide performance improvement
  • 'Group Division Managing Director' German listed family group - German listed family corporation - development and management of its international division
  • 'McKinsey Senior Project Manager' Top management consulting - strategy, M&A, transformation and turnarounds
  • 'AI-experienced Supervisory and Advisory Board Member' C-Level Advisor
slide1 slide1 slide1 slide1 slide1 slide1 slide1

Latest book release 2025

Corporate-wide AI transformation
The roadmap for C-level and supervisory board

Act rather than hesitate:
Make AI a profitability game-changer before it's too late in the race for the competitive advantage.

Mobirise Website Builder

The spectacular rise of artificial intelligence applications and intelligent robotics marks the most profound disruption that companies and the world of work have ever experienced. The company-wide AI transformation offers the opportunity to rethink business models, tap into previously unattainable cost efficiency potential and unlock new dimensions of value creation, thereby gaining a decisive competitive advantage.

The challenges go far beyond purely technological aspects. The AI transformation is revolutionising the entire corporation, requires a culture of change, imposes new demands on risk management, compliance and governance and requires even top management and the supervisory board to develop an entirely new set of capabilities.

This business book is intended for executive board members, managing directors and supervisory board members who recognise the strategic value of artificial intelligence and want to deploy it with courage and determination in all areas of the corporation - from corporate management to production, marketing, sales, purchasing, HR, finance, IT and sustainability management (ESG) to M&A.

The author Dr Eric M. Bernhard is a both visionary and practice-oriented, AI-savvy business leader. As a former McKinsey consultant and as a CEO and member of supervisory and advisory boards in leading international listed corporations and family-owned companies, he shaped corporate transformations and led companies out of crisis situations through systematic group-wide improvement programmes including AI and automation initiatives to new records in sales and profits.

Published with Amazon in 2025:
ISBN 978-3-9827035-0-3 (Hardcover Book)
ISBN 978-3-9827035-1-0 (Paperback Book)
ISBN 978-3-9827035-2-7 (E-Book)

More details on book and author Book link to publisher Amazon

Example of corporate transformation:

CEO mandate as Chief Executive Officer of GESCO AG (fixed-term contract 2016-2018)

Development and implementation of a new Group strategy that lead the Group after years of sales stagnation and declining results through a literal relaunch, putting the company back on the track of profitable growth - through business portfolio streamlining, restructuring, operational improvement measures, focus on target markets, sales and pricing initiatives, automation, digitalisation and M&A.

The published Group figures reflect the extent and success of the strategic and operational transformation:
- Net profit more than tripled in 2018 vs. 2016, with 2018 marking the best annual result in the Group's history to date
- 2018 vs. 2016 revenue growth of +19%, de facto organic with only approx. 3% market growth
- New confidence in the share: All analysts raised their share target prices and upgraded their ratings from "hold" to "buy", and the share price outperformed the market and established a new historic all-time high in December 2017
- Cultural change towards a performance culture with results orientation and focus on profitable growth and cost efficiency

GESCO AG published on its website in 2017:

Capital Market Reference
(Excerpt from an analyst report published by Gesco 10/2017, with comments in retrospect on the years 2016-2018)

Previous publications

Corporate Recovery -
Tough times call for tough action

If the collapse of a company is imminent, rigorous action is required under extreme time pressure. Conventional decision-making processes must be overruled. They are substituted by centralised decision-making and enforcement with a very high degree of operational involvement by top management. The article is an experience report on supporting companies in crisis situations and provides insights into corporate management in volatile times and disruptive environments, from the active design of successful turnarounds to the sustainable generation of new profitable growth.  Read as PDF..

Crisis management -
Effective turnaround approaches 

As a compendium of renowned authors from science, business and politics, this book illustrates the process of crisis management from business, economic and legal perspectives: identifying corporate crises, strategies and measures for crisis prevention and for coping with corporate crises. Practical examples illustrate how corporations have successfully achieved a turnaround through consistent strategic crisis management. More details at Amazon..

Art as an Investment - Art Market Funds as Link between Art and Capital Markets

This financial investment book analyses cycles, structural breaks, return and risk on the art market and proves that, despite medium and long-term cycles, the art market has been in a steep upward trend unbroken for decades. Art is thus highly attractive for the modern investor who seeks to optimise his portfolio. The presented art market fund concept provides detailed guidelines for its professional launch in practice. More details at Amazon..

Privacy Policy:
This is a private website that does not use cookies. The use of this website is possible without providing personal data. Such data is neither collected nor stored nor passed on to third parties. The owner of this website, Dr. Eric Bernhard, can be reached via the button "Contact request by e-mail", which generates an e-mail from the site visitor's mail software. The owner of this website accepts no liability for the use of links on this website that lead to third-party websites (amazon.de and linkedin.com) whose content and regulations, amongst others on data protection, are not under the control of the owner of this website.