Private Equity and M&A Community

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Conference Co-Chair
Senior Counsel, Reed Smith LLP, 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, Reed Smith LLP, Munich

Dr. Nikolaus von Jacobs advises private equity funds and German strategic players on private equity, venture capital and private and public mergers and acquisitions.

Before joining Reed Smith, he was a partner at an international law firm and headed its German private equity practice. He has also worked in investment banking and European capital markets for Merrill Lynch in London.

Chair Professor for Government and the Political Economy of China, University of Trier

From 2013 to 2018, Heilmann served as the Founding President and CEO of the Mercator Institute for China Studies (Merics) in Berlin. Merics evolved into Europe’s leading think tank on Chinese affairs under his leadership.
His research and advisory activities focus on China's economic, technology and financial market policies with their linkages to geopolitical and geo-economic dynamics. Heilmann has many years’ experience providing advice to European policy-makers and corporate leaders on China strategy.

Some of Heilmann’s most important research work came out of projects at Harvard and Oxford Universities. He co-edited the widely influential book Mao's Invisible Hand: The Political Foundations of Adaptive Governance in China (Harvard University Press, 2011; new edition 2020). His book Red Swan: How Unorthodox Policy-Making Facilitated China’s Rise (Hong Kong 2018; Beijing 2019) was published in both English and Chinese language. Red Swan deals with the distinctive interplay of long-term national development agendas and broad-based local experimentation that have provided an unforeseen agility to China’s economic and technological development.

Conference Co-Chair
Partner, Reed Smith LLP, Munich

Dr. Nikolaus von Jacobs advises private equity funds and German strategic players on private equity, venture capital and private and public mergers and acquisitions.

Before joining Reed Smith, he was a partner at an international law firm and headed its German private equity practice. He has also worked in investment banking and European capital markets for Merrill Lynch in London.

Chief Revenue Officer, Datasite

Todd Albright is Chief Revenue Officer for Datasite, a role he has held since April 2015.

In his role as CRO, Todd is responsible for leading the global sales strategy for the company, managing a global sales organization of nearly 200 sales professionals and supporting clients in over 170 countries.

Prior to joining Datasite, Todd held several sales leadership roles at a number of high growth firms. Most recently, he served as Senior Vice President & Head of Americas Sales at FIS Global. Prior to that, he was Senior Vice President and Head of Sales and Marketing for ACTIV Financial Systems as well as Vice President and Head of Global Financial Services Accounts for Intralinks
(now part of SS&C).

Todd is active in professional and community organizations. He currently serves as a fintech venture advisor to Broadhaven Capital Partners and is a Member of the Board of Trustees for Park Children’s Day School in New York.

He holds a BA in Public Policy from Duke University and an AAS in International Economics from Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nurnberg. He has also completed executive education programs at Harvard Business School.

Head of M&A and Transaction Solutions EMEA, Aon

Michael Carr is Head of Aon’s M&A and Transaction Solutions in EMEA. He is responsible for Aon’s regional solution lines, industry verticals and new ventures including Structured Credit, Corporate M&A and PE Portfolios. Michael works with the whole Aon team to ensure high quality execution of innovative solutions to the M&A market. He has worked with Aon since the early 2000’s in Guernsey, London, Sydney and the Nordics, specializing in event driven transaction solutions and major corporate risk financing programs. Michael holds an MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management.

Partner, EMERAM Capital Partners GmbH

Sven Oleownik has extensive experience in Management Consulting and M&A Advisory as well as in the Private Equity business. In addition, he was repeatedly assigned as a supervisory board member of various family-owned businesses. As such, he also trains supervisory board member as part of the Deutsche Börse qualification program.

He already financed his studies as a shareholder in a trade fair construction company, which he founded jointly with two other partners. After graduating, he began his professional career at an investment company financed by family offices. In the context of new investments and the support of portfolio companies, he also became Managing Director of a portfolio company active in the field of manufacturing industrial goods. He then spent nine years at Dr. Wieselhuber & Partner, a leading management consultancy focused on the advisory of family-owned companies, ultimately as a partner and member of the management board. Sven mainly led projects in the field of strategic development, restructuring, buy and build projects up to the integration of new acquisitions, their financing up to IPOs as well as changes of shareholders and succession. For further twelve years he was Managing Partner of Corporate Finance Advisory at Deloitte in Munich. His sector focus was primarily on consumer goods and technology companies as well as private equity. Before joining Emeram, for seven years he headed the German office of Gimv, an international private equity firm listed on the stock exchange in Brussels, building up its team and investment business in DACH.

Managing Director, DC Advisory

Philipp is a Managing Director in our DC Advisory Frankfurt team covering the Industrials sector.

Philipp started his investment banking career in 2001 with Deutsche Bank and later spent several years with ABN AMRO / RBS and Commerzbank. Philipp is also registered as an attorney at law.

Partner, Reed Smith LLP, Chicago

Siddesh focuses his practice on mergers and acquisitions and emerging company/venture capital transactions. He has experience representing public and private companies, private equity firms, and investment and hedge funds in an array of corporate transactions, including mergers, acquisitions (both asset and stock), divestitures, financings, fund formation, and general corporate matters across multiple industries.

Additionally, he regularly represents founders and investors (strategic and financial) in a variety of emerging company transactions, including angel and series investments. Sid currently serves as the Vice-Chair of the firm’s Global Corporate Group.

Managing Director, CEO Germany, Chairman of the Management Board, Lincoln International AG

Michael provides overall strategic and operational leadership for Lincoln International’s activities in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the Benelux region. He principals the procurement and management of clients, leads deal teams and recruits qualified personnel.

In addition to his operational roles within the firm, Michael is passionate about mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in Germany. He has 25 years of experience advising on M&A, public takeovers, fairness opinions and corporate divestitures. His clients are comprised of large corporations as well as mid-sized privately-owned businesses and leading private equity groups. Michael brings global, cross-border expertise to his projects, helping clients navigate the increasing complexity of transactions, and creating a comprehensive deal experience.

Michael is currently Vice Chairman of Shareholder Value Beteiligungen AG and Vice Chairman of the German software company, SNP SE. Michael is lecturer on the topic of M&A at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management.

Prior to joining Lincoln International, Michael led M&A at Sal. Oppenheim (Germany), Europe’s largest private bank. Previously, he worked in the investment banking division of Citigroup Global Markets in London and Frankfurt. Michael began his career at EY.

Michael holds a doctorate in corporate finance from Fribourg University. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst in the UK.

Partner, HWF Partners

Philipp leads HWF’s offering in the German speaking countries. He has a wealth of knowledge in placing bespoke transactional risk insurance products (W&I, tax, contingent) in the context of M&A transactions. Philipp is regarded as a leading broker in Germany and clients value his proactive approach and technical excellence.

Philipp and his team have advised on numerous complex transactions in the German market and have been able to spearhead innovative developments in the market.

Philipp is a trained lawyer, admitted in Germany and the USA. He is fluent in German and English.

Partner and PE Leader Germany & EMEA, PricewaterhouseCoopers GmbH WPG

Steve joined PwC in the UK in 1993, and qualified as an ACA in 1996. He joined the Transaction Services team in January 1997 and has worked exclusively within the M&A field since that date.

Having primarily worked on cross border transactions during his time in the UK, he transferred to the Frankfurt office in July 2001 where he has focused upon serving the private equity market and was promoted to partner in July 2005. Since 2012 Steve leads the PwC Private Equity Industry for PwC Germany and since 2020 he also leads the PwC Private Equity Industry for the EMEA region.

With a wide exposure to various industries advising on both the buy-side and sell-side, Steve has significant experience in large cross border deals for private equity and corporate clients.

Director, Senior Legal Counsel, Robert Bosch LLC

Heather Schroder is a Director and Senior Legal Counsel for Robert Bosch LLC. Ms. Schroder is based out of Robert Bosch GmbH’s North American headquarters in Detroit, Michigan, and serves as the M&A and Corporate legal team leader for North America.  In her role, she is responsible for overseeing all cross-border M&A activities into and out of the U.S. and Canada.   A New York native, prior to joining Bosch in 2014, Ms. Schroder was Senior Corporate Counsel at ATMI, Inc., a publicly-traded, semiconductor company in Connecticut; prior to working in-house, Ms. Schroder worked as a Corporate Law Associate in private practice in New York City. Ms. Schroder is admitted to the bars of New York, Connecticut, and Michigan. She is also a Director on the Board of Advisors for Syracuse University College of Law.

Conference Co-Chair
Partner, Reed Smith LLP, Munich

Dr. Nikolaus von Jacobs advises private equity funds and German strategic players on private equity, venture capital and private and public mergers and acquisitions.

Before joining Reed Smith, he was a partner at an international law firm and headed its German private equity practice. He has also worked in investment banking and European capital markets for Merrill Lynch in London.

Deputy General Manager, Fosun Pharma

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.

CFO, NICI GmbH

Since 2016, Eric serves as CFO of NICI GmbH, a company known for gift and toy business. He is responsible for overseeing NICI's financial operations, M&A, business development as well as strategic initiatives. Prior to joining NICI, he was a director and board member of a Chinese family business in Textile Industry and responsible for the acquisition of NICI.

Founder & CEO, SILREAL GmbH

Chenchao Liu, originally from China and a resident of Germany since 2002, is the esteemed founder of SILREAL GmbH. Holding a degree in Chemistry from the Technical University of Munich, Mr. Liu has also enhanced his academic credentials as a visiting researcher at esteemed institutions like the Max Planck Institute and ETH Zurich.

With extensive consulting experience spanning the public sector, biopharmaceuticals, and healthcare providers, Mr. Liu has cultivated an expertise that bridges European and Asian markets. He serves as a guest lecturer on digital health in China at various academic forums in Denmark and Switzerland. In addition to this, he is a contributing author for the World Economic Forum.

His depth of knowledge and strategic insights in healthcare and Sino-European relations have been sought after by a myriad of private corporations and public organizations. These include the German Federal Ministry of Health, the States of Berlin and Saarland, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Opseo, Tencent, the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries (EFPIA), and The Federation of German Industries (BDI).

Leader of Business Development, Nio GmbH

Zhu Liu has more than ten years work experience in Fortune 500 companies (Accenture and Alibaba) and entrepreneurial experience in e-commerce industry. He has a deep understanding of e-commerce landscape in Europe and China, extensive experience in multinational project management and business development, outstanding communication skills in crosscultural business environment.

Zhu is fluent in Chinese, English and German.

Managing Director, Co-Lead of the German Turnaround and Restructuring Services, AlixPartners

Dr. Rainer Bizenberger helps large companies navigate the complexities of restructuring and transformation. These clients profit from his expertise in turning around, transforming, or refinancing their businesses. Getting things done is his philosphy. Rainer has more than two decades of professional experience. During this time, he has successfully led large-scale, complex restructuring and transformation programs across various industries, both in advisory and management roles (Chief Restructuring Officer / Chief Restructuring Advisor). His wide-ranging experience with banks and credit insurers effectively helps in the negotiation of complex financing issues. He successfully negotiated and implemented major headcount reduction and portfolio optimization / divestment programs.

Who’s Who Legal recognized Rainer as Global Leader in restructuring and insolvency advisory. He is an active member of the Turnaround Management Association (TMA). Previously, Rainer was heading EY’s Turnaround and Restructuring practice in EMEIA. He also was a Senior Partner and Berlin office head at Roland Berger. Rainer holds a PhD in innovative corporate finance and a master degree from Catholic University of Eichstaett-Ingolstadt.

Manager Special Risk Management, Atradius

Ulrik is in charge of the Special Risk Management team for Nordics, Baltics, Russia, CIS and Ukraine and responsible for risk mitigation, credit analysis and underwriting on troubled companies. Prior to Atradius, Ulrik has worked as legal counsel and as a strategic advisor to management concerning a wide range of legal matters including corporate & commercial, contracts, data protection, cyber security, taxes, foreign law, mergers & acquisitions, competition law, tender law (public procurement), construction law, insolvency law (including financial restructuring), employment law/HR related matters etc. He has extensive experience in negotiations with commercial entities and governmental bodies as well as in a wide range of commercial and legal disciplines, with a strong commercial approach. 

Before joining Atradius in 2021, Ulrik worked with Schneider Electric Denmark, Huawei Technologies (Denmark) and several law firms.

Partner, Reed Smith LLP, London

Linton advises insolvency practitioners, US and European investment banks, UK clearing banks, hedge funds and private equity houses across the full range of international and domestic restructuring and insolvency matters. His principal areas of focus include cross-border restructurings, creditor and debtor representations, out-of-court restructurings, pensions restructuring and insolvency litigation.
Linton is “recommended” in Legal 500 UK where he is described as a “personable and clever” practitioner. He was also described as an 'emerging star who has worked on a string of excellent high-profile cases and will lead the way in years to come’ (Legal 500, 2020). He has lectured and written articles on restructuring topics and has completed secondments in the Financial Stability Division of the Bank of England and in the global restructuring group at RBS.

Clients appreciate Linton’s wealth of deal experience, technical knowledge and business acumen as well as his ability to guide his clients through complex restructuring arrangements and re-financing deals.

Chief Credit Officer and General Representative, Hamburg Commercial Bank AG

Dr Thomas Dohrmann is Chief Credit Officer and General Representative at Hamburg Commercial Bank AG. Tom and his teams cover all key asset classes of the bank including corporates, commercial real estate, shipping, project finance and capital markets. The risk management activities range from analyzing and deciding new credits to monitoring performing transactions to restructuring and work-out of distressed and non-performing exposures. Additional responsibilities include capital markets operations, asset appraisals and quality management of covered bonds.

Prior to Hamburg Commercial Bank AG, Tom worked as Head of Restructuring & Work-out and Senior Credit Executive at NordLB, Hannover and as Director at Fitch Ratings, New York. Before, he had spent ten years in various Credit Risk Management positions at Deutsche Bank, Frankfurt and New York.

Tom holds an PhD in Law from Leibniz-University of Hannover and an MBA from the Fuqua Business School at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina. He is married with four children.    

Investment Director, ELF Capital Group

Florian Wimpff is an Investment Director in the ELF investment team. Prior to joining ELF, he worked at mid-market investment and advisory firms ESO Capital and Herter & Co in the field of mid-market investing, debt and restructuring advisory.

Managing Partner, palero capital GmbH

As Managing Partner of palero capital, Conny advises palero group on all financing transactions at its portfolio companies and on its M&A activities. She is an expert in special situations M&A and financing.

Before, she worked for many years at a listed private equity firm as a Director in the M&A division and started her career in investment banking. 

Director, PricewaterhouseCoopers GmbH WPG

Carolin is responsible for PwC's Deals Tax Team in Stuttgart and certified German tax advisor ("Steuerberaterin"). She has major project experience in various cross-border transactions mainly focusing on tax due diligences (buy-side and sell-side), tax structuring/modelling, the preparation of funds flows and cap tables and post deal integration work. Carolin has been working on a number of deals which also included coordination of international tax teams for private equity houses and strategic corporate buyers. 

Further, Carolin is the German Emerging Leader in PwC’s Global PE-RA-SIF initiative and the tax representative in PwC Germany’s Value Creation in Deals Community as well as Co-Founder of the newly formed Women@PwCStuttgart network.

Partner, Summa Equity Advisory GmbH

Matthias is responsible for Summa Equity in DACH (Germany, Switzerland, and Austria), spanning sourcing, value creation, and portfolio management across our investment themes with a focus on Resource Efficiency and Tech-Enabled Transformation.

Summa Equity invests in companies that are solving global challenges and creating positive Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) outcomes for society. Summa’s purpose is to co-create win-win for investors, portfolio companies, and society through aligning its vision and investing in line with the UN SDGs. Summa invests across the themes of Resource Efficiency, Changing Demographics, and Tech-Enabled Transformation, and has c. EUR 4bn assets under management.

Before joining Summa Equity, Matthias was a Partner at The Riverside Company and before that a consultant at Boston Consulting Group. He holds a Master of Science in International Business Administration from WU Vienna and an MBA from the University of Cambridge.

Director, HWF Partners

Caroline heads the Munich office of HWF. She specialises in placing bespoke transactional risk insurance (W&I, contingent, tax) in the context of international private equity and M&A transactions. Caroline is valued for her proactive and pragmatic approach and technical excellence. Caroline and her team have advised on complex transactions in the German speaking market and have been able to spearhead innovative developments in the market.

Caroline studied law and business in Germany, Chicago and London. Prior to joining HWF, Caroline has worked at Milbank and Clifford Chance. She is a trained lawyer, admitted in England, Wales and Ireland, and is fluent in German and English. Caroline is also a committee member of 100 Women in Finance, a global organisation committed to gender equity by promoting diversity, raising visibility and empowering women to find their personal path to success in the finance industry.

Partner, EMERAM Capital Partners GmbH

Sven Oleownik has extensive experience in Management Consulting and M&A Advisory as well as in the Private Equity business. In addition, he was repeatedly assigned as a supervisory board member of various family-owned businesses. As such, he also trains supervisory board member as part of the Deutsche Börse qualification program.

He already financed his studies as a shareholder in a trade fair construction company, which he founded jointly with two other partners. After graduating, he began his professional career at an investment company financed by family offices. In the context of new investments and the support of portfolio companies, he also became Managing Director of a portfolio company active in the field of manufacturing industrial goods. He then spent nine years at Dr. Wieselhuber & Partner, a leading management consultancy focused on the advisory of family-owned companies, ultimately as a partner and member of the management board. Sven mainly led projects in the field of strategic development, restructuring, buy and build projects up to the integration of new acquisitions, their financing up to IPOs as well as changes of shareholders and succession. For further twelve years he was Managing Partner of Corporate Finance Advisory at Deloitte in Munich. His sector focus was primarily on consumer goods and technology companies as well as private equity. Before joining Emeram, for seven years he headed the German office of Gimv, an international private equity firm listed on the stock exchange in Brussels, building up its team and investment business in DACH.

Founding Partner, Vidia Equity

Johanna is Founding Partner of Vidia, where she is responsible for the firm’s general strategy, co-leading the transactions team and fundraising. She founded Vidia beginning of 2021 with the aim of driving decarbonization in the industrial segment, with a focus on scaling climate solutions for the highest emitting industries in the DACH and Nordic regions. Prior to founding Vidia, she was a Partner at Orlando Management, a Munich based midmarket private equity firm. She also founded Orlando Nordics in Stockholm, successfully establishing Orlando’s presence in the Nordics. Johanna started her career in the Investment Banking Division of Goldman Sachs. Johanna studied law at Bucerius Law School in Hamburg and the University of Sydney.

Managing Partner/CEO, REIA Capital

Thomas is a founding partner of REIA Capital being based in Hamburg. REIA Capital Funds invest in private equity funds with a small and lower mid cap strategy. Moreover, he is an advisor to several single family offices. Thomas has been active in the private equity universe for more than 25 years. Prior to founding REIA, Thomas was the founder and for more than 10 years the CEO of a private equity fund-of-funds business. In addition, he also spent more than 12 years as an investment professional/partner of the large cap private equity fund BC Partners in their German team. Thomas started his professional career in leverage finance with Dresdner Kleinwort in 1997 after graduating from University Passau with a MBA.

Managing Partner, Reed Smith LLP, Munich

Daja is Office Managing Partner of the Munich Office and has a 10+ years dispute practice encompassing, among others, finance related litigation, complex commercial litigation as well as arbitration – often in cross-border conflicts. From an industry perspective, she has wide-ranging expertise covering finance (including cryptocurrencies), insurance, health care, life science, real estate, entertainment & media.

Partner & Managing Director, AlixPartners GmbH

Veit Buetterlin is a Managing Director in AlixPartners’ Risk practice. He is internationally recognized as a “financial crime expert” (CNN) and for his roles on high-profile compliance and risk management transformation projects. For three consecutive years, Who is Who Legal (WWL) recognized him as “one of the world’s leading practitioners” in investigations. Following its most recent reviews, WWL recognized him, as one of only three forensic accountants from the European Union and as a “Global Elite Thought Leader” in forensic accounting and investigations. He received numerous additional recognitions: Among others, he won Lexology’s Client Choice Award in 2022 and was recognized by Global Investigations Review (GIR), Handelsblatt and Best Lawyers. He has held key roles in investigating and remediating some of Europe’s biggest compliance matters. This includes major money laundering, terrorism financing, sanctions compliance, securities compliance, tax, corruption, asset tracing, financial statement, and environmental law matters. Crucial were also his roles in investigating and remediation IBOR, Dieselgate, certain high-profile top management misconduct, and major bankruptcy cases.

Veit has supported clients on-site in more than 20 countries and led assessments in the context of examinations commissioned by the European Central Bank (ECB), the German Federal Bank, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), and other European regulators. He had numerous key roles related to U.S. monitorships commissioned by the DOJ, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and U.S. bank regulators. Following that, Global Investigations Review (GIR) highlighted the advice Veit gave to “multinational companies over compliance monitorships following U.S. enforcement actions.”

Veit’s inhouse experience includes acting as a money laundering reporting officer, a divisional head of investigations, and internal audit manager, and holding CFO responsibility, in various multinational companies.

Veit gained his doctoral degree with a thesis on a mathmatical environmental economics topic from the Tuebingen University. He researched at Harvard University and studied at Yale University and Heidelberg University. He is invited as a speaker and lecturer at international conferences and renown universities, such as St. Gallen University, Zurich University, or Frankfurt University. He is a member of the selection committee of the German National Academic Foundation. He is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS), a Certified Global Sanctions Specialist (CGSS), a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), a Certified Fraud Specialist (CFS), a Certified Professional Forensic Accountant (CPFAcct), and a Certified Professional Internal Auditor (CPIA).

CEO, base camp management consulting GmbH

Marcus Höfer is the CEO of base camp. Thanks to his cooperation with a number of private equity funds and their portfolio companies, Marcus Höfer offers long-term management consulting experience and has been extensively involved in various international and national digitalisation projects and transformations. As an early adopter of new technologies and a 'digital native', Marcus Höfer is the optimum contact person in all areas of digitalisation for companies that dare and want to take this important step.

Marcus Höfer graduated from the Technische Universität München with an MSc in information systems focussing on corporate finance.

Partner, Evolution Environmental Asset Management LP

Benedikt von Butler is a Partner and Portfolio Manager at Evolution Environmental Asset Management LP.

He joins the firm from Enviva, a NYSE-listed producer of sustainable wood bioenergy, where he was the Managing Director for Germany. Mr. von Butler is a carbon markets veteran with over 20 years’ experience co-heading carbon desks at Evolution Markets, Cantor Fitzgerald, Citigroup, Mercuria Energy, and Hartree Partners.

In 2003, together with Andrew Ertel, he structured the first-ever transaction of European CO2 allowances and the first-ever trade of “Assigned Amount Units”, between the governments of Japan and Slovakia. Since then, Mr. von Butler has been instrumental in bringing liquidity to nascent carbon markets, helping many of the major banks and utilities enter the carbon market for the first time and transacting a wide variety of carbon credits.