Nicolaus is Head of Human Resources for the entire APAC region of RWE Offshore Wind. It's not just a professional adventure: during his time as an expat in Japan, he became a father for the second time. The family of four from Munich will spend three years in Tokyo.

The very personal story of his posting to Japan begins in Nicolaus von Schultzendorff's childhood and creates an almost symbolic arc back to his current life. Nicolaus' father was himself an expatriate whose company sent him and his family to Africa for six years when Nicolaus was two years old. This left such a positive impression on him that he now describes it as the fulfilment of his dream to take the same step himself with his wife and toddler Ida (2). "To make it a little more exciting, my wife gave birth to our son Tassilo in Japan in February this year. It was an incredible culture deep dive for us as a family. Life in Japan, a newborn and the RWE business in Asia: I'm experiencing three adventures all at once."

The RWE Global Mobility Hub was a great help for the start in Japan and the entire organisation of the assignment, which the HR manager associates with a feeling of security and gratitude. For example, a family-friendly apartment was found in a small two-storey apartment building, quite different from what was expected for Tokyo. "You can sleep with the window open and the kids can play in the street," he recounts with surprise.

Insight as an expat: small offices, direct communication and useful start-up mentality

In RWE's Tokyo office there is something of a spirit of optimism. RWE Offshore Wind wants to shake up the renewables market in Japan and win important wind auctions off the country's coast. Nicolaus' task as Head of HR is to build up an HR team in line with this growth. He is responsible not only for Tokyo and the country of Japan, but for the entire Asia-Pacific region. For this, he doesn’t have a large team working for him, nor is he connected to the Group's own SAP IT. "In APAC, almost all HR activities have been running manually so far, which is not entirely unusual when entering a market. But after successful auctions, we need to be able to handle HR processes more easily in the future, digitise them, standardise them and drive knowledge transfer. With local HR knowledge and the IT interface to headquarters to Germany, we're almost there."

By "we," the Munich native means his small team: one HR manager each in Japan, Taiwan and Korea plus a colleague from Essen. In the long term, strategic HR management should once again be steered from Essen, while a separate HR team in Asia masters the operational processes on its own. "I want to play an integral role in the success of the APAC region. We are pioneers here because RWE is virtually unknown in the region. To be able to look back in ten years and say our team laid the foundation for this is very inspiring challenge for me."