Hello! I’m Florian Wehner. I’m a sustainable generalist. What is that?
sustained: maintained at length without interruption or weakening
generalist: one whose skills, interests, or habits are varied or unspecialized
In this blog you can read my ideas about life, work and the world. These ideas are covering a wide range of topics.
I want to make this planet a better place for future generations. The past is only important to make better decisions in the future.
Family and friends
Humanity by working for diversity, equity and inclusion
Freedom
Sharing knowledge, teaching and learning
I am the type of person who builds and creates things. Today, these are teams and lean processes.
I’m passionate about creating a lean culture and stable work. The right amount of process lets you surf on the wave of productivity. This gives people to work without struggle and come up with new creative way to improve their work.
As a generalist I know enough about knowledge management, problem solving, meditation, mechanical design, 3D printing, linux, finance, electricity markets, giving feedback, power electronics, relational databases, industrial controls, team building, lean, sour dough bread, solar power, decision making, programming, creativity methods, the power of the learning curve, yoga, systems engineering, product development, sailing, employee development, physical simulation, process design, race car vehicle dynamics, energy storage, managing teams, climate change, business administration, passive investing, recruiting and talent acquisition, bikes, climate change, fluid metrology, carbon accounting, weather, building organizations, and more…
This is my professional life to date in a few sentences. For your pleasure in chronological order.
I am from Hannover, Germany. A beautiful, green and underrated city. I went to a humanistic high school learning Latin, English and Ancient Greek—in that order. Thankfully I graduated without the ancient languages but math and English as a major in 2006.
In 2003 and 2004 I spent a year in Victoria, BC, Canada as an exchange student.
After school I did not study architecture although it was an option. I chose mechanical engineering at the KIT in Karlsruhe. I focused on product development and lightweight design. This gave me a broad basis of skills to build on later.
During my time there I spent 4 years with KA-RaceIng. We built formula student race cars and great friendships. Managing a team and leading the design of whole electric car got me hungry for more.
After my diploma I went on to do a MBA at the Collège des Ingénieurs in 2013. This pan-European program broadened my network and appreciation for Europe as a unique mixture of cultures and identities. We focused half of our time learning the basics of all things business in Paris, Munich and Torino.
I spent the other half as a junior consultant at Lufthansa Technik in Hamburg. There I developed a data analytics tool for engine maintenance.
The perfect application of cross-functional knowledge came with co-founding Vectoflow in Munich. We were—and the team still is—designing and 3D-printing high-precision aerodynamic flow measurement devices. I was responsible for the design and manufacturing operations as well as the finances. With a bit of luck, we were profitable in our second year.
Meanwhile, my wonderful wife Anush was finishing her PhD on modeling infectious diseases at the EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland. She got the once in a lifetime opportunity to do a PostDoc at the Harvard Medical School.
I was determined that my next job was focused on saving the planet by fighting climate change. This brought me to Form Energy where we build huge batteries for a better world.
I came for the mission and the challenge to design big things as a systems engineer. I stay for a unique team that shares my values and has the passion and grit to make it real.
Today I manage our development operations team to find lean ways of making and testing big batteries. Ask me about how we are growing a diverse team and why hiring for culture add and value fit is the right thing to do.