After 10 years of mainly managing the financial structure and business of Kraftblock, Susanne has restructured her work to focus on new areas and steps up to Chief External Affairs Officer (CEA). She comments: "While I have enjoyed finance for decades, the last few years have shown me that I want to play a more active role in creating and realising ideas for the company and in defining what is needed for the energy transition and working towards better regulatory frameworks both in Germany and the EU."

Susanne has already done a lot of work to support the regulatory body with insights from energy storage companies. For example, she is Vice President of BVES, the German Energy Storage Association, and has contributed to regulations and policies at EU level. With the addition of a new CFO, she will be able to devote more time to this important focus and to Kraftblock's future strategy..

Susanne says that now that there has finally been some movement in German energy regulation, she is hopeful that the market in Germany is moving towards progressive change for renewable and flexible energy assets. This motivates her to step up her efforts to get regulation that includes energy storage.

She also highlighted the importance of being more visible as a female founder in the deep tech space: "We want to show that women and people from different cultures bring value to the company. As Kraftblock continues to bring in people from all over the world and give opportunities to experts regardless of gender, we also want the world to realize that diversity is not wishful thinking, but already best practice". In her new role, she will increase the representation of Kraftblock, making diversity at Kraftblock more visible.

Co-founder and CEO Martin Schichtel welcomes the new role and pays tribute to Susanne's work: "Her notorious and meticulous work has been at the heart of our success, the backbone of our organization and has allowed us to grow so much in terms of shaping our business." Now he is looking forward to seeing Susanne in her new role: "She has always thrived on regulatory and policy issues in Germany and the EU and has a deep knowledge of the energy market. Now she has the time to contribute more and to better explore the options for Kraftblock".

Susanne has onboarded the new CFO, Tobias Nicolay, who joined Kraftblock from ZF Friedrichshafen AG.