Antonella Mei-Pochtler

Dr. Antonella Mei-Pochtler is an Italian businesswoman and strategist with deep experience in the global media, technology and consumer sectors, both as advisor and executive. She began her professional career at The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in Munich, where she became the youngest Partner and Managing Director in1989. She held various management positions in Europe and globally, opened and led BCG’s Vienna office and became a member of BCG’s global executive committee in 2008. She was named amongst the top 25 consultants worldwide by Consulting Magazine and was honored with the Women Leaders in Consulting Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013. From 2018 to 2022, she acted as Special Advisor to the Austrian Federal Chancellor, leading the strategy unit “ThinkAustria“ and co-chairing the Kofi Annan Award for Innovation in Africa, a joint initiative of Africa and the European Union. She is also involved in a range of social causes and activities, particularly regarding equity in education as long-time advisory board member of Teach for All and co-founder of the award-winning education project Business@School. She also co-founded the Phorms School network in Germany. She currently serves as CEO of iSi Group, Executive Vice Chairwoman of the family owned Pochtler Industrieholding GmbH and as non-executive director on various international boards like Generali Group S.p.A. (Italy), Publicis SA (France), DEAG and Westwing SE (both in Germany). Previously, she was an IFC nominated director for SIPRA in West Africa and Supervisory Board Chairwoman of Wolford AG, Austria. In the non-profit area she serves as board member of the European Forum Alpbach, TUM Venture Labs, Sovereign Europe Forum and the Advisory Boards of the Drucker Forum and the WeAreDevelopers platform. She has written extensively on leadership and strategy. Her essays were collected in a book titled Acupuncture for Management. Dr. Mei-Pochtler was born in Rome, where she went to the German School, studied economics and business administration at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich and the Università La Sapienza in Rome as well as at INSEAD, Fontainebleau, where she obtained an MBA with distinction. Her home base is Vienna, Austria, where she lives with her family.