Conference Co-Chair
Partner, McDermott Will & Emery, Munich

Christian von Sydow advises clients on corporate law, M&A, private equity, restructuring, corporate conflict resolution and estate planning. He has represented a large number of international and German clients, including strategic and financial investors, in acquisitions and sales of businesses in Germany and internationally in cross-border matters. Mr. von Sydow represents clients in a wide variety of industries, including automotive supply, consumer electronics, defence, energy, internet, optics, publishing, retail, software, technology and testing technology, travel and tourism.

Conference Co-Chair
Partner, McDermott Will & Emery, Munich

Dr. Nikolaus von Jacobs advises private equity funds and German industrial players on private equity, venture capital, and private and public mergers and acquisitions. Nikolaus leads the Firm’s German private equity activities.

Before joining McDermott, Nikolaus was a partner of another international law firm and headed its German private equity practice. He has also worked in investment banking and European capital markets for Merrill Lynch, London.

Consul of the Consulate General of Ukraine in Munich

Principal and Global Policy Advisor, Brooch Associates, London, Global Advisory Firm

Dr. Stefanie Babst can look back at a remarkable professional journey in NATO's International Staff. In the course of 22 years she held different positions in the Public Diplomacy Division which she was appointed to lead as NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General from 2006 to 2012. The post made her the highest-ranking German woman in the International Secretariat. From 2012 to 2020, she led NATO's Strategic Foresight Team - a fabulous civil-military team, advising the NATO Secretary General and Chairman of the Military Committee on strategic unknowns and potential upcoming crisis situations in geographical and functional areas of relevance to the Alliance.

Stefanie began her career in 1991 as Assistant Professor for International Security Policy at the Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel, Germany, moving on to become Professor of Russian and East European Studies at the Federal Armed Forces Command & General Staff College in Hamburg.

She is an internationally renowned strategic advisor, publisher and speaker on international security issues and board member of the German Council on Foreign Relations and the Danish Center for War Studies. Stefanie is also active in various security networks, including Women in International Security (WIIS) and the World Economic Forum. She also is a Senior Associate Fellow with the London-based European Leadership Network. In recognition of her professional achievements, she received several state awards.

Conference Co-Chair
Partner and Lawyer, McDermott Will & Emery, Munich

Dr. Nikolaus von Jacobs advises private equity funds and German industrial players on private equity, venture capital, and private and public mergers and acquisitions. Nikolaus leads the Firm’s German private equity activities.

Before joining McDermott, Nikolaus was a partner of another international law firm and headed its German private equity practice. He has also worked in investment banking and European capital markets for Merrill Lynch, London.

Managing Director, NORD Holding

Andreas has been active in the international private equity industry for more than 20 years. He started his career at 3i. Since 2000 he was responsible for leading and setting up private equity investment teams in the small-mid market segment and for over Euro 2bn of invested capital. He assisted portfolio companies during their transformation and growth phase and exited several of them in international IPOs and trade sales. In May 2018 Andreas was appointed managing director of NORD Holding, an asset manager with over 2bn Euro of AUM where he focuses on transformational investments in the German-speaking region.

Managing Partner, Oaklins Angermann AG

Florian is a managing partner at Oaklins Germany, and served as president and chairman of Oaklins International between 2016 and 2019. He joined the firm as an M&A consultant in 1994 and became a partner in 1998. Florian has advised on over 120 M&A transactions, many of them cross-border, mainly in the industrial space. Most of his clients are privately-owned Middelstand companies (hidden champions), but also include larger conglomerates and private equity firms. He has particular expertise in industrial manufacturing, machinery, engineering, industrial automation, precision metal processing, tool manufacturing, injection molding, electronics, food & beverage and construction and facility management. Florian leads Oaklins’ industrial machinery & components team and is an active member of the food & beverage team.

Prior to 1994, Florian worked at Siemens Components Pte Ltd. in Singapore. He has a doctorate in economics and political economy and studied business administration at the universities of Goettingen, Germany, and Fribourg, Switzerland.

CEO and Founder, Dealsuite

Floyd Plettenberg is the Founder and CEO of Dealsuite. Dealsuite was founded in 2017, in close cooperation with M&A advisors and investment firms. The company has grown exponentially since then. Before founding Dealsuite, Floyd Plettenberg worked at PwC in the Netherlands for 7 years.

He was part of the M&A Deal-Team and worked on international) projects from the Netherlands and outside. Floyd is furthermore a co-owner of the Dutch M&A platform Brookz. He holds a Master in Business economics/ Strategy and an Executive Master in Finance & Control.

Partner, Strategy& Germany, PwC

Teresa Schawe is a leading practitioner in M&A strategies, business services and private equity. She is a Partner at Strategy& Germany, and based in the Frankfurt office. As a member of our Deals practice, she advises international clients on medium to large-scale transactions and value enhancement programs.

With more than 14 years of professional experience in investment banking and consulting, Teresa has a broad network, strategic skills and an in-depth expertise in the international transaction market.

Prior to joining Strategy&, Teresa worked for an investment bank and successfully led the Private Equity business of an international management consultancy in Germany.

Teresa holds a diploma in economics from the University of Cologne.

Head of DACH & CEE, Datasite Germany

Markus is Head of Central Europe (DACH), CEE and CIS for Datasite. He has been accompanying the transformation to Datasite for more than 6 years now and has been leading the Frankfurt office since 2017. Previously, he mainly worked in the financial market, as Sales Manager Europe for Trading Technologies and as Account Manager for Thomson Reuters. He graduated from Purdue University in the USA with an Executive MBA and co-founded the technology start-up Evo Fintech in 2016.

Partner, McDermott Will & Emery, Munich

Dr. Nadine Hartung advises clients on corporate law, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, private equity, corporate litigation and capital markets. Nadine has experience working with public and private companies, private equity as well as with individual investors. She has advised clients based in Europe, the United States and Canada on various cross border M&A deals. Nadine represents clients in a wide variety of industries, including health care, energy, publishing and transportation. Before joining McDermott, Nadine practiced at leading international law firms in Berlin, Frankfurt and New York City.

Partner, Head of Frankfurt Office HWF

Prior to joining HWF, Philipp spent several years as an attorney with leading international law firms in Germany and the United States and advised German and international clients on all aspects of corporate law, takeover law, and in connection with M&A transactions, in particular with respect to national and cross-border transactions. Additionally, Philipp has been active working on private equity and venture capital transactions over the previous years.

Since moving into the M&A insurance sector Philipp has advised numerous clients and their advisors on a broad range of transactions, with deal values ranging into the several billions.

Investment Director, VTC

Julius started his career at GCA Altium where he was involved in several buy-side and sell-side mandates in retail, industrials and healthcare. In 2015, he joined VTC, where he is today responsible for sourcing and executing transactions. Julius holds Bachelor and Master degrees in International Business from Maastricht University, Netherlands.

Chief Corporate Development Officer, MBCC Group

Norman is a senior executive, board director and experienced private equity professional.

Today he serves as Chief Corporate Development Officer and Group SVP of MBCC Group, one of the leading suppliers of construction chemicals and solutions globally that emerged from the former BASF Construction Chemicals business after its acquisition by an affiliate of Lone Star, a global private equity firm. 

In prior roles, Norman was a CxO and board director in industrial private equity portfolio companies with a track record of transformation and value creation. 

Previously a Managing Director and Group Head in investment banking and capital markets mostly in London, he advised a range of clients on complex M&A, financing and capital markets transactions with an aggregate value of more than €75bn.

Norman is a Swiss and English national, has a background in civil engineering and is a business school graduate of ESB Reutlingen and TUCK at Dartmouth.

Director, Senior Legal Counsel, Team Leader - Corporate and M&A, Robert Bosch LLC

Heather Schroder is Director, Senior Legal Counsel and Team Leader – Mergers & Acquisitions, Corporate Governance, for Robert Bosch LLC. Ms. Schroder is based out of Robert Bosch GmbH’s North American headquarters in the metro Detroit area.

Prior to joining Bosch in 2014, Ms. Schroder worked as Senior Corporate Counsel at ATMI, Inc., a publicly-traded, microelectronics company in Connecticut; prior to working in-house, Ms. Schroder worked at a law firm in New York City as a Corporate Law Associate.

Partner, McDermott Will & Emery, Singapore

Ignatius K. Hwang focuses his practice on energy, infrastructure and resources projects in Asia Pacific and the Middle East, particularly China, India, Southeast Asia and Australia.

He advises governments and sponsors on strategic, procurement, legal, commercial and risk issues relating to public-private partnership projects (PPP). He has represented the Singapore government and agencies on almost all PPP projects in Singapore to date and has helped shape the development of the PPP projects market in Singapore.

Ignatius also advises on the development, acquisition, financing, construction and operation of energy, infrastructure and resources projects. His transactional experience, in particular on acquisitions and project financing, includes deal structuring, due diligence, drafting and negotiation of development, acquisition, fuel supply and power purchase agreements, engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts and operation and maintenance (O&M) contracts, as well as financing and security documentation.

Deputy General Manager of International Department, Fosun Pharma Group

Connie He is the Deputy General Manager of the International Department at Fosun Pharma Group, a leading Chinese pharmaceutical group with a global footprint. She leads the international investment at Fosun Pharma. Prior to joining Fosun Pharma, Connie’s career spanned investment banking and private equity, including working in the investment banking and principal investment areas at Natixis and being CEO of a portfolio company’s European business.

Connie holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a B.A. in Professional Accountancy from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She is also a Fellow Chartered Certified Accountant.

Head of Sales and Marketing of Elogistic Germany, Zongteng Group

Zhu Liu is Head of Sales and Marketing of Elogistic Germany, a brand of Zongteng Group. Zongteng Group is a leading solutions provider of cross-border shipping and e-commerce fulfilment services with a global network of over 100 warehouses, 30 order processing centers and about 4000 employees processing 1.1 million orders every day. In addition to Elogistic, which focuses on e-commerce fulfillment service, Zongteng‘s portfolio also includes YunExpress, which is one of the world’s top 10 cross-border shipping providers for B2C e-commerce. So far, Zongteng has completed multiple rounds of financing and has raised approximately CNY 1 billion.

Prior to working for Zongteng Group, Zhu Liu helped expand Alibaba e-commerce ecosystem in Europe. He also worked for Accenture and founded his own e-commerce company. Zhu has a deep understanding of EU and China e-commerce landscape.