6. European Corporate M&A-Konferenz

Donatus Albrecht ist seit 2006 bei AURELIUS tätig und für den Bereich Akquisition und Exit verantwortlich. Er leitete insgesamt über 70 Kauf- und Verkaufstransaktionen sowie Börsengänge und gehört seit 2008 dem Vorstand als Chief Investment Officer an. Nach seinem volkswirtschaftlichen Studium an der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München war Donatus Albrecht im Bereich Unternehmensentwicklung der Deutschen Bahn AG tätig und konzentrierte sich dort auf Prozessverbesserungen und strategische Neuausrichtungen. Danach wechselte er in das Finanzgeschäft zur Pricap Venture Partners AG (Thomas Matzen-Gruppe), wo er sechs Jahre als Investmentmanager und Prokurist bei der Durchführung von mehr als 20 Transaktionen vom Erstinvestment bis zum Börsengang mitwirkte.

Alexander Becker is Director M&A at SCHOTT AG since 2013. Prior to that, he was Director at Doertenbach & Co., a mid-market M&A advisory boutique, responsible for the origination and execution of buy- and sell-side M&A transactions, valuation opinions and advisory in financial restructuring situations. From 2008 till 2009 he was Vice President in the Project and Public Structured Finance department, responsible for the origination and evaluation of financings for project finance and LBO transactions at Dexia Kommunalbank Deutschland. Alexander started his career at the Citigroup Corporate and Investment Bank as an Analyst in the Corporate Finance and Equity Execution department in Frankfurt. Later he worked as Associate in the Corporate Finance department in Frankfurt and in the Acquisition and Leveraged Finance group in London.

Sebastian Becker begleitet seit über zehn Jahren nationale und internationale M&A-Transaktionen. Seine Erfahrung erstreckt sich dabei sowohl auf die Verkäufer- als auch auf die Käuferseite. Spezialisiert ist er darüber hinaus auf die Beratung in Private-Equity-Konstellationen. Immer wieder vertritt Sebastian Becker die Interessen von Unternehmen verschiedener Branchen ebenso wie von Banken und Finanzinvestoren auch bei gesellschaftlichen Umstrukturierungen und Restrukturierungen.
Sebastian Becker begann seine Anwaltstätigkeit 2004 und kam 2006 zu CMS. Seit 2013 ist er Partner der Sozietät, außerdem ist er als Solicitor (England and Wales) qualifiziert. Sebastian Becker ist Mitautor des Handbuchs des Aktienrechts, das im C.F. Müller Verlag erschienen ist.

Christoph Bregulla is Director Corporate Finance and heads BERENBERG’s M&A-Advisory practice from the Frankfurt office. Prior to his position at BERENBERG he was part of the M&A-Advisory/Transaction Services teams of Sal. Oppenheim and Deloitte. Christoph holds a Dipl.-Phys. from Ludwig Maximilians Universität (LMU) in Munich. He advises listed corporates, family-held companies, family offices and financial sponsors in public and private M&A-transactions, corporate carve-outs and MBO-/MBI transactions on the selland buy-side mainly in the areas of consumer/retail, industrial goods/services and automotive.

Leon Saunders Calvert runs the Capital Markets & Advisory business at Thomson Reuters where we service M&A and capital raising professionals with data, news, insights, and workflow tools to allow them to provide expert advice and deal execution for companies and government institutions. He joined Thomson Reuters in 2007, and has held various roles, primarily in commercial management, as the EMEA Head of Banking & Research, and in content strategy, as the Global Head of the Deals, League Tables and Private Equity franchises. Before this he ran the research and data teams at Mergermarket, a provider of M&A intelligence to the advisory community, and he started his career as an M&A Analyst at an advisory boutique, Regent Partners. He has a Master‘s degree in International Management.

Dr. Henrik Drinkuth ist Partner im Geschäftsbereich Corporate/M&A. Er berät seit 20 Jahren deutsche und internationale Unternehmen bei M&A-Transaktionen, Joint Ventures, öffentlichen Übernahmen und gesellschaftsrechtlichen Umstrukturierungen sowie im Aktienrecht. Er verfügt über besondere Expertise im Bereich Media.
Henrik Drinkuth begann seine Anwaltstätigkeit bei Bruckhaus Westrick Stegemann und ist seit Ende 1997 bei CMS. Seit 2001 ist er Partner bei CMS. Er ist Co-Leiter des Exzellenzcluster Übernahmerecht.

Prof. Dr. Thorsten Feix ist seit Mitte 2012 als Professor an der Hochschule Augsburg für Forschung und Lehre in den Themenfeldern M&A, Corporate Finance und Corporate Strategy verantwortlich. Ferner leitet er den internationalen, rein englischsprachigen Master- Studiengang „International Business & Finance“. Daneben lehrt er M&A an der Harvard University (US), Innovation Strategies an der Genfer Uni (Schweiz) und Corporate Finance an der Bukarester Uni (Rumänien).

Zuvor leitete er mehr als 15 Jahre in verschiedenen führenden deutschen Unternehmen, wie der Daimler AG, der Bosch und Siemens Hausgeräte GmbH und der Knorr-Bremse AG die Bereiche Strategie und M&A. In diesem Zeitrahmen realisierte er mit seinen Teams mehr als 70 Transaktionen. Seit 2007 ist er parallel im Bundesverband M&A als Co-Vorstand tätig.

Im Frühjahr 2019 wird sein neues M&A-Buch „An end-to-end, digital M&A Process Design – The Challenges and Upsides of Digitalization and Business Model Innovation“ erscheinen. Im Frühjahr 2019 startete auch seine M&A- und Strategieberatung tfX-advisory, die u.a. 2019 einen internationalen M&A-Best Practice Zirkel auf Corporate Ebene mit führenden, internationalen Unternehmen etablieren wird.

Dr. Albert M. Geiger comes from a third-generation automotive supplier family enterprise based in Garmisch-Patenkirchen. Previous to founding Geiger & Mach Group, he worked at Deutsche Börse Group for 10 years in various Group Strategy and M&A roles. Albert was the Managing Director, Member of the Board fand later the sole CEO of the family enterprise Geiger Technik until its sale to an Indian family corporation. Albert studied business administration in Würzburg, Frankfurt and the U.S. and received his doctorate from the European Business School, Oestrich-Winkel. He is Managing Director for the family entrepreneur network ALPHAZIRKEL where he is responsible for ALPHAZIRKEL’s network expansion and ALPHAZIRKEL 21.0 – a platform to connect Deep Tech Startups and Family Entrepreneurs).

Louis is co-head of technology for our Corporate Group. He’s a generalist corporate lawyer with specialist expertise in technology, internet, e-commerce and telecoms transactions.
Louis advises on a range of transaction types and across various sectors but is best known for and has particular expertise in helping clients transact in technology assets – whether acting for multinationals, large corporates, scale-ups, start-ups, entrepreneurs or investors. In doing so, he deals with all aspects of corporate law – business sales and acquisitions, fundraisings and investment transactions, IPOs, joint ventures and reorganisations. Working out of our London office, the majority of Louis‘ work is cross-border and, having worked for prominent UK, US and Israeli law firms, he has worked on international transactions throughout his career.
Louis is experienced in working in Israel, speaks fluent Hebrew and, as well as being a solicitor in England and Wales, is an Advocate at the Israel Bar.
Louis is a Trustee of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, a charitable foundation established to promote the teaching of computer science and related topics to children by developing and marketing an ultra-low-cost computer. More than 14 million units have been sold, making the Raspberry Pi computer the best-selling British computer of all time.

Maximilian Grub verfügt über fundierte Erfahrung aus der Beratung einer breiten Palette von nationalen und internationalen M&A-Transaktionen. Spezialisiert ist er außerdem auf Restrukturierungen und komplexe gesellschaftsrechtliche Gestaltungen. Seine Mandanten – vielfach aus den Sektoren Automotive, Energiewirtschaft und Private Equity – schätzen ihn insbesondere für seine Verhandlungsstärke und kreative Gestaltungsberatung.
Maximilian Grub schloss sich 1995 im Anschluss an eine Station bei Fulbright & Jaworski in New York CMS an. 1998/1999 ging er für ein Jahr für CMS nach London. Im Jahr 2000 wurde er zum Partner ernannt.

Gunnar is a Senior Tax Underwriter in AIG’s M&A group and focuses on contingent tax risk policies. Prior to joining AIG, Gunnar worked in private practice for Allen & Overy and K&L Gates in Germany where he focused on M&A tax and tax structuring for multinational corporations and private equity investors across all sectors including real estate. Previously Gunnar worked as a tax inspector for the German tax authorities. Gunnar has a law degree (Staatsexamen) from the University of Heidelberg and he is admitted to the German Bar Association (Rechtsanwaltskammer) and the German Chamber of Tax Advisors (Steuerberaterkammer).

Torsten Hauschildt is Managing Director of United Internet Investments Holding GmbH and Head of M&A of United Internet AG. Since joining the company in 2007 Torsten is responsible for all M&A activities of United Internet. He has overseen a total of more than 30 transactions and manage the investment portfolio of United Internet. After studying European Business Studies at the University of Applied Science in Osnabrück, he worked for KPMG and SAP Consulting where he gathered experience in performance controlling, finance/accounting and project management.  After that, he moved to T-Online and worked as investment manager, being responsible for the investments in France and Spain. Torsten holds a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) certificate.

Ulrik Horn is a Tax Director in SAP’s Global Tax Department. He is part of the Tax M&A Center of Excellence with a clear focus and specialization on in-house tax advisory services around all kinds of M&A transactions. Besides acquisition, divestment and legal integration projects Ulrik is also managing the tax affairs of SAP’s corporate venture activities. Before joining SAP he served in the German Tax M&A consulting practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers and advised both corporate and private equity clients buy- and sell-side on all tax aspects of M&A deals, in particular tax due diligence, tax structuring and tax planning, acquisition financing, and post-deal integration matters. Ulrik has about 9 years of experience in Tax M&A consulting, including other areas of expertise such as international taxation and transfer pricing. He is a qualified German tax advisor (Steuerberater) and holds a degree in Business Administration and Economics from the University of Mannheim. He is also experienced as a professional speaker at tax conferences and seminars with a primary focus on M&A and international taxation.

Friederich is an experienced Partner of PwC’s business advisory practice and part of the DDV leadership team. As an expert for business transformation, he focuses on event driven programs like merger integrations and carve-outs. Friederich has more that fifteen years experience in providing transformative consulting services to large and mid-size corporations. He has extensive expertise in advising multinational corporate clients through out the whole M&A value chain from due diligence topics down to operative business transformation. Friederich focuses on private equity clients and their portfolio companies. During his career Friederich led international programs in Europe, Asia and the Americas.

Ben Husemann is Head of M&A at BENTELER Group. Since joining BENTELER at the beginning of 2017, he is responsible for all M&A activities of the automotive, steel/tube and distribution business. Previously, he worked as Senior Manager in Transaction Advisory at EY and was project leader at the Corporate M&A department of Siemens AG in Munich. He started his career with Siemens‘ regional company in the Netherlands, where he served as M&A and Risk Consultant before moving on to a business controller function. Ben holds a diploma in Business Administration from the University of Applied Science in Berlin and a Master‘s degree in Finance from the Erasmus University in Rotterdam.

Roland Kemper is a Senior Counsel at DEKRA SE’s Group Legal & Compliance & Data Protection department. He has been with DEKRA Group since 2008. DEKRA is an international provider of testing, inspection, and certification services. DEKRA’s mission is to enhance safety in technical and other difficult environments. At DEKRA, Roland is primarily working on M&A projects, on M&A-related information technology law and know-how matters, and on corporate governance matters. He is a Member of the Boards of Directors of DEKRA’s management holdings in the UK, the US, and Denmark. Between 2006 and 2008, he was an in-house counsel in the telecommunications industry (Nokia Siemens Networks). Roland Kemper is a law graduate (University of Bonn, first state exam; The George Washington University Law School, master of laws; King’s College London, post-graduate diploma) and a management graduate (FU Hagen; LSE, Master of Science). He is admitted to the practice of law in New York State (2006) and Germany (2005). He is a member of the American Bar Association’s Science & Technology, Business Law, and International Law sections and of DIS, the German Institute of Arbitration.

Pankaj Khanna has managed the investment and ventures activities, including M&A, within the Siemens Mobility Division (> 8 billion euros revenues) since 2012. Together with his team he handles global acquisitions, divestments, joint ventures, minority holdings, and venture capital investments from strategy through the transaction phase and all the way up to postmerger integration. Khanna studied economics and business administration on a scholarship from the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (German National Academic Foundation) in Germany and in the UK (graduate in business administration/ Diplom-Kaufmann), and earned an MBA in the US. After holding a management consulting position for several years he took over various operative commercial management (CFO) positions in the industry and infrastructure business of the Siemens Group.

After his studies in Bayreuth and first experiences as an inhouse-counsel at FAG Kugelfischer, Carsten Knecht joined the German sewing machine pioneer Dürkopp Adler in 2003 as in-house counsel. In 2005, he started to work at the newly established Messer Group holding company which has been built after the divestiture of the German, US and UK activities of former Messer Griesheim to Air Liquide. Since 2015, Carsten Knecht as Head of M&A Legal is responsible for coordinating the global M&A activities of Messer Group.

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Markus Kreitinger is Head of M&A / Corporate Development at GFT Technologies SE, a publicly listed international IT services company with more than 5,000 employees in 12 countries. Since he joined in early 2014, Markus has been responsible for driving and executing GFT Group’s global M&A strategy. Prior to GFT, he worked in international M&A roles within the Corporate Development department of two DAX 30 companies. He started his career in investment banking/M&A advisory and holds a diploma in business administration from Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg.

Marc Kühn was appointed Global Head of Corporate Strategic Planning at Freudenberg Group in 2012. He is executive advisor to the corporate board and owner family, a member of the Global Executive Team with responsibilities for M&A, strategic planning and business integration. Most recently he was responsible for establishing a new Freudenberg division in Japan and Greater China via a public-to-private transaction. From April 2010 to July 2012 he was Head of M&A at Freudenberg & Co. KG, Germany. In 2008, he was appointed Head of M&A at Plansee SE, Austria, and GTP Corp., USA. From 2006 to 2008 he was Senior Manager Finance at Freudenberg & Co. KG, Germany. In January 2001, he started working as Senior Project Manager Equities at DZ BANK AG, Germany. Marc A. Kühn holds a diploma in business administration from Mainz University of Applied Sciences and has completed an executive leadership program at INSEAD.

Dirk-Oliver Loeffler joined Raymond James in 2017 and heads the Frankfurt office. Previously, he served as Partner at Richmond Park Partners and as Head of M&A at Berenberg as one of the most senior investment bankers. During his tenure, Mr Loeffler was involved in a broad range of assignments including mergers, acquisitions, leveraged buy-outs and public M&A transactions involving private equity clients, family offices and listed companies across multiple sectors including healthcare and industrials.

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Edouard Milhac is a Partner of CMS Francis Lefebvre Avocats, practicing in the international tax group. From 1994 to 2000, Edouard practised in the New York office of CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre. Edouard advises on mergers and acquisitions, cross-border restructuring, tax audits and litigations, and non-resident real estate investments. He is acting for multinationals, partnerships, financial institutions and high net worth individuals. He is a member of the International Fiscal Association (IFA), the International Bar Association (IBA), the American Bar Association (ABA), the French Association for Corporate Legal Advisers (ACE) and the Institut des Avocats Conseils Fiscaux (IACF). He has contributed to OECD publications and to the Journal of International Taxation and the Tax Management International Journal. He has been the co-reporter for France at the 2009 annual IFA conference on „Is there a permanent establishment?“ and the author of „Business Operations in France“ portfolio published by Tax Management. Edouard holds a Masters degree in Business Administration, Finance and Taxation, and received his postgraduate degree in business taxation from the University of Paris IX Dauphine.

Melville Mummert, Head of European Investment Banking, joined Raymond James in 2016 in connection with the acquisition of Mummert & Company. Mr. Mummert founded Mummert & Company in 2001 and has served as an advisor for cross-border mergers and acquisitions, restructurings and privatizations in Europe since 1987. Prior to founding Mummert & Company, Mr Mummert was a Managing Director at ABN Amro Corporate Finance in Germany. Before joining ABN Amro he served as Managing Director the Matuschka Group in Munich and New York; he also held Management positions in technical sales at IBM Corporation.
Mr. Mummert graduated from Princeton University with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering. He holds an MBA from Harvard University.

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Fabio M. Natalucci is a Deputy Director of the Monetary and Capital Markets Department with responsibility for the IMF’s global financial markets monitoring and systemic risk assessment functions. He is responsible for the lead chapter of the Global Financial Stability Report that gives the IMF’s assessment of global financial stability risks. Prior to joining the IMF, Fabio was a Senior Associate Director in the Division of Monetary Affairs at the Federal Reserve Board, where he conducted research and current analysis on the relationship between monetary policy, financial regulatory policy, and financial stability. Between October 2016 and June 2017, Mr Natalucci was Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Financial Stability and Regulation at the U.S. Department of Treasury. His responsibilities included leading U.S. engagement on financial regulatory cooperation in the G-20, representing the U.S. Treasury at the Financial Stability Board, coordinating between domestic and international post-crisis regulatory reforms, and monitoring developments and vulnerabilities in global financial markets. Fabio holds a doctorate in Economics from New York University.

Dr. Stefan Neuhaus ist seit Anfang 2013 als Corporate Director M&A bei der Henkel AG & Co. KGaA in Düsseldorf tätig. Er leitet Akquisitions- und Desinvestitions-projekte für die drei Unternehmensbereiche Laundry & Home Care, Beauty Care und Adhesive Technologies. Zuvor war Herr Neuhaus als Senior Project Manager M&A bei der thyssenkrupp AG tätig. Insgesamt blickt er auf mehr als 30 abgeschlossene M&A-Projekte mit einem aggregierten Transaktionsvolumen von mehr als 10 Mrd. € zurück.
Herr Neuhaus hat Wirtschaftswissenschaft in Bochum und Helsinki studiert und an der Ruhr-Universität Bochum über die Finanzierung von betrieblichen Pensionszusagen promoviert.

Rudolf Ohnesorge is responsible for the development of the private equity portfolio at Peter Möhrle Holding. He is focused on industrial, technology and environmental businesses.
Mr. Ohnesorge draws on 15 years of investment experience in small-to midsized companies. Before joining Peter Möhrle Holding, he was a Partner at international private equity investor Ambienta, a fund with a specialization in industrial and environmental businesses. Also, he was a Managing Partner at Siemens Financial Services, were he ran a team focused on growth capital investments.
In addition to his investment career, he spent 5 years as the General Manager of a business unit at Infineon Technologies AG.
Rudolf Ohnesorge studied industrial engineering and management at KIT Karlsruhe and the University of Oxford. He also holds an M.S. from HEC Paris.

Alexandra Rohmert joined CMS Francis Lefebvre Avocats in 2000 and became a Partner in January 2016. Prior to this, she had practiced for nearly four years at Clifford Chance in Frankfurt, and then in Paris for two years, before joining Archibald Andersen in 1997. She has dual French and German (‘Rechtsanwältin’) legal qualifications. Alexandra primarily assists foreign companies with their international projects. She has acquired a high level of expertise in cross-border mergers and acquisitions transactions and in Franco-German matters.

Mark Schieritz ist seit Januar 2008 Finanzmarktkorrespondent der ZEIT. Er studierte Volkswirtschaftslehre und Politikwissenschaften an der Universität Freiburg
sowie an der London School of Economics, wo er seinen Master of Science mit Auszeichnung erwarb. Er war Redakteur bei der »Financial Times Deutschland«
(»FTD«) und im Anschluss in leitender Funktion bei der FTD, bevor er zur ZEIT wechselte.

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Steffen Scholz ist seit 2007 Leiter der M&A-Abteilung der Trumpf GmbH & Co. KG. Diese Funktion beinhaltet neben den Akquisitionen ebenfalls die Post Merger-Prozesse zur erfolgreichen Integration der akquirierten Unternehmen. In seiner über 15-jährigen M&A-Tätigkeit leitete er Übernahmen und die Bildung von Joint Ventures in Asien, den USA und Europa. Vor seiner Zeit bei Trumpf leitete er zahlreiche M&A-Projekte und die strategische Planung beim Automobilzulieferer Mann+Hummel. Als studierter Maschinenbauer mit späterer Ergänzung zum Wirtschaftsingenieur und einem MBA in London gewann er außerdem zusätzliche Erfahrungen in verschiedenen Führungsfunktionen im Vertrieb von Maschinenbauprodukten.

Christian Schulze Grotthoff (German Attorney-at- Law/Certified Tax Advisor) joined Boehringer Ingelheim as Head of Tax Structuring/Tax M&A in 2017. Previously, he worked at KPMG, Deal Advisory M&A Tax, where he specialized in M&A transactions for both strategic and financial investors and for the tax structuring practice of a mid-market tax advisory firm in Berlin. Christian’s work at Boehringer Ingelheim includes M&A transactions, post-deal integrations as well as group-internal reorganizations.

Christian Staby heads the corporate M&A department of Knorr-Bremse AG. Since joining Knorr-Bremse AG in 2014, he was responsible for over ten transactions both in the global truck as well as rail supply segments. Before joining KB, he had held positions in private equity and venture capital funds for 15 years. Prior to that, he held a senior position in the corporate development department of Deutsche Bank AG, was project leader at Bain & Co. in Munich and Zurich, a manager in the Investment Management department of Sal. Oppenheim jr. & Co. and worked for Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. in New York and Paris. Immediately after graduation he joined a cigarette manufacturing subsidiary of Philip Morris in Argentina for a one-year industry training program. Mr Staby graduated from LMU in Munich as Master in Business Administration and holds an MBA from IMD, Lausanne.

Dieter Veit is Co-Head of Corporate Finance and Head of M&A for the Germanspeaking region at Société Générale. Dieter has more than 20 years of investment banking experience and advised on close to 60 successful M&A and financing transactions, representing a total value of more than 55 billion euros. Dieter has a particular focus on public takeovers and topics involving activist shareholders, and advised his clients on some of the most prominent and complex transactions in this field. Prior to joining Société Générale in January 2015, he worked as Managing Director at Rothschild in Frankfurt and London for 17 years. Dieter holds a master’s degree in business administration (Diplom-Kaufmann) from University of Passau.

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Jörg Wuttke ist seit 1997 Geschäftsführer und Generalbevollmächtigter der China-Repräsentanz eines DAX30-Unternehmens. Seit 2011 leitet Wuttke die China Task Force des Business and Industry Advisory Committee der OECD. Von 2007 bis Mai 2017 war Wuttke Präsident der Europäischen Handelskammer in Beijing. Von 2001 bis 2004 war er Aufsichtsratsvorsitzender der Deutschen Handelskammer in Beijing, die er mitbegründete. Darüber hinaus ist Wuttke Mitglied im Kuratorium des Mercator Institute for China Studies.

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