Dr. Antonella Mei-Pochtler is a Senior Advisor of the Boston Consulting Group and a Special Advisor to the Federal Chancellor of Austria and Head of Think Austria, the Strategy and Planning Unit of the Chancellery. She was born in Rome and went to the German School, where she graduated in 1976. As part of her extracurricular activities, she was the captain of the German School’s handball team, with which she was elected Italy’s Junior Athlete of the year.

With a scholarship of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), she studied business administration at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, where she graduated in 1981. She then earned her PhD in business administration at the University of Rome and an MBA at INSEAD in 1983 with the Dean’s List Award.

Dr. Antonella Mei-Pochtler joined BCG’s Munich office in 1984 and was promoted to Partner in 1990 and to Senior Partner and Managing Director in 1998. She covered many leadership positions in the German speaking area and globally. She was the head of the German Consumer Goods practice from 1990 to 1997, she opened BCG’s Vienna Office in 1997, became the Global Branding Topic Leader in 1999, a member of the European Management Team in 2004, as well as a member of the global Executive Committee in 2006 and from 2011 to 2016 she was the global head of BCG`s Media & Entertainment sector.

Her client work mainly focused on the development and implementation of strategic and organizational change and on branding issues, particularly in the consumer goods, retail, and media sectors. In 2008, she was voted one of the world’s 10 best consultants by Consulting Magazine. In addition to her project work, she created and organized for more than 10 years the Brand Club, a top marketing- and media-focused conference for CEOs in Germany. She is also a co-initiator of BCG’s educational initiative business@school, for which she received the Freedom and Responsibility award from the German government in 2002.

She is also engaged in other pro bono activities, like the German Bone Marrow Donor Association (DKMS) as well as Europe’s 500—Entrepreneurs for Growth, the European association of fast-growing companies. She became involved with Teach For All in 2011 and supported the start-up phase of Teach For Austria.

She has written many articles on a wide range of topics, and a selection of essays had been published in her book “Acupuncture for Management.”  Antonella Mei-Pochtler is married to Christian Pochtler, an Austrian entrepreneur, and has three daughters. She speaks four languages and is a passionate skier.