Rainer Ohler
Freedom, democracy as well as cohesion and progress in Europe are never finally achieved. They rather need to be won time and again, basically every day. That’s why engagement by everybody is so important. We can never take any of this for granted. The current wave of extreme populism and nationalism is a clear and present danger to all that was achieved over decades. Our British friends have already thrown everything out of the window. They started by selling their Airbus stake and later went on to do Brexit. Now they regret it all.
I believe that in a world of fast technological development, US political and economic dominance challenged by China and India, European nation states can provide a home but not a future. Our future as Europeans is a future together in relevance or as nation-states in irrelevance.
Our institutions in Europe are not perfect. Everything we have is work in progress. In some areas we have gone too far, in most areas we haven’t gone far enough. I thoroughly regret the lack of ambition to boost European integration by the political leaders in Paris and Berlin and consider it a historic failure. Will the war in Ukraine change that ultimately? I sure hope so.
Overview
Founder of Senior Strategists (www.seniorstrategists.com) and Managing Director of Sieber Advisors (www.sieber-advisors.de), Rainer Ohler has been an international manager and communicator for nearly 25 years. His focus is on strategy and optimization of stakeholder relations, especially in large projects, crises and reputation issues. Rainer Ohler is a Munich registered lawyer.
Approach
Mentoring can’t work without getting to know each other – at least a little bit. That’s why I start with a genuine interest in the person. Then we need to understand what the mentee’s goals are and how he/she expects the mentoring to help achieve these goals. It is important to express expectations but also limitations and clarify the roles we play. Then we develop a plan. When it comes to the implementation of the plan, the driving force is the mentee. I see my role in encouragement and support. On a regular basis, we check how things are developing, what changes might be necessary and what other considerations need to be taken up. We have a clear schedule for the start and end of the mentoring (while keeping it slightly flexible at the end).
Career History
Rainer Ohler was born in Bonn and served for more than two years in the German Armed Forces and the NATO HQs in Belgium. He then studied law and political science in Würzburg and Münster with a scholarship from the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. In 1984 he observed the US presidential campaign as well as local elections on a study trip to Washington and a ten days stay in Boise, Idaho. During his school and university years, Rainer Ohler gained experience while working in the office of an MP (Egon Lampersbach) in Bonn and an MEP in Strasbourg (Günter Rinsche).
Rainer Ohler obtained his doctorate in law in 1991 and started his career in the German parliament (Deutscher Bundestag) and later served three years in the Federal Chancellery under Chancellor Kohl. He was a junior civil servant in charge of issues of the Ministry of the Interior, drafted letters and memos, and received numerous international groups for briefings on certain topics, often ahead of them meeting the Chancellor.
In 1995 he moved to Daimler-Benz Aerospace (Dasa) in Munich as senior manager in the general secretary’s office and assistant to the CEO Manfred Bischoff. In his first years in the industry, Rainer Ohler was given wide-ranging training sessions at the Daimler Corporate University with extensive stays at business schools in Paris and Chicago.
In 1998 he was promoted to Vice President Media Relations first at Dasa and later continued in the same function at EADS (European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company) in Munich. In 2006, he was appointed Senior Vice President Public Affairs & Communications at Airbus in Toulouse, became a member of the leadership team of Airbus and was appointed as a Member of the Supervisory Board of Airbus Deutschland. Ohler was responsible for political affairs, company security, environmental affairs and communications.
In 2012, CEO Tom Enders appointed him as Executive Vice PresidentCommunications at EADS, the Group to which Airbus belonged. In this role corporate governance, crisis communications as well as the integration of the company and its brands and the communications function were his main tasks. The group-wide change to the single brand Airbus was largely in his hands.
Rainer Ohler took an active part in the internationalization of Airbus first with its final assembly line in China, then with its final assembly line in Alabama, US and finally with the acquisition of the Bombardier C-series and the related factories in Montreal, Canada.
Rainer Ohler left Airbus at the end of April 2019 following the end of the term for CEO Tom Enders.
Personal
I’m a news junkie, love politics, enjoy podcasts, swimming, skiing and occasional rides with classic cars.