Bernd is a partner of EMG and the founder and CEO of BeLa Consulting with offices in Heidelberg, Germany and Moscow, Russia. BeLa specializes in providing services to companies with expansion plans in both Europe and Russia. Services include:

- Evaluation of market opportunities, competition, cultural differences and potential roadblocks
- Organizational development
- Development of foundational structures, processes and procedures
- Talent recruitment
- Navigation of Federal and local laws and documentation requirements

Prior to founding BeLa Consulting, Bernd worked 28 years in the field of retail at an executive level. In 1991 Bernd joined Media Markt/Saturn as general manager and shareholder of a store with sales of $50 million. Every year Bernd opened a new store, eventually managing five stores with annual turnover of $370 million. While with Media Markt, total sales grew from $1.6 billion to over $24 billion.

Bernd also was the spokesman for Media Markt general managers for a region and a member of committees including HR development, IT and the “Russia project”. In 2006 Bernd founded Media Markt Holding in Moscow, Russia and managed sales, marketing and HR.

From 2007 until 2009 Bernd was the general manager of the Eldorado Company Holdings, the largest retailer in Russia and CIS. During that time, sales at Eldorado grew from $4 billion to $6 billion annually.