Managing Director Pierre Buhler was recently profiled by his alma mater, Universite de Strasbourg, in France. Read the translated article below:

A graduate of Sciences Po Strasbourg in 1982, Pierre Buhler has a rich career in financial consulting, mainly in the United States. After the subprime crisis in 2008, he created his company to advise service companies using artificial intelligence, because “it’s all in the data,” he says.

“I created the company CKM Analytix in 2011. It is a technology company based on artificial intelligence. Our project is to intelligently connect company data and analyze it to automate operational and financial management recommendations. We use artificial intelligence algorithms to understand the business, without asking questions, but by analyzing its data in real time to improve its performance,” he explains.

Director until 2022, he was surrounded by multidisciplinary teams of data scientists, consultants, developers and salespeople. His company is today run by a team of managers, but he remains president.

Supporting the digitalization of businesses

Pierre Buhler could retire, but he chose to continue working, for the pleasure of challenges and a taste for work, he aimed to pass on his experience to the younger generation. At the start of 2023, he joined SSA & Company as Managing Director. “I support the digitalization of client environments, particularly at the human, human resources and management level. Digitalization will revolutionize the way we work,” he emphasizes. He pursues sales to customers, understanding needs, defining contracts and setting up teams. “American companies understand that people aged 60 to 70 sell very well, they win big contracts, because they know the customers and the professions,” he notes.

At the heart of finance

After his studies at Sciences Po Strasbourg from 1979 to 1982, he began his career at IBM France, as manager of large international industrial accounts. This experience reinforces his taste for travel. To progress in his career, he followed additional training at INSEAD, the European Institute of Business Administration, with an international focus. Upon leaving, he became manager at Charterhouse Capital Partners in London, a British investment fund, then partner at Mitchell Madison Group, a financial sector consulting company in New York, and director at JP Morgan Chase, a financial holding company, until ‘in 2000.

Skipper

In 2005, Pierre Buhler set sail. Literally. He lived for three years on a sailboat with his family and traveled the world. “In the United States, the freedom to make this type of choice is infinite. While in France, we are viewed with suspicion, I was unable to find work there upon my return. In the United States, it barely took me a month,” he says.

In 2008, he became a Managing Director at AlixPartners, the financial consulting firm. He was then at the heart of the subprime crisis. “I understood that we could have avoided this financial crisis if we had had access to the data. It was all in the data. Hence my idea of ​​creating CKM Analytix,” he explains.

“Make this choice of happiness”

From his studies at Sciences Po, Pierre Buhler has retained a circle of close friends, within a group of around twenty alumni who have followed each other and met for 40 years. The ex-student, who worked part-time at Auchan to pay for his studies, advises: “Work. You can’t achieve anything without work. Failures and side paths are important for building yourself. And think about your happiness: if you are happy, you will succeed. Make your work a pleasure, it is an individual responsibility. Make this choice of happiness, do not expect it from others.”