After completing his PhD in economics, he became a member of the company then called Roland Berger Strategy Consultants in 1989, and was elected partner in 1992.

In 1998, he led negotiations concerning the management buyout of Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, between Deutsche Bank and the partners of the company.

[13][14][15] In addition, he was a member of the Board of the German Academic Association for Business Research (Verband der deutschen Hochschullehrer für Betriebswirtschaft, VHB) until 2014 and is currently deputy chairman of the VHB-Board of Friends.

[25] Schwenker sits on the advisory board of a variety of start-ups, including FreightHub, an all-digital trucking company headquartered in Berlin, Germany.

[26] Besides his tasks as chairman of the Advisory Board of Roland Berger, Burkhard Schwenker is engaged in various initiatives and organizations.

Additionally, Schwenker supports the "Verband deutscher Unternehmerinnen (VdU)", the German branch of the international FCEM, and its key project focusing on the promotion of a stronger presence of women on supervisory boards.

[33] In November 2011 Burkhard Schwenker was a member of a 21-man jury which, in cooperation with the German magazine Wirtschaftswoche, selected the 60 most important people driving the country's so-called Energiewende ("energy transition").

[35] He is a member of the Senate or Board of Trustees for the following: Germany's National Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech); the Wittenberg Center for Global Ethics e.V.

As chairman of the Roland Berger Foundation he contributed substantially to the research study "Die Flüchtlingskrise als Chance" (The refugee crisis and its opportunities).

In addition, Burkhard Schwenker acts as counsel for the Roland Berger Foundation for European business management.

"The corporate lifecycle" is an essay by Burkhard Schwenker featuring interviews with Franz Fehrenbach, Jürgen Hambrecht, Wolfgang Reitzle and Alexander Rittweger.

In Schwenker's eyes, this European management approach based on consistency, local strengths, global cooperations and social as well as sustainable orientation is the successful counterpart to the American leadership-style.