Over the last two decades, he served clients across the Americas, Europe, and Africa on strategy, sales, growth & localisation, organisation, and cost projects.

Max worked at McKinsey & Company’s Munich office, serving clients in the US, UK, and Europe. Before joining McKinsey, he ran his own small consulting firm during his studies.

Max attained a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Technology and Management from the Technical University in Munich. He subsequently completed an Honours degree in Technology Management, spending a term abroad at Columbia Business School in New York, while conducting internships in Germany, Singapore, China, and Spain.

He subsequently took a sabbatical to pursue a doctorate on youth employment in South Africa with the Universities of Witwatersrand, Cape Town and Mainz on youth unemployment in South Africa and built scenarios for 2040, which was published as a book; Youth Unemployment Scenarios: South Africa in 2040.

Max started three social ventures in South Africa, all addressing the issue of youth employment. The first of these, founded in 2011, was a student-run consulting firm in Johannesburg, The Consulting Academy Johannesburg, which later expanded to Cape Town, Nairobi, and Guadalajara. The second was an entrepreneurship boot camp for unemployed youth, which was successfully piloted and used as a base for a train-the-trainer approach. The third, uNowanga, is an upskilling initiative done in collaboration with the international charity, St John South Africa. It is a programme to send unemployed youth from South Africa to Germany to train as nurses.