I'm Gunther Scherz, a Singapore-based general manager with 25 years of P&L ownership across Asia-Pacific. I step in as interim country manager or general manager for three to nine months, fix what is broken, and hand over a business that runs without me.
Markets where I have run the business, from a Singapore base
Proton Indonesia. A distressed US$38 million subsidiary returned to profit; US$1.2 million of debt settled in year one.
Audi ASEAN. Regional sales growth, leading four country managers. Malaysia alone grew 150 percent.
Proton Export. Markets added while cutting aging stock 70 percent and lifting sales 15 percent.
Call Tracking Solutions. A new call-attribution technology I brought to market; profitable in year one, then sold.
Each one is a problem I have already solved, with the numbers to show for it.
I take the country or general manager seat, get control of cash and legacy liabilities, strip out cost that earns nothing, and rebuild the commercial engine so the business stands on its own.
Done before: at Proton Indonesia I took over a loss-making US$38 million subsidiary and returned it to profit, settling US$1.2 million of debt in the first year and cutting OPEX 11 percent.
I review the network, set and enforce dealer standards, install health checks that show where each outlet loses money, and restructure ownership when the distributor model itself is the problem.
Done before: built a 166-process Dealer Enhancement Program on the Deloitte benchmark in Indonesia; converted Audi's Australian distributor from a joint venture into Audi AG's first wholly owned subsidiary in Asia-Pacific; audited 25 Toyota and Isuzu dealerships in Indonesia and the Philippines for J.D. Power.
German is my first language and Singapore is my home. I turn head office strategy into local execution, and local reality into numbers head office can act on, without losing anything in translation either way.
Done before: six years at Audi Asia Pacific, from Country Manager Australia and New Zealand, where we delivered 55 percent of regional volume, to General Manager ASEAN.
As interim general manager or COO, I lift commercial performance and doctor productivity, keep marketing inside Ministry of Health rules, run research governance to a regulator's standard, and put in the systems that let a clinic group scale.
Done before: co-founded Cutis Medical Laser Clinics in 2007 and have run it since; added a private-label line now worth about 15 percent of revenue and cut marketing spend 24 percent with AI-enabled lead management. I am the clinic's named contact with the Ministry of Health for human biomedical research.
Every workstream I lead today runs with Claude, Anthropic's AI, built into it: finance, pharma partnerships, marketing, research, people and business development. I build the tools myself and the team uses them every day.
On a mandate, that means a diagnosis in days rather than weeks, tight reporting without a large staff, and AI workflows your team keeps after I leave.
Month-end closing, bank reconciliation support and commission and payout calculations run through Claude workflows on top of Xero, with the logic encoded once and checked every month.
Our KOL work with a global aesthetics pharma company: agreement negotiation, a multi-site clinical study budget, competitive intelligence on toxins, congress symposium preparation and training decks, all prepared with Claude.
Custom Claude skills encode Ministry of Health advertising rules, brand voice and treatment knowledge, so campaigns, patient emails and performance reports come out compliant the first time.
Joy, an AI receptionist I built, connects to our electronic medical record to check live availability and book patients into open slots over WhatsApp, not just send reminders. It also runs an automated lead-management process, following up with new leads so they convert rather than go cold. Together these cut marketing spend 24 percent and lifted operational efficiency 30 percent.
Investigator-initiated study protocols, budgets and ethics submissions run with Claude, so the medical team spends its time on the science.
Staff sales training reviewed from recorded role-plays, a shared Claude workspace for the team, and live Claude tools that track every business development conversation. Certified by Anthropic's Claude Academy in building effective human-agent teams, and continuing the program.
Five stages, the lifecycle professional interim managers work to, with the exit planned from day one rather than negotiated at the end.
Objectives, KPIs, budget and sign-off authority, the reporting line, and what success looks like at exit, agreed in writing with the sponsor. An interim needs the same authority as the executive they replace.
I meet the team, partners and key customers, read the numbers, and present a written 30, 60 and 90 day plan. If the real problem differs from the brief, I say so early.
Cash, liabilities and urgent risks brought under control, plus visible early wins that build trust with the team and with head office.
Fortnightly reviews with the sponsor against the agreed KPIs, adjusting priorities as the situation changes. Changing habits on the ground matters as much as fixing processes.
I step back to test that the business runs without me, coach or help recruit the permanent leader, document the key processes, and leave the board my recommendations for what comes next.
Managing Director and Co-founderCutis Medical Laser Clinics, Singapore
Premium medical aesthetics practice in a market regulated by the Ministry of Health; full P&L, team of 14. Added an age management practice, a non-medical service line and a private-label skincare range. Promising SME 500 award, 2014.
Consultant and Senior ConsultantJ.D. Power Asia Pacific, Indonesia and the Philippines
Contract assignments auditing automotive dealer sales and service: 11 Toyota dealerships in Jakarta within a 20-dealership program, and 14 Isuzu dealerships across the Philippines, each a multi-day on-site assessment.
Managing Director and Co-founderCall Tracking Solutions, Singapore
Brought a new call-tracking and marketing-attribution technology to market, sold white-label through digital agencies and directly to enterprise clients. Profitable in year one; sold at 7x EBITDA.
President Director and Dealer PrincipalProton Edar and Proton Motor, Indonesia
Loss-making US$38 million subsidiary returned to profit; 3,200 units across 38 outlets, plus three owned retail outlets with US$24 million revenue. Team won the 2012 Proton Technical Competition.
General Manager, ExportProton Holdings, Malaysia
Export footprint grown from 17 to 22 markets; order-to-delivery time cut 20 percent.
General Manager ASEAN, earlier Country ManagerAudi Asia Pacific, Singapore
28 percent ASEAN sales growth; Malaysia up 150 percent; opened the first Audi Hangar showrooms in ASEAN; led the joint-venture buy-out that made Audi Australia the first wholly owned Audi AG subsidiary in Asia-Pacific.
From partners, peers and direct reports across Audi, Proton and the J.D. Power program.
“Gunther is an astute CEO who understands all aspects of Automotive Distribution, Sales and Dealer Network Management. He is commercially tough but fair and pragmatic.”
“Gunther contributed a lot to the success we achieved at Audi Australia.”
“Quietly building consensus and applying logic and common sense to find the way forward and achieve what needed to be achieved.”
“Gunther's capacity to navigate through this intricate project was remarkable, consistently surpassing expectations with the results achieved.”
Fifteen recommendations in full on LinkedIn.
Research and writing on aesthetic medicine, patient decision-making and ethics, co-authored with the Cutis medical team.
With Ramirez S
Journal of Dermatology Research
Ramirez SPB, Scherz G
Medical Research Archives, 13(6)
Ramirez S, Scherz G
Book chapter in Global Bioethics: Current Challenges, New Developments, and Future Directions, IntechOpen
Ramirez S, Scherz G, Leprince R
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Global Open, 12(10): e6210
Ramirez S, Cullen C, Ahdoot R, Scherz G
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Global Open, 12(6): e5935
Ramirez SPB, Scherz G, Smith H
Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology, 15: 1247 to 1257
Ramirez SPB, Scherz G, Smith H
Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology, 14: 197 to 207
Scherz G
AD Asia. How call tracking closes the loop from lead generation to customer.
Under review: further manuscripts, including a radiofrequency clinical study submitted to Lasers in Medical Science, on which I led the research governance.
Speaking
AMWC Southeast Asia, Bangkok
Industry faculty meeting, Seoul
AMWC Southeast Asia, Bangkok
Licenses and certifications
A short email with the situation and the timing is enough to start.
gunther.scherz@gmail.com